[bubster93]

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.

 

 

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.../2018/0809.html

 

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

[Freeze Time]

I highly doubt they will do anything like that in the USA. It would have been announced already.

[KrAzY3]

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.

[n64ra]

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.

[Super Strider TurbulenceEX]

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.

[Freeze Time]

Just about a week left. What games did you get?

[jdawgg76]

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.

[dchrisd]

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. 

[jdawgg76]

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.

[bubster93]

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.

[Vinny]

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... 

[R. Kasahara]

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.

[bubster93]

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.

[bubster93]

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.

[kube00]

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

[Vinny]

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. 

[jdawgg76]

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.

[bubster93]

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!

[CheapAssHustla]

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.

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

[redrum666]

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.

 

just checked on my wiiu this is still working just downloaded the Zelda skyward sword save fix

[Vinny]

What's the Zelda save fix channel? 

[redrum666]

What's the Zelda save fix channel? 

there is a game ending glitch in Zelda skyward sword downloading the save fix channel will help fix the problem 

 

http://www.nintendol...e_ending_glitch

http://www.nintendol...d_save_file_fix