After 13 years of life, Nintendo is officially shutting down the Wii Shop Channel. The channel launched in December 2006, one month after the Nintendo Wii released in North America. Since the channel’s launch, Nintendo has released 2 more home consoles, as well as the 3DS handheld. Nintendo announced the closure on September 29th, 2017.
The Nintendo Wii Shop Channel Is Shutting Down Today

I thought this was shut down when the Wii U released.
Nah ’cause Wii was still a vibrant platform when the Wii U came about. Still making sales and plenty people had a Wii.
Same here. I thought The Nintendo Wii Shop Channel ceased from operating after the release of Wii U. Since then, I never bothered visiting it. Now that it’s official, I’m kinda curious of what will become of the Wiis loaded with digital games. RIP Wii shop.
No, but playing online games for Wii like Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii was shut down on May 30th, 2014. The same day Mario Kart 8 was released on Wii U, coincidentally.
The Wii shop channel was actually even accessible from the Wii U’s Wii mode, so it would have been very weird if they had closed it earlier. You could still purchase WiiWare games on your Wii U. Only makes sense that they kept the shop alive for at least the lifetime of the Wii U.
RIP wii channel. Should’ve shut the wii u chanel
Why would any company rush to shut down something that they get money from?
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Dr. Mario Online Rx
My Pokémon Ranch
Jett Rocket
Fast Racing League
It’s unfortunate that the exclusive WiiWare games like those will no longer be available to people who want to play them outside of piracy sites.
That’s the problem with digital games and why I try to stick to physical
Should still work if you still have it download already. I already got my Mew out of Pokémon Ranch so I good.
Should still work if you still have it download already. I already got my Mew out of Pokémon Ranch so I good.
I’m pretty sure it’s going to just present a network error when you try to launch the shop. Otherwise the shop would still be running and they’d just be disabling any new purchases.
Some of the few games on WiiWare that were worth a purchase.
I mean its not necessarily about the quality of the games though. This is the first time I can think of since the rise of downloadable games that a company said “You know what? I know this is the only place these games exist, but lets just get rid of them.”
They don’t even really have a good reason to do it. The Wii Shop was pretty much just a website and it linked to the same ecommerce database that the Switch, Wii U, and 3DS linked to so it pretty much cost them nothing to run.
F
I’ll just leave this here:
https://sites.google.com/site/wiiflowiki4/emu-nand-and-neek2o
I miss those days when Nintendo Wii was release worldwide and had its first commercial and i got that console in 2007 with Super Mario Galaxy with it. Good times. I wish i can go back to those days again.
R.I.P. Rebirth games, Lost Winds games, Muscle March, Tomena Sanner, Jett Rocket, Rage of the Gladiator, Lit, Art Style games, etc…
Lost forever to time.
I loved LIT. It was the only WiiWare game I redownloaded to my new Wii after my first one stopped functioning. Probably should’ve redownloaded that WarioWare D.I.Y. companion game too, now that I think about it.
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*Plays the Military TAPS song in remembrance*
RiiP
Such a cool app. The music, the content, the design and aesthetic were all so perfect… the current e-Shop has a long way to go to even match the potential of the Wii-Shop.
Open Shop Channel will be taking it’s place one day👌
I know that most people don’t care. However this is really a shame. I understand why Nintendo is doing it but we are going to loose many games. Likely to never be seen or played again, by most. Many of the games weren’t on other systems/pc, and they never found homes on Wii U or Switch. Most are shovelware but there are some gems. Ultimately, it’s still video game history. A chunk of our gamer lives gone. A generation, digitally, forgotten. every game you used to think, I should get that sometime, or I liked the demo, let’s try it. Gone. A few may (or already have) found new life. Ports, deluxe versions (talking to you Tomorrow People), enhanced. But most will never see the light of day again because Nintendo didn’t see them as profitable to keep. RIP, wiiware shop and hundreds of games. You are already missed. 😥
Even if most was trash, the occasional gem of WiiWare will be missed.
This is why you don’t buy digital! You can’t redownload your games now, if you lose them.
To be fair, the sad truth is you can’t play your physical game, either, if you lose the game cart/cartridge/disc it was on. And if it’s an old game, there is a chance you may never find it again. Least not for a cheap price, anyway.
I never heard of a cartridge that broke. And CDs don’t break either, if you take care. But if your Wii stops working, which is out of your control, all your stored games are gone.
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