PSA: Original Wii Store Closing January 30th. Unused Wii Points Will Be Forfeited. (I know, not a deal)

jdawgg76

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As the title suggests, the Wii Store on the original Wii is shutting down "on January 30th" and any points you have will not transfer or be refunded.  So use them up quick.  You cannot buy more Wii points as that has already been disabled.  Also, you should make sure you have everything downloaded as the ability to redownload items will also be removed "at some point".  This includes the Wii U transfer app.  

I know, it's not a deal, but I'm thankful a friend reminded me of this issue as I had 7200 Wii points left in my account from Blockbuster clearances.  Yeah, I neglect my Wii.  I said it.  Anyway, if this helps one person it's worth the likely chastising I get for posting a non-deal.  Let the roasting begin in 3, 2, 1...

 
Thanks for the PSA, I too have some points unused so I gotta dig out my Wii and use them... assuming I have time to. 

Also think it's bullshit that there'll be no way to re-download games. I avoided doing the Wii to Wii U transfer back in the day because it didn't seem like a great idea (since I liked having my Wii around since it could play GC games) but maybe I should do that now... 

 
This is why you don't buy digital...

You can spend all you want, get all the stuff you want, feel really good about your digital collection... and eventually they'll no longer be downloadable. Meanwhile, I have records from before I was born that will play just fine in any record player.

 
That analogy doesn't work. You already downloaded the games, they will play just fine. You just can no longer download the games you deleted, just as you can't purchase a record at most stores if it was lost/damaged/stolen.

The Wii store is a piece of shit and I have tons of problems with it, but it's also been up for over a decade at this point. At some point, your ability to download purchased games was going to end.

 
I wanted to download both LostWinds games but it says there are no titles by that name. Did they delete LostWinds from the Wii shop channel?  I am searching under WiiWare and even tried Virtual Console. Damn. Didn't know they would delete games.

 
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This is why you don't buy digital...

You can spend all you want, get all the stuff you want, feel really good about your digital collection... and eventually they'll no longer be downloadable. Meanwhile, I have records from before I was born that will play just fine in any record player.
True for the Wii. But modern games rely so heavily on patches and DLC that discs just come up short now. In 20 years, the best way to play today's popular games will probably be to subscribe to a streaming service and use them on up-to-date hardware. And for today's niche games... well, guess we'll have to resort to our unpatched discs on original hardware.

Don't get me wrong. I have a huge modern physical game collection for the reasons you named. But I think this is the last generation where I focus on physical games.

 
I was so pissed. My son took my old Wii that I hadn’t used in a while and modded it but in the process wiped everything on it. Didn’t know about it until I got a cheap used Wii U last year to play Breath of the Wild and some Mario goodness.

Wanted to transfer stuff from the Wii and all gone. Couldn’t get into my account. Researched it and no way to recover it.
 
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If you have a Wii or Wii U it would probably be a good idea to log in to the shop and download the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Save Data Update Channel 

 
Well I have 3300 points and was going to get both LostWinds games but now that they are gone, I guess I will get Excitebike World Rally for now. I will still have 2300 points to spend though. Maybe then get And yet it moves and You me and the cubes?  Maybe go for Sin and Punishment even though I hear it's really short? Damn Nintendo for removing both LostWind games without telling anyone.  I really wanted to play both of them.

 
I wanted to download both LostWinds games but it says there are no titles by that name. Did they delete LostWinds from the Wii shop channel? I am searching under WiiWare and even tried Virtual Console. Damn. Didn't know they would delete games.
You can get them on Steam. I bought both for $2.69 a couple of days ago.

 
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Man, the Wii...I have so much nostalgia for the menus, system noises, and music...and then I'm like "oh yeah I have to use a wiimote to play the games"

 
This is why you don't buy digital...

You can spend all you want, get all the stuff you want, feel really good about your digital collection... and eventually they'll no longer be downloadable. Meanwhile, I have records from before I was born that will play just fine in any record player.
I think this is why the Xbox has been slaying it and will continue to slay it. Even after games have been delisted, if you bought it previously digitally...you still have the ability to download them. It's becoming more important that you have that ability with them releasing the disc-less console. After all the love for BC and Gamepass, I don't see them dropping it in (at least my) lifetime.
 
I am sad though that they havent had a massive sale for everything on the shops. A last incentive to keep a Wii plugged into your TV.


