Nintendo TVii Service Ends In North America On 11th August

Shame...I'm gonna miss it. I actually liked TVii. The only real problem I had with it was how long it took to update through an episode I was watching. A group chat feature during an episode would've been good too - especially during The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul.

I never even knew how to use TVii. I'm fine with it being gone. Sorry for those who liked it.

Kind of disappointed by this. Thought that the idea of it was kind of interesting, but I never got much use from it myself.

Will the icon poof from the home screen? I always found it to be an annoying useless button. No offense to the users that liked this service, of course.

I don't even know what exactly it was supposed to do. Without cable or satellite it was useless to me, it seemed like it was supposed to have some level of support for Netflix but I wasn't able to figure out what you could do with it. I'll be glad to be rid of the useless icon on my home screen.

Damn, it finally stated to work (ie the guide) after a year just last night, and there's only two weeks left? 😭

i dont even know what this poo is,im from europe and i always had this strange icon on my gamepad but every time i touched it it said something like this service is not availible in your country or whatever so i never realy understood what it was supossed to be...

What was that again, a free downloadable TV gameshow app?
lol

@Megumi semi-crappy interactive tv guide.

Please understand...

All I ever felt it was, was a clunky remote control for your cable box It will not be missed by me

Nintendo what now?

And no one ever cared. The End.

Used it once and it crashed on me. Never bothered to use it again. I'm sure some people liked it and it is not like I was waiting for the day it would die. For me it is the removal of a button I never used and never had any use for.

I never understood the point of it either. Anyone who's interested in some kind of catch-up or on-demand service already had one by the time that launched and could get an app for it on the Wii U. Getting the licensing and development sorted was just an unnecessary expense for Nintendo and given the Wii U had no other media functionality like playing films on disc, it just didn't make a lot of sense.

Too slow, didn't make sense, not very useful.

When will console manufacturers realise that all we want is a machine that plays games! Xbox have made the same mistake with the One.

Can't we just expedite this process and kill the Wii U now? Give me a Nintendo system with some actual games (3rd party included!) and I will pay $400 or whatever I have to!

So what about the TV button my the gamepad? It'd really bother me if that button is now just a useless button that does nothing.

Could never watch hockey with it, so whatever. We better get Nintendo Anime Channel soon though.

@Kaeobais Well I still use that button to turn the TV on/off and change the input from Sky to the WiiU....

@Kaeobais The button is for the TV remote. I often use it

Honestly, the only time I ever used it was during Breaking Bad, which was highly entertaining. It's a shame it didn't take off, because there were some good ideas there.

@Kaeobais I use it all the time, since it's the only universal remote that has ever worked with my TV.

Who thinks they came up with the name and then had to make the service to go with it.

Bummer.

I did not dislike this software but simply forgot about it until your article appeared.

TVii seemed incomplete to me and I just didn't use it which is probably why 3 years later it is shutting down. I have a feeling most people never even tried it.

The universal remote is awesome though. So glad they included that. Between my phone and the gamepad, I always have a remote with me.

Dumb question: Can I still use my Gamepad as a TV remote when this is gone?

@baba_944 You can still use your gamepad as a TV Remote, it just that red TV button on the system menu won't work. As for Nintendo TVii, nothing of value was remotely lost.

I tried tvii several times and it seemed too convoluted for what it was intended. I'd say some people were even confused into thinking it could play the TV show right on the game pad. That was one problem. Another is just the battery life of the game pad...the thing always needs cradled, and can't be left on a coffee table thus its not everyone's go-to remote.

Tvii was a good concept, but poor execution and communication on Nintendo's part on describing how to use it or what it was even for.

I wish they would allow us to map Netflix to the Tvii button now. If the system is off, you just hit the Tvii button and it boots to Netflix, without one or two confirmations via quick launch.

@Chaoz Thank you.

I never understood how to use it so good riddens.

can someone explain what this app did? I live in UK, so it was never active here.

Good riddance.

I use netflix

...I never even used it. In fact, I forgot it even existed.

Whatever. I never used it.

Being in the UK, I never got to use it. I'm not even sure what it did...no one seemed to be talking about it much.

"After never releasing in Europe"

"After never been [released] in Europe"

"Default language English (Australia)"

Oh my

It was a neat idea but I never got much use out of it. Was never a big fan of the interface.

