Since its launch back in January 2009, Japan's Minna No Theater (Everyone's Wii Theater) service allowed users to stream rented video content on their Wii consoles, and half a year later, the service got a boost when homegrown and international films were added to the selection of various television shows.
So it's unfortunate to see that the video-on-demand service will no longer be receiving improvements and additions, instead, the service will actually be terminated later this year. The Wii Theater website states that users will no longer be able to download the channel from 30th April.
Kanagawa-based Fujisoft, the company behind the VOD service has stated that the service will stop this October, apparently because of increasing competition from PCs and Internet-connected televisions, and smartphones.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 26
Well that's a shame, seemed like an interesting program.
It's April 1st in Japan. Taking everything with a dollop of salt.
Closed before it even made it to America.....tragic. It ddoesn't upset me too much though since Netflix streaming on Wii is awesome!
@Raylax: Well that wouldn't really be a great April Fools joke......Usually April fools jokes in the game industry have to do with really awesome things you never thought would happen.
Hm, idk. GOG (Good Old Games) did a fake shut-down which drummed up a ton of exposure when it turned out it was actually rebuilding their whole service and getting a ton of new partners. And the Megaman Universe cancellation (see Other Gaming on the forums) being cancelled out of nowhere on Apr 1st smells a bit funny, too.
@Raylax Supposedly Sony Online Entertainment is shut down/firing over 200 employees too now. Is April Fool's day even big in Japan?
@6: Well, I know Pokémon tends to do something for April Fool's - once claiming to have moved their headquarters to the Artic or something a couple of years ago.
@5.
WHOA? GOG didn't shut down for real? I honestly thought that no DRM thing was the death of them...
@8: Nope.
Of course, given recent events in Japan, and the subsequent impact on their economy, all of them could very well not be April Fools at all.
what about the DSi version
@11 This thing is different from Nintendo's Wii no Ma service as I understand it.
Given it's about 5 am on April 1 in Japan it's unlikely this news was announced on April 1 and therefore unlikely to be a joke.
Aw Minna No Theater, we hardly knew ye (seriously!).
Netflix FTW!
Netflix is doing fine. I use the service on the Playstation though since they have HD.
Yeah on April first I don't take anything serious. Just like Europe getting no WiiWare this week. Hahaha, funny joke Nintendo.
EDIT: Wait ... ... ... .
I wish we had something like that (BBC iPlayer isn't enough).
@ Raylax: Mega Man UNiverse was cancelled on March 31...
That's a shame for them. Luckily Netflix is still doing well (though if companies start metering internet like AT&T is trying to do, it won't last forever).
@20 Metering the internet?
as in charging by the hour? @_@
Charging per data usage. Not just on phones, on home connections too, soon. It was announced over a week ago, so that's not a joke.
Oh that just sucks!
Can you use Netflix on the 3DS?
@ 24 You will be able eventually when the service becomes available... likely starting with the May system update, but possibly further just after that.
We can now safely say that it never comes to America and Europe.
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