I don't think there was ever a sale in the Wii store. Main reason I only bought one game with all my wii points.
Well I have 3300 points and was going to get both LostWinds games but now that they are gone, I guess I will get Excitebike World Rally for now. I will still have 2300 points to spend though. Maybe then get And yet it moves and You me and the cubes? Maybe go for Sin and Punishment even though I hear it's really short? Damn Nintendo for removing both LostWind games without telling anyone. I really wanted to play both of them.
I'm looking for exclusives first like the rebirths of Contra and Castlevania and also excitebike. I don't have a PSP or ps4 so I'll get rondo of blood as well. Several games have been removed. Several capcom games and some donkey Kong games too, but the DK games may have returned.
 
That analogy doesn't work. You already downloaded the games, they will play just fine. You just can no longer download the games you deleted, just as you can't purchase a record at most stores if it was lost/damaged/stolen.

The Wii store is a piece of shit and I have tons of problems with it, but it's also been up for over a decade at this point. At some point, your ability to download purchased games was going to end.
Your point is well taken, and well stated, and I agree with it mostly, but.......

The whole point of digital is ease of use, and being able to delete games to save on space, move between devices, etc. Having that taken away at some point, at least to me, defeats the purpose of buying digital in the first place(which is why I mostly avoid it). When you buy a record album, you know if you drop it, scratch it, throw it out, it's gone, so you treat it accordingly. Buying anything digital is the complete opposite of that, as there are tons of ways to use and abuse the digital format, and one of those features is to be able to re-download said items.

So faulting people for wanting to keep a feature that was a selling point of why they bought in for the first place, probably isn't going to fly with most. So, just my 2 cents on the topic.

 
So faulting people for wanting to keep a feature that was a selling point of why they bought in for the first place, probably isn't going to fly with most. So, just my 2 cents on the topic.
Exactly. It's like having a car for 10 years which you've maintained and cared for, but now Mazda is coming in and saying "nope can't put gas in it anymore because it's too old sorry."
 
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I think this is why the Xbox has been slaying it and will continue to slay it. Even after games have been delisted, if you bought it previously digitally...you still have the ability to download them.
Yeah, I mean I probably get it at some point. But then part of me doesn't. The Wii had the crazy 40 MB game limit for most of (all?) it's life. So probably 2 GB on a server somewhere would be enough to hold the entire game library. The problem amplifies with current systems where games are drastically bigger.

That analogy doesn't work. You already downloaded the games, they will play just fine. You just can no longer download the games you deleted, just as you can't purchase a record at most stores if it was lost/damaged/stolen.
Still not the same. No matter how well you treat things, sometimes hardware breaks. I own over 30 systems and I've had two break and one was a Wii (in warranty luckily, actually both were in warranty). That's the big issue here is if your Wii breaks you are done with that game. Not even backing up to a PC and buying another Wii will fix it since it was system based and not account based. A comparable example would be you bought a CD that only works with your car stereo. Well for whatever reason you either sell that car or the car breaks. Well now that CD is 100% worthless because it doesn't work in any other CD player and won't work in a new cars CD player if you buy a new one. Not only is that CD 100% worthless, but you can't buy a replacement anywhere. Because the manufacturer no longer sells the CD and all used CDs only work with the 1 device they were designed to work with. So you only have the opportunity to buy a more expensive new car and a new CD if the manufacturer decided to "remaster" a new edition (with a nice premium). The Wii eshop may have been live more than 12 years, but many people didn't buy a system day 1. I just wish as consumers we demanded better from companies. No need for a an infinite life. But it should be a long period of time (20+ years) and it should be spelled out up front when they can cut your future access.

 
I have 2000 points left and have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to buy. Right now I'm thinking:
- You, Me, and the Cubes
- Phantasy Star
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap

Anyone have any suggestions for things I might've overlooked, especially on the WiiWare side of things? Here's what I already have: WiiWare, Virtual Console. I'm not the biggest fan of "old school difficulty", especially when it comes to platformers and action games, so that'd be a factor.

If you have a Wii or Wii U it would probably be a good idea to log in to the shop and download the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Save Data Update Channel
Good call. It might also be a good idea to redownload old purchases so you can be sure that your copies are in the best shape possible, and to an SD card that you can back up to your PC later. As noted above, there probably wouldn't be much you could do if your Wii breaks, but replacing an SD card in the future (if necessary) shouldn't be as difficult.
 
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Is there anything I can get with 300 points? I went through and couldnt find anything. I messed up spending points and now have 300 left over. Guess I'll be losing them. Sucks nintendo dodnt put stuff on sale for cases like this
 
Is there anything I can get with 300 points? I went through and couldnt find anything. I messed up spending points and now have 300 left over. Guess I'll be losing them. Sucks nintendo dodnt put stuff on sale for cases like this
I don't think so. Maybe some DLC for games but you'd already have to own the game obviously. I will also be out 300 points if I get the games I actually want to. I'd rather lose out on 3 bucks than getting games I don't want just to make sure I use them all up.

