The shutdown will occur gradually: users will still be ready to add Wii Points until March 26th, 2018, and still be effective to use those points to purchase content from the shop fully goes offline in January 2019.
At some point Nintendo hasn’t put an accurate date on it yet you also won’t be able to re-download beforehand purchased Wii and Virtual Console games or the Wii System Transfer Tool to move files to the Wii U. Nintendo suggests that if you have games you want to download or content you want to transfer to a Wii U, do it while you still can.
It’s an especially curious decision, given that there’s a lot of legacy Nintendo content secured away in the Virtual Console that Nintendo has bafflingly not produced to the Switch yet. Still, as we pour one out for the Wii Shop Channel.
Wii Shop Channel started along with Wii in November 2006, meaning it will have just turned 13 when it ends taking new purchases in 2019. Nintendo says you’ll be able to keep downloading Shop Channel stuff you previously own for a while after that, though that help too will eventually be disabled.
Losing access to all those games and apps is a guilt, but I think you’ll agree that the true tragedy will be the loss of the Wii Shop Channel music. No jingle has ever endorsed the primal joy of consumerism quite as well. The Nintendo Switch eShop’s reserve still feels slightly perverse by comparison.
Music aside, Wii still has arguably the best Virtual Console selection of any Nintendo console, so you’d properly get downloading soon if you want to take profit of it. And if you happen to be one of those brave few Wii U owners , don’t forget that you can use Wii Mode to download and play Wii games from a more modern console.
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