Nintendo to Terminate Online Play for Previous Consoles
posted Saturday Mar 1, 2014 by Scott Ertz
This week, Nintendo announced that as of May 20, 2014, online capabilities of non-current devices and their corresponding games will be shut down. While the DS and DSi are affected, the console that is a surprise is the Wii, which is still available, though not the current generation device. The purchase of a brand new Wii with, say, Super Smash Brothers Brawl will not be playable online.
Considering Nintendo's recent financial situations, this could be a Sony-style move in an attempt to right the ship before they have to close business units. The shutdown of servers for powering these previous games and services could allow the company to reallocate resources to new games on the current-generation consoles.
It is, however a bit of a kick in the groin to those who have supported the legacy consoles and their games. Though the 3DS continues to be the top selling console, the Wii U has not lived up to the hype Nintendo tried to build. Because of that, many people continue to use their original Wii consoles. Because of that, this might also be a move to "encourage" people to upgrade to the Wii U.
So, are any of our readers affected by this shutdown or has everyone switched away from legacy cnosoles? Let us know in the comments.