 
I don't think so. Maybe some DLC for games but you'd already have to own the game obviously. I will also be out 300 points if I get the games I actually want to. I'd rather lose out on 3 bucks than getting games I don't want just to make sure I use them all up.
That's how I felt too. It's only 300 points. I contacted Nintendo and they said basically we will just lose them if we cant spend them. I thought maybe they might convert them as they did that once in the past for me with dsi points to 3ds points.
 
If you have a Wii or Wii U it would probably be a good idea to log in to the shop and download the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Save Data Update Channel
For sure, it's a must if you intend to play the game. I got a new copy of Skyward Sword a couple of years ago, been sitting in my backlog ever since. Even newer copies aren't patched so downloading the update channel is the only way to fix the potential game breaking glitch.

 
On the evening of November 18th, 2006, Nintendo was preparing for the midnight launch of the Wii console in Times Square New York. The video below is an overview of the launch. If you skip to 6:20 in the video, you will see Reggie officially announce the opening of the Wii Shop Channel, which launched with 12 games. Check out the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFAEo2ZrXaE

The Wii Shop Channel will close for new purchases on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 2:59 PM Japan Time (which I believe will be Wednesday, January 30th, 2019 at 10:59 PM Pacific Time, but I could be off a few hours)

It's been an amazing 12 years of service!

If you have a Japanese Wii with Yen/Points left on the Wii Shop Channel, you can exchange that money for a Nintendo eShop card for the same amount for the 3DS/Wii U. Based on the information, a special "Wii Shop Channel Password" will display on the shop starting on February 12th, 2019 which will help with the conversion of your points. All the details about this is right here:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/information/2018/0809.html

It is unknown if this same transfer process will happen in other regions.

 
That analogy doesn't work. You already downloaded the games, they will play just fine. You just can no longer download the games you deleted, just as you can't purchase a record at most stores if it was lost/damaged/stolen.

The Wii store is a piece of shit and I have tons of problems with it, but it's also been up for over a decade at this point. At some point, your ability to download purchased games was going to end.
A physical game, movie, CD, etc.... it not limited to a particular device and it not bound to me either. This means when one Wii dies (and they do die) I can simply use my physical Wii game on another device (or I can give it away, trade it, etc...). If my CD player dies, I can play my CD in another device. You say ten years, well I have things I've owned for over 20 years, original N64 games and the like, and they can play just fine in any N64 console. They're not bound in some way to my original console, and a physical item doesn't exist only so long as I preserve space on a hard drive for it.

That aside, this doesn't fully explain the downsides of owning something digitally. I try my best to put very little into digital content I have, but I still have enough to know what's going on. For instance there are people who have movies on Vudu/Ultraviolet/iTunes that literally vanish. As in they had them in their library and they're gone now do to licensing issues. "Owning" digital content is really nothing more than a rental. Now you might say yes but you can download them and keep them forever, but c'mon. No one is going to download hundreds of movies or games just in case they vanish from a service and even then they're at the mercy of a storage device and DRM limitations.

Services have gone offline, bans in the past have prevented people from accessing accounts and downloading their digital content (Microsoft for example), and due to DRM, (GOG being an exception), you can't really backup this stuff either. So, you're trapped in a position where your digital content will rely entirely on the life your a particular device and the nuances of the DRM. Your storage dies and so does your collection.

It would take my house burning down to lose all my games, but all it takes is one Wii dying and you'll lose all your digital Wii games. That really sucks.

 
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That analogy doesn't work. You already downloaded the games, they will play just fine. You just can no longer download the games you deleted, just as you can't purchase a record at most stores if it was lost/damaged/stolen.

The Wii store is a piece of shit and I have tons of problems with it, but it's also been up for over a decade at this point. At some point, your ability to download purchased games was going to end.
You have to say "you can't purchase a record at most stores" because thrift stores and ebay exist. That's a huge difference between Wii Store which is flat out you can't purchase or even download after January 30.

 
I lean on the side of 'consumers get screwed with DRM' so I don't want to defend a giant corporation like Nintendo anymore than I have to, so I'll just say: pirate them.  It's not hard to do and solves the issues of archiving games long after a company stops making them available.

Until the likes of Contra Rebirth are ported (if ever) to a modern system, it's one of the few recourses you have.

 
I'm still plotting my monies, but I'm getting:

Castlevania Adventure Rebirtth

Contra Rebirth 

Excitebike World Rally

Those three are only available on WiiWare and I'm a big fan of all three series.  I'll have 4200 points after that.  I'll most likely get Ninja Gaiden Arcade as I loved that game in the arcades back when most people didn't know it existed.  It is on NGBlack, but this may be more convenient.  Beyond that I'll look at SNES games I never got as I skipped that system (not by choice), maybe the star wars games or the indiana jones game.   Or some Turbografx or SNK games I never got to play either.

