In an effort to unify some of the Nintendo-related conversation in the Wii U and 3DS threads, especially when new Nintendo Directs run for both platforms, how about a Nintendo news thread?
Today's topic: Nintendo is shutting down the Nintendo WiFi service that powers online multiplayer for DS and Wii games.
Users must register a Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL or 2DS handheld between March 1 and 31 along with one of six games: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and upcoming title Yoshi's New Island.
If anything this makes less annoyed with EA when they kill their servers. I think the only reason Blizzard is able to keep the classic Bnet servers online is they have an ad reel in the chat client which probably covers the server expenses.
Users must register a Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL or 2DS handheld between March 1 and 31 along with one of six games: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and upcoming title Yoshi's New Island.
this is very tempting
Double-cross-posting from the Wii U and 3DS threads.
shoptroll wrote:PSA: Nintendo shutting down Wi-Fi Connection for DS and Wii games.
Cynical view: they're shutting down the servers for Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros. Brawl in time to encourage adoption of their new hardware and software.
Pragmatic view: they can't keep those servers running indefinitely and have probably hit a low enough level of traffic that there's little value in continuing to maintain them, especially as there's no charge to the end-user for those services.
Fortunately, those two game still have really good play value in SP and local Co-op. For most people, little will be lost. That's not the case when more MP focus-ed games go down.
Is this the thread where we discuss Nintendo's future and how they should put their games on iPhones?
j/k
Double-cross-posting from the Wii U and 3DS threads.
shoptroll wrote:PSA: Nintendo shutting down Wi-Fi Connection for DS and Wii games.
Cynical view: they're shutting down the servers for Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros. Brawl in time to encourage adoption of their new hardware and software.
Given how popular those two games are on the Wii, and how few people have migrated to the Wii U yet, I subscribe to the cynical view.
I don't give EA a free pass when they do this (though in fairness, they do this more frequently and in shorter timeframes), I'm not going to give Nintendo a free pass just because I like their general business practices more.
This is also affecting a big range of titles, because from reading up on it, Nintendo appears to be doing this platform-wide, not just on a select group of titles. This means that all Pokemon games prior to X/Y are going to lose their online features; that's arguably going to affect a lot more customers than the Mario Kart and Smash Bros features going offline. I suspect there are still a lot of people out there playing DS editions of Pokemon.
Is this the thread where we discuss Nintendo's future and how they should put their games on iPhones?
j/k
"Nintendo is dooooooomed!" Am I doing it right?
garion333 wrote:Is this the thread where we discuss Nintendo's future and how they should put their games on iPhones?
j/k
"Nintendo is dooooooomed!" Am I doing it right? :)
Not enough o's... like this: Nintendo is doooooooooooooooooooomed!
The writing was on the wall when the Wii Mini came out without any online capability at all.
As a point of comparison, Capcom shut down the servers to Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii a month after Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate released in North America. At least they had some overlap. Nintendo is shutting them down 10 days before Mario Kart 8 release.
Still, I subscribe to the cynical view.
Also, why are they shutting down the 3DS Video Channel? My daughter loves some of those free videos.
Good thread I guess. Everyone knows eshop cards are 20% off at best buy this week right?
That's a nice set of changes!
And so begins the fiscal year of Birdo.
oilypenguin wrote:And so begins the fiscal year of Birdo.
I wish them well as they make that transition.
I get it! I get jokes.
Nintendo had a console history booth at GDC:
Based on what Chris Kohler was saying on his Twitter feed it sounds like a number of items were donated from collectors for the duration of the show which is pretty cool.
Thanks for linking this!
Here's the IGN coverage, complete with bro-tastic narration. I wouldn't mute it, though, because there's also helpful information as well as different items covered.
Thanks for linking this!
Here's the IGN coverage, complete with bro-tastic narration. I wouldn't mute it, though, because there's also helpful information as well as different items covered.
What a rush of nostalgia! That was great.
New Nintendo Direct Tuesday April 8th, 3pmPT/6pmET
Evidently going to be a lot of Smash news going on.
Need Layton vs Phoenix Wright info. NEED INFO.
3DS services are also self-hosted too by the look of it.
ClockworkHouse wrote:Double-cross-posting from the Wii U and 3DS threads.
shoptroll wrote:PSA: Nintendo shutting down Wi-Fi Connection for DS and Wii games.
Cynical view: they're shutting down the servers for Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros. Brawl in time to encourage adoption of their new hardware and software.
Pragmatic view: they can't keep those servers running indefinitely and have probably hit a low enough level of traffic that there's little value in continuing to maintain them, especially as there's no charge to the end-user for those services.
A new challenging view enters the arena!
Apparently, Nintendo's online infrastructure on the Wii and DS was powered by GameSpy. GameSpy was recently acquired and announced this morning that it will be shutting down all of its hosted servers at the end of May.
So maybe rather than trying to force customers to upgrade to the new versions of their games, Nintendo is getting hit by another company's business decisions. I'm glad that at least the online infrastructure for the Wii U is self-hosted.
You mean there was more going on than just the obvious cynical view? Say it ain't so!
I know this was discussed elsewhere, but I just watched it and it definitely deserves a repost.
Ooooookay. Live that video. Love it.
I have a sinking feeling that video may be the best thing about the game, for me. Totally strange game for Nintendo to release. I want more weirdness like this!
I watched that video the other day, and while I really doubt I'll buy that, it was pretty amazing and entertaining.
Cross posting from the Wii U thread:
A surprise Mario Kart 8 Nintendo Direct approaches!
And a mini-trailer (probably a summary of the above):
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