Wii U will reportedly cease production this year

[cybercylon]

I don't imagine any time soon. The online multiplayer servers for all Wii games have been pulled, but the Wii shop Channel still remains up for the time being, and is accessible to both Wii and Wii-U owners. You just can't use it on the Wii Minis because there's no wifi or USB. Nintendo was stupid for not including a wifi chip on those. Potential revenue on VC sales lost forever to the big N...

 

As long as someone out there is still buying items on the Wii Whop channel, the Shop server will likely remain up, and Nintendo will likely release a big public service announcement before it shuts down so people can download any last minute VC titles or WiiWare. Which reminds me, I still need to DL Neutopia I & II on Turbografx VC...

 

There could be limits on the rights on how long they can provide 3rd party games to be available to purchase. One reason why I think I should ease way back on physical release and pick up on any TG16 games that interest me while I can.

 

Genesis... the collection for the PS3 takes care of most of what I want.

 

I doubt the Nintendo published VC games are going anywhere anytime soon.

[cybercylon]

 

From a practical standpoint, though, I'd say the collective we have more personal gadgets than ever and, even if what you say is true, that our collective incomes are relatively lower, the adjusted prices on these devices are clearly not more than said incomes can bear. In other words, whatever the adjustment may or may not be for lowered income, device prices are well within range of the average person these days.

 

True. $199 spent on an Atari 2600 in 1977 would be $778.83 today. Hence.. we have more gadgets than ever. What has not been adjusted is the time available to use them.

[Serguei2]

The sales of Wii-U must be that bad that Nintendo decided to stop producing the console for the upcoming NX.

 

Actually, publishers won't drop their previous console when a new one is introduced.

 

Wii was still available when Wii-U was just released to the stores.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Serguei2

[Andromeda Stardust]

Ugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwVr1pY9tc

 

 

Cimerians' personal thought of the day:

Sheesh....after logging into My Nintendo today I think they need to expand a bit like comic books, get a little grown up for chrissake. Its almost embarrassing hitting that site at work. They don't need to convert 100% but I think Marvel and DC does a pretty good job of showing their characters in traditional kid friendly form (especially in retail) as well as more young adult to adult (comics and movies) Not asking for a brooding megalomaniac Mario but they need to embrace more adults and adult content, I just don't think you can stick with McDonalds or childrens Disney ads and apps forever. Then again maybe that's there whole plan, its been that way for years now so why am I complaining?

 

Nevermind.

Miitomo is a joke. I don't have a mobile device to download it on and probably wouldn't even if I did unless the curiosity bug hit me. I've been given a first look into the new Nintendo rewards program through a Nintendolife article and it appears they are giving almost nothing away for free. IE spend $70 on digital software to get a 20% discount on a retail download. What a joke. Zero incentive with their reinvention of the rewards program for anyone to buy physical releases, and past purchases are not retroactive. I will continue to support physical media until the day comes that physical games are no longer available in any format. Even then, I've got enough retro games and homebrew to keep me busy for the next 20 years...

[Gentlegamer]

Ugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwVr1pY9tc

 

 

Cimerians' personal thought of the day:

Sheesh....after logging into My Nintendo today I think they need to expand a bit like comic books, get a little grown up for chrissake. Its almost embarrassing hitting that site at work. They don't need to convert 100% but I think Marvel and DC does a pretty good job of showing their characters in traditional kid friendly form (especially in retail) as well as more young adult to adult (comics and movies) Not asking for a brooding megalomaniac Mario but they need to embrace more adults and adult content, I just don't think you can stick with McDonalds or childrens Disney ads and apps forever. Then again maybe that's there whole plan, its been that way for years now so why am I complaining?

 

Nevermind.

 

[cimerians]

Miitomo is a joke. I don't have a mobile device to download it on and probably wouldn't even if I did unless the curiosity bug hit me. I've been given a first look into the new Nintendo rewards program through a Nintendolife article and it appears they are giving almost nothing away for free. IE spend $70 on digital software to get a 20% discount on a retail download. What a joke. Zero incentive with their reinvention of the rewards program for anyone to buy physical releases, and past purchases are not retroactive. I will continue to support physical media until the day comes that physical games are no longer available in any format. Even then, I've got enough retro games and homebrew to keep me busy for the next 20 years...