I figured there would be people bitching it's not a deal in the thread or posting "in for 12!", but didn't figure the mods would move it to the Wii discussion for it to die.  I mean it is helping people not lose money.

 
Have 2200 points left.  Debating on

Blaster Master, Dr Mario, Contra Rebirth, Sin & Punishment, Muscle March, Rondo of Blood, Fast Racing League, Monster World, and Paper Mario 64

I know most of these titles are available elsewhere, and that Contra Rebirth and Rondo of Blood are seemingly better choices due to their exclusivity, but I'm more interested (right now) in titles I think I'll actually play and put time into that I want on the Wii. 

 
Oh yeah, Blaster Master and Rondo are definites too.  There are lists out there detailing the best exclusives to get, but honestly, a lot of them are for their collector's appeal and oddities as opposed to good games like the rebirths.

 
I purchased my last Wii Shop Channel title a few days ago! Very bittersweet to see it go!

I don't know what channels will be left when the Wii Shop Channel shuts down, but you probably want to download the Wii U Transfer channel ASAP. Even though the shop is shutting down, you can still do a transfer until further notice.

edit: Looks like if you have left over, unused Wii Point cards in Japan, you can get a refund for those as well. That probably isn't going to happen in North America.

 
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Is anyone able to download anything? I spent almost an hour just setting up my router to connect the Wii (my router doesn't support any of it's security encryption and it has no way to hardwire) so I had to create an open network and even then, once I got it updated to access the shop, I can't get past the welcome screen... 

 
Is anyone able to download anything? I spent almost an hour just setting up my router to connect the Wii (my router doesn't support any of it's security encryption and it has no way to hardwire) so I had to create an open network and even then, once I got it updated to access the shop, I can't get past the welcome screen...
I bought my last few games (ended up getting the ones I had considered earlier), redownloaded all my WiiWare/VC games, etc. last Wednesday and ran into a handful of connection timeouts at the Shop Channel while doing all that. Maybe it's worse now that the deadline is closer, but I'd say keep at it and try again.
 
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Is anyone able to download anything? I spent almost an hour just setting up my router to connect the Wii (my router doesn't support any of it's security encryption and it has no way to hardwire) so I had to create an open network and even then, once I got it updated to access the shop, I can't get past the welcome screen...
you may want to try connecting late at night and early in the morning.

edit: also, all wiiware game manuals are saved on the wii shop channel store page listings, so once it goes offline, you can't read manuals for wiiware games anymore. if there are manuals you want, make sure to screen capture or video capture them before the shutdown date.

 
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15 hours until the shop shuts down. Official time based on the Japanese Wii Shop Channel website: 9:59 PM Pacific Time tonight. I just confirmed everything I purchased has been downloaded to my system and SD card.

 
The few Wiiware and VC games I own I have other places. Rondo of Blood I bought on PS3, I own Splatterhouse 3 a few other places. Ive got World of Goo and Super Mario 3 as well other places. I'll need to get a disk based copy of Tetris party

I did a Wii to Wii U transfer a few months ago, and I really wish I would have picked up more games. Dr. Mario RX is the only one I was worried about losing

 
Was finally able to use up my remaining points just now. But after this, I don't think I'll ever buy anything digital from Nintendo ever again. 

 
And it's gone.  For now redownloading games/channels still works.  Also, I noticed that the photo channel, wii u transfer channel and Zelda Save Fix channel are still available for download.

 
It was pretty surreal to be on the Wii Shop Channel around closing time, see titles available to purchase, and then all of a sudden you click a button and the channels are all gone! The end of an era...

The next big date is Feb. 12th for displaying the "Wii Shop Channel password" on the Japan Wii shop channel.

Then from February 20, 2019 - August 30, 2019 is when you can change Wii Points into one of three refund options if you have a Japanese Wii. I have about 100 yen left over, so it'll be interesting how it will work for me.

And it'll be interesting to see what happens on the USA/EUR/AUS shops on Feb 12th as well.

Pretty sure after August is when the shop will close completely. We're not quite finished yet! :)

 
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Was finally able to use up my remaining points just now. But after this, I don't think I'll ever buy anything digital from Nintendo ever again.
I wouldn't. I'm completely against digital distribution. When gaming goes completely digital, you can count me out. I have a ton of legacy systems that I need to work through. Nintendo isn't the only victim. There have been multiple titles pulled from the other shops due to licensing etc.

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