A couple of years ago during a similar Octoberween blog post, I spoke of the news that Microsoft’s Xbox Live Indie Games program for Xbox 360 was announced to end. Though it did get a bit of a reprieve by having the shutdown delayed till October 7th of this month, as of right now only 3 games show up when you check the indie tab on your Xbox 360. I only mention this cause it seems history will once again repeat itself by means of the news from Nintendo on what the fate of the Wii’s Wii shop channel.
I know I’m a bit late to the party in speaking of this but I have to say I wasn’t all that shocked when the other shoe dropped on the fate of the to date, roughly 10 year running Wii shop channel: The service will be shut down on January 30th of 2019 with a gradual shutdown beginning on March 26th of 2018, where at that time you’ll be unable to add anymore Wii Points to your account. Between the March 26th and January 30ths timeline, you’ll be able to use the remaining Wii Points you may have in your wallet to purchase Wii VC or WiiWare titles and re-download any games you may want back onto your Wii internal HD or SD Card. In all honesty it’s shocking to see how long the Wii Shop on the Wii has lasted given that it’s survived the launch four “new” Nintendo consoles over the years, those consoles being the Nintendo Wii U, 2DS, New 3DS and Switch respectively. Though the relevance of having the Wii Shop still online was justified with the Wii U’s backwards compatibility of Wii gaming content, the rise of the Nintendo eShop seemed to signal the inevitable that eventually we Wii owners would begin dreading in hearing the news of what would become of all the digital content we had purchase over the years.
Thankfully Nintendo did help soften the eventually blow by allowing all content on our Wii consoles to be “moved” to our shiny new Wii U’s if we happen to keep our old Wii console, download the respective content transfer channels off our respective consoles and followed the one screen instructions on how to move that content with the “simple” use of a SD card, an internet connection and about an hour of your free time.
Regardless though say what you will about Nintendo’s game consoles and titles but their online services leave much to be desired. It wasn’t the most “ideal” method of moving your account and content from one console to another, but it did get the job done despite the fact that you’d have to re-download any content that didn’t happen to be on your Wii’s internal HDD at the time. But I digress.
Now that word has come down of the Wii Shop channel’s soon demise some gamers, including myself, are coming to terms with the loss and what to do going forward. Some are planning on getting their last minute purchases before that option is gone while others are re-examining their digital libraries to see what they want to keep and what they may not care to have anymore. Some are, if not already, transferred their content to their Wii U, so they can see about getting an eShop discount on VC titles that were bought on the Wii Shop while others many not care and have already moved on to bigger and better things that Nintendo has been offering now a days.
And a few might be consider “other” means to move forward and I’m sad to say that I may count myself among them.
I myself am ambivalent about it all. I had intended on getting a good number of titles off the Wii Shop, especially off Virtual Console side of the shop given that many of the titles on there were not yet available on the Virtual Console side of the eShop yet. I originally held off in transferring my content altogether, even after getting a Wii U years ago, for fear of not being allowed to purchase any new content off the Wii U’s Wii channel. Despite the words of Nintendo saying how quickly and simple it was to move on from the Wii to the Wii U digitally, I still had a lot of unanswered questions about the process: Will my games still show up on my Wii console? Would I lose my games off my Wii Channel if I upgrade my Wii shop VC purchases to eShop VC purchases? Would those games be stored on the Wii U’s overall internal HDD (mine was the 32 GB model) or would a separate SD Card be needed for some or all of my digital games? Was there any back up options at all? And my main overall question: what re-download options, if any, would I have as a Wii owner? Eventually I did get those questions answered. Most of the answers I got (or found) I was satisfactory with while others have left me questioning if I’d ever buy digital content off a Nintendo account ever again. I’m glad that I can still buy any content off the Wii Shop channel even after the transfer though I doubt I’ll need a 32 GB SD Card given I don’t see myself spending that much. Current estimates have me spending about $90+ on the remaining titles I’ve held off in buying to this point and as things are I don’t see myself spending that kind of money, especially when I learned of the full fate of the Wii Shop.