It was nice for watching sports, even though the sports it had were limited (Baseball, Basketball & Football), but it just felt like they abandoned it right after they released it. It was a nice idea that was never completed.

Never used it so this makes no difference to me. Could never get the TV button to work with my tv anyways.

"A system update for the Wii U will be released next month removing the TVii functions from the GamePad."
Couldn't help but notice a lack of source for this bit.

Back when the Wii U launched I still had cable so I tried it out, but my cable service plan wasn't a choice, so I never got it to work. It will not be missed.

nintendo TVII was "@DEAD" in about a few week or month ago(i'm not sure) in europe! why do i care about this?

I forgot TVii was a thing, sucks for those who got to enjoy the app.

Good. It won't be missed

How is it already ending? I used it for football season to see how the Bills are doing. This really disappoints me.

@MikeDanger There not even related.

Thank god. Nobody even used it anyway, and it totally sucked. Good riddance, I say.

@TruenoGT Exactly. We have a Tivo and I was looking forward to the promised features using it. It could have been great. I know because Tivo finally made something called OnePass that allowed you to ask for a show and it automatically either records it from your own TV feed or shows you all the episodes to stream if they are available on a streaming service you subscribe to (Amazon prime or Netflix or others). It works great for the most part and was partly what TVii had the potential to bring together.

Completely understand why it got dropped. It was just a bunch of extra licensing fees they had to pay with very little added value for most users. Like you say if the user base had been bigger it could been improved.

Maybe this is a sign of an imminent price drop on the Wii U.

Happy it's gone. An absolutely useless feature.

TVii was doomed the day they lost API integration ability with the VOD services. In the beginning you used to be able to link all of your streaming services and browse them all in a consolidated format. It was the only reason I used it.

Well, the app was also slower than molasses. That didn't help it either.

Wow, I'm actually just shocked some ppl used it lol

Don't care. Actually setting it up and getting it to work was too complicated anyways.

@EarthboundBenjy So for those that never got a chance to use the Tvii app, it was a combination of a TV Guide, Remote and live feed for you to chat about and draw pictures during TV shows and Sporting Events. It would ask you questions during Sports feeds and give you a play by play with scores and info graphics. The remote worked similar to pushing the TV button but it had some extra features. When you first set it up you put in yoor location, cable company, whether you had netflix, hulu etc. , then it would ask you about favourite TV shows and Sports teams. It would tell you when and where your favourites could be watched. If you picked a show to watch it would automatically change your tv to the right input (HDMI or Cable) and change to the appropriate channel if necessary. The questions during Football (American) would give you scores based on the correct answer and how long it took you to answer. The person with the highest score at the end of the game got their name on a top players list. The trivia was fun, but there was often only 1 or 2 others playing with you. There really wasn't enough people using it to keep it going. Sorry for the long post.It just seemed like some people would appreciate the info.

Well Nintendo continues to drop things - Digital Deluxe Promotion, Club Nintendo, rumoured dual Gamepad support (yes they said it was coming multiple times), now TVii. Wold be nice if for a change they added stuff other than free Crunchy Roll and a Miiverse update that seems to be upsetting more than exciting people.

So while I don't care too much about TVii going away, I don't like the overall companies philosophy. Wii "Family" edition dropped Gamecube support, Wii Mini dropped internet (on a system bundled w/ Mario Kart), 2DS lost 3D and stereo sound. Wii U is losing things. I just don't think they are a very "consumer first" company. I think I'm pretty much done w/ them.

Yeah, I never used it either. It's been not much else but another icon on the menu. Well, this sucks for those that liked to use it.

@EarthboundBenjy It was a redundant service for your Wii U which took away the off TV playing gimmick by making it so only one could us the TV really... unless I missed something when I tried using it and found it stupid and a waste of space on the WIi U

But...I can still use the Gamepad as a remote for my TV, right? Does that functionality go away as well?

I could never get this to work right anyway, so no real loss to me. To those of you in Europe don't feel bad, it wasn't really that great to begin with.

What was this TVii supposed to do?
I live in Europe, so it never worked for me here.

My almost 3 year dream of DVR controls gone like that.