 

Well hopefully the program works out, Club Nintendo was alright. Got a bunch of good stuff from there over the years. Digital games don't bother me much any more but yes I still aim for physical copies when I can. If you ever fall into the pit which is Steam, you'll have another 100 years of games you may never finish.

[cybercylon]

 

Well hopefully the program works out, Club Nintendo was alright. Got a bunch of good stuff from there over the years. Digital games don't bother me much any more but yes I still aim for physical copies when I can. If you ever fall into the pit which is Steam, you'll have another 100 years of games you may never finish.

 

Yes... the physical and digital piles of shame.....

[cimerians]

Look deep into your local Wal-Mart's bargain. You'll likely find something like the GTA Trilogy for the PS2, a console that's now 16 years old. Even had a presence in Wal-Mart's Black Friday ad last November.

 

 

Square finally pulled support on PS2 this year, no more FFXI, so yeah its been hanging around for a long time.

 

http://www.releases.com/posts/6ec905f3-82e6-436d-8ce9-ff578826bd6d

 

"On March 19th, 2015, Square Enix announced that the servers for Final Fantasy XI would be terminated for good today, March 31st, 2016, on both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles."

[Tempest]

Funny, I still need to pick up a copy of GTA Trilogy. I missed out on those games when they came out originally.

 

I briefly thought about returning to FF XI when they announced the servers were going down the next year, but they never released the final expansion for the PS2 in the US (JPN only) so I decided it wasn't worth it. I started it on the PS2 and I was going to finish it on the PS2. My poor lvl 70 Paladin is still sitting there in Jeuno looking for a party...

[Lost Dragon]

I still prefer GTA 3 and Vice City (plus Scarface if truth be told) over likes of GTA S.A, GTA 4 and 5.

The technology seemed to improve with each instalment but after V.C something seemed to be lost and games became more a showcase of how much Rockstar could get out of the hardware and into the game, yet it can at the expense of the impact the original 3D GTA's had on me somehow.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

 

Square finally pulled support on PS2 this year, no more FFXI, so yeah its been hanging around for a long time.

 

http://www.releases.com/posts/6ec905f3-82e6-436d-8ce9-ff578826bd6d

 

"On March 19th, 2015, Square Enix announced that the servers for Final Fantasy XI would be terminated for good today, March 31st, 2016, on both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles."

Funny, but if I recall, Final Fantasy XI didn't even work on the slim models due to lack of a hard drive?

[Tempest]

Funny, but if I recall, Final Fantasy XI didn't even work on the slim models due to lack of a hard drive?

 

That is correct. It needs an old PS2 Fat.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

That is correct. It needs an old PS2 Fat.

I bet that really killed sales of the game, not to mention those who just wanted to play a traditional RPG game in their own time without relying on other players across the globe...

[MotoRacer]

Imagine if the GameCube still had support, till today on any particular title. That's about the equivalent of the FF news. Pretty astounding.

 

And again, this is my main issue with Nintendo. I love them, I really do, but they constantly just up and bail on hardware the minute the new console is announced. I get that they're not big enough to make hardware for both, but I always love to see new generations of players actually buy into Nintendo's lies when they're told not to worry... that they're old console will be supported along with the new one.

 

I know it's for investors, but surely they aren't that dumb. I haven't fell for that sorry song and dance since Nintendo told me my GBA would be a third tier, and would be supported along with the NDS.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Imagine if the GameCube still had support, till today on any particular title. That's about the equivalent of the FF news. Pretty astounding.

 

And again, this is my main issue with Nintendo. I love them, I really do, but they constantly just up and bail on hardware the minute the new console is announced. I get that they're not big enough to make hardware for both, but I always love to see new generations of players actually buy into Nintendo's lies when they're told not to worry... that they're old console will be supported along with the new one.

 

I know it's for investors, but surely they aren't that dumb. I haven't fell for that sorry song and dance since Nintendo told me my GBA would be a third tier, and would be supported along with the NDS.

