Topic: Future of WiiWare on Wii U

Okay we know that a native virtual console is coming to Wii U, meaning that they'll be selling VC titles in the eShop eventually, but how about WiiWare?

I've posted about this in a couple of threads, but I'll repeat here that having experienced the Wii channel on the Wii U and the transfer process I'm more than a little disappointed with what Nintendo has done here: yes we can play our Wii games and they're pretty much all guaranteed to work, however we have all the limitations of an actual Wii including the storage! I mean other than getting to trade in my old Wii for some credit towards an eShop card the only thing transferring my data gets me is a freed up power socket - and that's going to my Gamepad charger.

I don't care about up scaling video, but I had honestly thought that all my Wii content would be stored internally. The Wii channel doesn't even read games direct from the SD card, it's still doing the background copy to internal flash! I'm just beside myself here at how lame this is.

So I'm very much hoping this Is a cheap and cheerful stopgap and that Nintendo will do something a little more clever in the future for WiiWare, which will hopefully help the devs who might not have gotten any cash realise something for their efforts thanks to this better shop and more connected audience. I think titles who still have interested rightholders attached should be migrated into the eShop in a fashion similar to the way (I believe) Virtual Console titles work: include a Wii emulator with the appropriate iso which allows the game to be run from the Wii U menu without having to launch the Wii channel and reserve the Wii channel for disc-based software alone.

I'd happily re-purchase titles if this was done if only for the quicker launch capability and the ability to store all my WiiWare games on the internal flash. As it stands I've just picked a subset of games I'm most likely to replay and have those in the Wii channel and I'm not planning on future purchases from the old Wii Shop.

** totally of topic,i have seen you post alot and thinking this every time .. lol **

but ...has anyone told you that you look like glenn benton of the death metal band deicide??

I'm probably too old to know who they are, but thanks?

Certain WiiWare titles may be brought over to the Wii U eshop, but I doubt they will all get brought over. If any, really.

Also, the band he is talking about is from the 80's. I've never heard of them, either.

If it helps you're almost certainly younger than Glenn Benton is.

Guess I'm just not aware enough of that scene.

I can only hope the cream of the crop will come back for another bite: Art Style and Bonsai Barber immediately come to mind.

I think the whole idea of Wii Mode is just Nintendo's way of guaranteeing absolute backwards compatibility from launch, which is more than fair. That's why Wii Mode almost exactly replicates the Wii Menu and I'm assuming the Wii OS as well, not to mention the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo eShop is obviously an excellent cross-platform store, and it deserves better than to just have Wii Shop Channel games tacked onto it, much in the same way the Wii U Menu deserves better than just to have uncomfortable, out-of-place Wii bits tacked on. Yeah, Wii Mode isn't ideal, but it's best for now. Nintendo will have the time now that Wii U's out to get the best out of it.

I can see WiiWare making the jump to Nintendo eShop, but Nintendo needs to make sure it's implemented in the same way as Wii U Download Software is, they need to give developers the option to update their prices, and - for the consumers who aren't in the know - they need a freaking great big sign on WiiWare pages saying "you must have a Wii Remote and a sensor bar and this other stuff you need to play the game because it didn't come with your Wii U and if you buy it without that stuff you're buying a game that you can't play." Because you just know some people will buy WiiWare without checking and then scream "omg why can't I play this with my GamePad or my Pro Controller, Nintendo, you stink."

80s ! they made there first demo in 1988 but released there first album in 1990, there still touring and making albums, there last one was in 2011.and have a new one in the works !

** again, absloute pointless babble here.. lol**

Sorry. I should've said they were established in the 80's. I was merely trying to point out how long they had been around, since he was acting like they were a new band or something.

Wiiware is pretty much dead. I don't see it going very far on Wii U, especially with the two shops being separate.

I don't think even Nintendo knows the answer to this question.

I wouldn't hold my breath for WiiWare in the eShop or much of any of the other ideas surrounding improvements to WiiMode. Fact is there is literally a 512MB bit of flash in the Wii U dedicated to Wii storage. They've locked it all in pretty tightly. This is why when you go into WiiMode you are forced to use SD cards for extra game storage and can't use any of the extra Wii U hardware.

It could go the other way though. They should be able to, and the moving of Miis is proof they can, move stuffs from Wii Mode to the Wii U. So them letting you download Wii U VC titles if you own the Wii VC version is probable. Them reading your save files and doing stuff with that might be possible. Anything to do with WiiWare I wouldn't count on. Infact I'd go as far as saying that they'll eventually release a Wii U which completely lacks Wii support.

Oh yeah, I'd go so far as to say we might see a Wii U without an internal optical drive at some point - depending on how popular retail downloads end up being.

They shouldn't just abandon WiiWare regardless of how popular it was on the Wii - that's a massive library of online software to put into the shop. The dross should be left aside, but the best of it is definitely worthy of a place in the eShop. At a minimum I'd expect them to be contacting devs to see about retuning their past offerings or just doing a straight port. The games I liked the most weren't using polygons and would upscale to HD just fine.