It was kind of nice to have an interactive tv guide on the gamepad but really, it was just kind of pointless - even more now that I barely ever watch tv.

Hmm not really a big deal to those who never used it (myself included), but this MAY show that Nintendo is shifting resources away from the Wii U and toward its newer console....THE NX!!

I only became engaged with Nintendo TVii during sporting events. And even then it wasn't that often. I thought it was neat how if you made a comment on Nintendo TVii it would post it to your twitter and hashtag it #NintendoTVii automatically.

I tried to use it twice, and honestly you could be watching a very popular show, and there would be absolutely no one on there, and it just never did click I didn't get it...

What was this?

I tuned in ONCE. Super Bowl time years back. For a chance to win a Nintendo jersey.
Had this app also doubled as a DVR, it would have done well.

I never used it. Hopefully it's deletion will stop that video-player-related glitch where it says you have unecessary data, or it tells you you already have some of the content downloaded when you try to download a player. Then again that was half solved when I switched internet providers. Only half though. It's still definitely bugged I'm just glad I learned how to fix it.

TVii, we hardly knew ye. ... Quite literally in my case, I hardly knew ye at ALL.

The App never worked over here in the UK anyway, so there is nothing to miss.

TVii was trash: the app only ever worked half the time. It was slow, laggy, and aesthetically unappealing. Appreciated the concept a lot (it was a brilliant idea) but the execution was a mess.

Why even allow it in Canada if you weren't going to include the NHL in the sports section?? Overall I felt TVii was underfunded and underdeveloped; not meant to be anything more than a tech demo, and even in future updates the app never got much better.

I'll miss it. I discovered a lot of old and news shows because of Nintendo TVii. I like that I could highlight my favorite shows on its guide so that I could c when they would randomly play. if the update eliminates the feature I wonder if I can just not update the system until I really have to. looking at you 'standby feature'

I think it was an interesting idea that just did not work well with the non-japanese demographics. It was slow, clunky and sometimes really struggled to deliver the integration it promised. Probably best that it goes away and those resources be used from something else.

@Captain_Gonru thanks! I didn't see that there was a Wii U Notification.

@Boxmonkey No, I actually believe it's Nintendo doing it wrong. Not Sony or Microsoft. They're all trying to be more like PCs, just look at the One and it's multitasking and snap feature, along with recording and screenshot capabilities.

Consoles are becoming more than just for playing games. They're becoming a box under you're TV that can let you surf the internet, play games, watch films/TV, listen to music etc. without having to change to a different device.

Nintendo will always be about games and I like that, they stick to what they're good at and they're very good at making games. It would just be nice if they added in some extra functionality to bulk up the package.

I never knew what this was supposed to do? I couldn't watch anything on it, and it just seemed like a really horrible tv scheduler.

I won't miss it. The concept was better than the execution of it and it totally missed the mark of it's full potential. One such failed use was during the NFL season and I was following a game I couldn't see/hear live. If I wanted to see football possession/time, I had to touch another option (like the quiz feature where they ask questions on what do you think will happen with the next play), then touch back to that option just to see the update. Trust me Europeans, this is just one complaint among many, but you did NOT miss out on ANYTHING. I'd love to see it come back on NX, but it needs to resolve it's identity/technical crisis that it has first.

@Captain_Gonru - "or a purchaseable app to use your 3DS as a controller for Smash Bros. (but not anything else)"

That's my favorite Nitneod decision ever, even better than the Wii Mini for $99 releasing in the US almost the same exact day as the $299/$349 Wii U. And the Wii Mini being bundle w/ MK Wii but no internet, even though they made the Wii Mini "Netflix red" and most people were using their Wii as Netflix streaming boxes.

But 99c to use your controller as a controller, that's just so...

@Captain_Gonru - "Xbox 360 had their "no hard drive" models"

I actually bought myself a 12GB PS3 for Christmas b/c it was $170 and came w/ Disney Infinity 2.0 starter set and I wanted the streaming for the bedroom, seemed like a better deal than a $100 PS TV (no Netflix on PS TV, now that's stupid.) I swapped in old the 80GB HDD form my other PS3, now w/ 500GB, and I'm good to go. No internet on Wii Mini is worse than that. Xbox360 4GB always did seem useless though. Then in 2012 Ninteod launched Wii U w/ 8GB.