Not necessarily. NES was supported until 1994, after midway through the SNES heyday. SNES was supported until 1998. Game Boy Advance was supported well into 2006. Until very recently, Wii Minis stocked on store shelves. I estimate Wii died quietly sometime in 2015.

 

In Japan, Famicom was supported a whopping 20 years from 1983-2003, outlasting even the VCS thirteen year reign (1977-1990) in the states.

 

Seems the more successful a console is, the longer it's lifespan despite existence of a successor. PS2s were sold at least until 2010-2011 or so.

 

Wii Shop Channel continues to exist online alongside the eShop even though online support for most games and apps have been canned. I don't think Nintendo would be wise to pull Wii-U servers too quickly. That would piss a lot of people off, including myself.

[cybercylon]

At least with the Wii VC... you can still buy most of those games on a Wii that is WiFi capable... though that may be a side effect of having that still available for for the Wii U is well.

 

My guess is at least a year before any of that is shut off.

 

I forget that these titles are run under emulation, so all they really have to do is have a new emulator ready for the NX. Probably can still serve up the same game file regardless of the system

 

Maybe they will sort things out so the NX can play Super FX games. My understanding that the reason why the Wii or Wii U cannot is due to licensing?

[omegadot]

Not necessarily. NES was supported until 1994, after midway through the SNES heyday. SNES was supported until 1998. Game Boy Advance was supported well into 2006. Until very recently, Wii Minis stocked on store shelves. I estimate Wii died quietly sometime in 2015.

 

In Japan, Famicom was supported a whopping 20 years from 1983-2003, outlasting even the VCS thirteen year reign (1977-1990) in the states.

 

Seems the more successful a console is, the longer it's lifespan despite existence of a successor. PS2s were sold at least until 2010-2011 or so.

 

Wii Shop Channel continues to exist online alongside the eShop even though online support for most games and apps have been canned. I don't think Nintendo would be wise to pull Wii-U servers too quickly. That would piss a lot of people off, including myself.

 

I'd be very sad with no other way to play Splatoon.

[Atariboy]

Maybe they will sort things out so the NX can play Super FX games. My understanding that the reason why the Wii or Wii U cannot is due to licensing?

 

Super FX patents are expired, leaving the technology in the public domain.

[Mord]

 

I'd be very sad with no other way to play Splatoon.

 

Is Splatoon an online-only/multiplayer-only game?

[MotoRacer]

Not necessarily. NES was supported until 1994, after midway through the SNES heyday. SNES was supported until 1998. Game Boy Advance was supported well into 2006. Until very recently, Wii Minis stocked on store shelves. I estimate Wii died quietly sometime in 2015.

 

In Japan, Famicom was supported a whopping 20 years from 1983-2003, outlasting even the VCS thirteen year reign (1977-1990) in the states.

 

Seems the more successful a console is, the longer it's lifespan despite existence of a successor. PS2s were sold at least until 2010-2011 or so.

 

Wii Shop Channel continues to exist online alongside the eShop even though online support for most games and apps have been canned. I don't think Nintendo would be wise to pull Wii-U servers too quickly. That would piss a lot of people off, including myself.

You partially proved my point. You didn't list any console from n64 on other than the Wii. And while those Wii minis were in stores years later, trust me, it wasn't because they were selling. It was the same issue the Zelda Wii u had. They rotted in store shelves despite being limited editions.

 

Nintendo doesn't keep their systems around for longer than the new system debuts. They used to. I never said the nes-snes eras were this way. But since the death of the n64, Nintendo has been very quick to kill off the former while touring the later, despite Sony and Microsoft doing the opposite with their aging hardware.

 

What Nintendo did in the famicom days is highly irrelevant now. There's no justifying their actions in the last 20 years.

Edited April 4, 2016 by MotoRacer

[omegadot]

 

Is Splatoon an online-only/multiplayer-only game?

There are offline modes buy they aren't great. The heart of it is online only.

[Schizophretard]

Super FX patents are expired, leaving the technology in the public domain.

