The WII Shop Channel is now Effectively Dead
Nintendo removes the ability to buy new games
Just as Nintendo stated last year, players still holding onto the Nintendo Wii for their gaming entertainment can no longer add funds to purchase new games on the Wii Shop Channel.
Nintendo announced last year that the ability to add funds to the Wii Shop Channel will be removed on March 26. Making good on that promise, it’s now impossible to add funds and purchase new games on the now-dated piece of hardware. Additionally, players have just one year to re-download any games they had on the system. In March of 2019, the service will cease to exist, altogether. Furthermore, we will never hear that catchy tune ever again!
This is kind of sad for several reasons. The Nintendo Wii had a huge collection of Virtual Console games that were not made available on the Wii U. And players who’ve migrated to the newest system, The Nintendo Switch, may never see a service as robust as the Virtual Console was. The Nintendo Wii was the console I first had interaction with the TurboGrafx-16 with. I would wait eagerly for the new games to drop every week. However, it was a slow burn after a while. With less and less content coming every week.
All that said, players who were smart enough to add funds prior to yesterdays closure can still purchase and download new games for their old system. At least for the time being!
Do you have any fond memories or cool games from the service? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/wii-shop-closure-announcement
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