Now unlike the now dead Microsoft Xbox Live Indie Game Program, where you’ll still be able to re-download any game you may have purchased in the past on the service prior to its shutdown, Nintendo has decided not to allow that luxury to Wii owners. After the January 30th shutdown in 2019 YOU WILL NO LONGER HAVE THE ABILITY TO RE-DOWNLOAD GAMES TO YOUR SYSTEM AT ALL. It’s a stark contrast to other digital gaming services offered on PC and other consoles by Sony and Microsoft. Despite Xbox Live and Playstation Network being to different beasts on their respective consoles, the PS3 to the PS4 and Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, you still have the ability to re-download any content you may want that you purchased in the past. Even if the content had been delisted for whatever reason (with some exceptions to the rule I’m sure. Yes I’m looking at you P.T. on PS4!) as a purchaser of that digital content you could still re-download it at your own leisure if you wished. I remember how this was lofted up as one of the great benefits of the digital gaming revolution. No more worries about filling up your system’s HDDs, no more worries about losing a game physically, no more fear of not having access to your content when you want it and where. It was all accessible either from your account history or on the Xbox Live/PSN store front pages.
Apparently Nintendo didn’t get that memo.
We all know that Nintendo marches to their own beat when it comes to how they handle their online infrastructure of their systems. They aren’t shy in shutting down any service they have to offer without a care in how it’ll affect their user base. Remember Wii Speak? The News, Forecast and Nintendo channels on the Wii? The Nintendo Wifi Connection service? The justification for this is quite simple and I’ve heard them mentioned time and time again: their services that are no longer used and to a degree I can accept that answer. Not everything runs forever. Not everyone uses the same old services when they move on to newer consoles. We have the eShop now and Nintendo is still trying to figure out how to use this funny old thing called online play. (And if you think they have all you need to do is look at their idea of online voice chat & what’s to become of Miiverse on the Wii U.)
But if you really want to get to the root of the issue, the problem that’s bothered me since I began to take part in the digital gaming revolution is the very thing that others have warned me about: That these digital games ARE NOT YOURS, YOUR JUST PAYING FOR THE RIGHT TO PLAY THEM. It’s the same reason why I try to steer toward physical releases than digital ones. With a physical release you have something tangible, something real, something PHYSICAL to put in your system time and time again. The only thing keeping you from enjoy your physical content is the condition of that content and the condition of the console you’re playing it on. No worries about needing online access to play the game or losing the ability to play the game once the system becomes retro. I’ve been told again and again that despite the accessibility and low cost of digital titles, you don’t technically own them. I even think theirs small wording on the Wii Points cards you can purchase that says precisely that
(When I get a card I’ll post the back portion here for verification of confirmation)
I originally thought that was just a protection to ensure I didn’t try to give up my digital content later on when and if I die, much like most digital EULA’s these days when it comes to digital goods. But if I’m being truthfully I guess I was being naïve and hoped that Nintendo would have some form of the Wii Shop running for re-downloads like how other digital games marketplaces have done with Xbox Live and Playstation Network. I mean just think how one would feel after spending all that money on digital goods only to be told that you won’t have access to them anymore. It’s a risk that we all take as gamers if we happen to have a digital library but I’m starting to see why some gamers don’t count their digital games as part of their gaming collection.
It’s one thing if an online game service is going out of business, thus not being able to keep any servers up and running to allow digital re-downloads, but it’s completely another if the company in question isn’t going out of business and is instead just killing off yet another one of their services just so they can move on to bigger, better things. Who’s to say that there are other factors in why the Wii Shop is shutting down aside server costs? Perhaps publishers are no longer expecting any money from digital purchases on there, perhaps usage of the service is little to non-existent, perhaps the Wii Shop online infrastructure is getting in the way for what’s to come for the eShop as a whole on the Switch. I honestly can’t say for sure. Either way when I heard news that the Wii Shop would be dead for good, with no means of access any prior downloads I was a bit disappointed. Basically this meant that if anything should happen to my Wii U console or my memory card used to store this digital content, I’ll have no means to recover it or get it back. No replacements, no re-downloading option either on the original console or any future console if my original gives up the ghost. Sure I get the small assurance that most of my digital content can be downloaded onto my Wii U eshop account, but having to spending $1-$2 extra for the honor leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It’s because of this fear I’ve held off in buying much off the eShop channel on both my Wii U and N3DS. Though I have purchased some titles (Castlevania: Dracula X & Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on my Wii U along with Zombie Panic In Wonderland & Might Gunvolt on my N3DS respectively) it’s a far cry to the amount of content I have on my Virtual Console from the Wii Shop that’s on my Wii U at the moment. Yet oddly this doesn’t quite deter me in pursuing other digital titles on the Wii Shop. I even joked about it when word came out that the Wii Shop was having connection issues cause us Wii owners were rushing in to BUY ALL THE THINGS?!?!?! But now in seeing that my fears were justified in the fate of the Wii Shop, I can’t say I feel that compelled to purchases goods on the Nintendo eShop at the moment. Unless something dramatic happens on the Switch’s eShop I can see myself reducing any future purchases on there to non-existent. Who’s to say that once the Switch’s Virtual Console services takes off that the Wii U’s eShop will see a similar shutdown? Fool me once Nintendo on the Wii and in a sense that’s why you don’t see me building a digital library on that system, even with a “discount” on certain titles due to me owning them already from the Nintendo Wii.