 

If only copyrights expired as quickly... Imagine all the movies, books, games, software, art, etc. that would be in the public domain today. A situation like that would make it almost look like the people own the culture they actually live in which is what the copyright clause was originally about:

 

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

 

It doesn't say,"To promote the profits of corporations for as long as possible." but progress in science and useful arts. The old school language usually confuses people to get science and useful arts backwards by thinking that science refers to inventors and useful arts refers to authors but it is the other way around. Science back then had a meaning like all human knowledge in general including but not limited to actual science and is referring to the authors. It has a meaning like,"To promote the spread of knowledge." Useful arts isn't talking about art in the sense of literature, paintings, other copyright-able works, etc. but arts as in,"This tech is state of the art." It is talking about artisans(AKA inventors). It has a meaning like,"To promote the spread of technology and scientific discoveries." So, science is the authors/copyright part and useful arts is the inventors/patent part.

 

Anyway, it wasn't about people owning "intellectual property" as if it is creating a new kind of property right in ideas but just about giving inventors and authors monopolies for long enough to give them an extra economic incentive to create their works so that the end result would be promoting the progress of science and the useful arts for all of society. In other words,"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." means something like,"To get knowledge and technology out into the public domain because the people getting access to them is progress."

 

That is why things like,"Copying is theft!", "You stole my idea!" and such annoys me because the whole reason for these limited monopolies is to create knowledge and technology for all of us to eventually copy and share which we can't really do when "limited times" become 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. years. Limited times should be more like 10 to 20 years if that. Everything before I was born and a lot created after I was born should already be in the public domain.

[Andromeda Stardust]

If it weren't for lobbying of Congress by Disney to prevent Steamboat Mickey from going into public domain, a lot more stuff from the 30s and 40s would be PD by now...

 

I don't understand why Nintendo can't simply emulate the Super FX chip. I'm sure they still have internal docs on how to get it done. PC Emulators have been doing it for decades now.

[boog]

There are offline modes buy they aren't great. The heart of it is online only.

 

The Splatoon amiibos add more missions for offline/single player. Some of the best offline gameplay is locked behind an extra purchase of the amiibo pack.

[Gentlegamer]

 

If only copyrights expired as quickly... Imagine all the movies, books, games, software, art, etc. that would be in the public domain today. A situation like that would make it almost look like the people own the culture they actually live in which is what the copyright clause was originally about:

 

 

It doesn't say,"To promote the profits of corporations for as long as possible." but progress in science and useful arts. The old school language usually confuses people to get science and useful arts backwards by thinking that science refers to inventors and useful arts refers to authors but it is the other way around. Science back then had a meaning like all human knowledge in general including but not limited to actual science and is referring to the authors. It has a meaning like,"To promote the spread of knowledge." Useful arts isn't talking about art in the sense of literature, paintings, other copyright-able works, etc. but arts as in,"This tech is state of the art." It is talking about artisans(AKA inventors). It has a meaning like,"To promote the spread of technology and scientific discoveries." So, science is the authors/copyright part and useful arts is the inventors/patent part.

 

Anyway, it wasn't about people owning "intellectual property" as if it is creating a new kind of property right in ideas but just about giving inventors and authors monopolies for long enough to give them an extra economic incentive to create their works so that the end result would be promoting the progress of science and the useful arts for all of society. In other words,"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." means something like,"To get knowledge and technology out into the public domain because the people getting access to them is progress."

 

That is why things like,"Copying is theft!", "You stole my idea!" and such annoys me because the whole reason for these limited monopolies is to create knowledge and technology for all of us to eventually copy and share which we can't really do when "limited times" become 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. years. Limited times should be more like 10 to 20 years if that. Everything before I was born and a lot created after I was born should already be in the public domain.

 

I just broke my mouse clicking Like This very, very hard, well said.

 

"Intellectual property" doesn't exist, it is a legal fiction to promote a steady flow of innovations in the arts and sciences (well explained by you) into the public domain. This concept does not exist to provide profit centers to creators, that's just a side effect, the carrot to spur innovation to enrich the public.

 

Everything from before 1986 should be in the public domain by now.