Hundreds of Wii, DS games losing online play
Nintendo confirms WiFi Connection shutting down May 20; online stores, 3DS, and Wii U to be unaffected
More than 400 Wii and DS games are about to lose their online functionality. Nintendo today confirmed that it is shutting down its WiFi Connection service on May 20, leaving affected games without features like online play, leaderboards, sharing of user-generated content, or free add-on content.
While access to the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop will be unaffected, games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mario Kart DS, and Pokemon Black and White will lose their online functionality entirely. A full list of the 408 first- and third-party games impacted is available on Nintendo's website.
"Our focus now shifts to readying our Wii U and Nintendo 3DS matchmaking services for upcoming games such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros," A Nintendo representative said. "We at Nintendo sincerely thank our fans for their continued support of our company's legacy systems. Your enthusiasm for games made for these systems speaks to their longevity, and the passion of Nintendo fans."
Before Nintendo made the announcement public, a source told GamesIndustry International the shutdown was imminent, and pointed to a dissolving partnership with Glu's GameSpy Technology as the reason for the shutdown. Nintendo announced it was licensing GameSpy tech for the DS online network in 2005, and expanded the relationship in 2007 to offer online functionality for Wii games.
Glu came under fire late in 2012 when it shut off multiplayer servers to a number of PC games including Flight Simulator X, Neverwinter Nights, and Rebellion's Sniper Elite. A Rebellion producer told the community that Glu shut the servers down without warning and said they would turn them back on only for an annual fee "far in excess" of what the developer had previously been paying.
As of this writing, Glu had not returned a request for comment.
This also guarantees that Dragon Quest X is never going to happen in America. Even on the Wii U, we know it's a ticking time bomb. I just can't see why anyone would look for a Nintendo game to have full online functionality; they have botched its handling for years.
Aside from being a core gameplay loss to the player who paid for both the game and the online service (at least with Xbox Live), we actually lose out on being able to reference, play or show a game in the future.
Imagine not being able to study film because we can't watch movies anymore as there are no more projectors that were used to show them not even two decades ago. Imagine not being able to read books because they used a completely different language not even two decades ago.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Roland Austinat on 27th February 2014 8:22pm
I'm curious to see if this move has any ramification with developers/publishers who might be developing titles that are dependent on online integrations for the 3DS and Wii U after this.
Oh I'm sorry did you miss the word "most" in my comment? I didn't say all.
There is no way around that some games will lose it's multiplayer functionality, but consoles it's pretty close to guaranteed as new consoles emerge and older ones become out dated.
Again, you're not wrong. PC games on average indeed do have a longer lifespan of online utilization over consoles but it is because of PC games beign shut down that Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection is being shut down (at least according the insinuations in the article).
Edit: I'm also curious what time frames major services have stayed online. For DS, it's been almost 9 years. That sounds pretty respectable from what I recall many games (PC or otherwise) having access to.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jim Webb on 28th February 2014 8:36pm
I really don't see them insinuating that at all. They mention the company Glu had shutdown some other game services back in 2012. Which has nothing to do with this shut down.
The article clearly states the reason.
Let me quote it for you.
"Before Nintendo made the announcement public, a source told GamesIndustry International the shutdown was imminent, and pointed to a dissolving partnership with Glu's GameSpy Technology as the reason for the shutdown."
How on earth is that because of pc games being shut down? Either I am missing something in the article or you are assuming things the article does not say.
It was a free service that went on for nearly a decade, the only people who would really complain are late adopters. They're so late in the game, the 3DS just celebrated its 3rd year a few days ago.