Good thing I didn’t own any Nintendo DSi digital content or else I’d really be upset. (it also died on March of 2017)
This move by Nintendo may not serve their best interests in the long term when it comes to their digital services. Their already getting raked over the coals by some gamers in asking why their eShop doesn’t allow cross buy purchases between their respective systems. Sure it’s great one can get a “hefty discount” if you already own a virtual console game off your Wii when you do the transfer to the Wii U but why would we have to buy two versions of a certain game if we want to have them on our Wii U and 3DS respectively. Sony has been doing this for years with the PS3/PSP and sometimes even the PS Vita.
Even Microsoft has jumped on the cross compatibility bandwagon, after their epic fail that was the Xbox One reveal, by pushing for game compatibility on the Xbox One with some physical/digital games off of Xbox Live backwards compatibility program. Even future Games With Gold announcements being ensured that future offerings from the Xbox 360 can play on the Xbox One. Even the death of the Xbox Live Indie Game service isn’t total or complete with talk of some form of gaming preservation thanks in part to their new indie developers in the form of the Xbox Live Creators Program on Xbox One.
Despite the fact that the issues mentioned above are not exactly germane to the issue at hand, one fact does remain at the moment when it does come to each console maker’s online platforms: Sony & Microsoft still allow you the means to gain access to your digital titles that you sunk your hard earned cash into, even if you’re not playing them or having them installed on your system at the moment, you still have access to them in the foreseeable future. Nintendo with the future death of the Wii shop, much like with the DSi shop for the Nintendo DSi, seems to imply they just don’t care. To quote a certain personified “Master Shake” animated character: We got your money bitch!
And yet here I am planning on spending $90+ on digital buys on the Wii Shop that can’t be found on the Wii U’s eShop at the moment. I guess you can say I have some unfinished business on my legit Virtual Console Game Collection. But at the same time these events have had me re-examine my stance on future digital content purchases, especially on a Nintendo system.
With that said I sure hope Nintendo rethinks things when it comes to the shutdown of the Wii Shop. It doesn’t help them in the long run if they want to keep a robust online system for game purchases and access to them after the fact. They already have strikes against them in how their handling the eShop and lack of content with their legacy properties. So many people are willing to spend the same money on an old game so many times. We did that on the GBA with re-releases of classic NES titles, we saw that with the Wii U in offering the same game after a purchase on the Wii Shop after a transfer, and some gamers are thinking twice about getting Mega Man 2 again after they just bought it off the Wii U and can’t take it with them on the go with their 3DSes of any variant. They might get a reprieve if their “Netflix Style” retro game access service kicks off on the Switch but the fact still remains that I’ll be thinking twice about trying to gain a digital library on any newer Nintendo system. And I have a strange feeling that I’m not the only one that’s wising up to this possible future. In the meantime I’ll be purchasing my final digital buys from Nintendo, seeing if I can store a legit back up of these purchases on a separate SD card, see if I can use a 16 GB SD card than a 32 GB, for I doubt I’ll buy that much to justify all that wasted space, and think REALLY hard in what I’m going to do with my old Nintendo Wii. It’s sitting there, wiped clean of any and all digital content and ripe for intentions that I never thought I’d consider as a gamer when it came to unlocking the full potential of a gaming console “unofficially”.
Consider myself learning one of the harsh lessons of digital gaming content. Physical is always better and despite occasional digital game prices and some online platforms offering games not found on other systems, it might not mean anything if you don’t have any means to gain access to it years later. Especially on a Nintendo console.
Ta-ta
“N”
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