The Nintendo Wii is quite a machine – not only did it usher in a new era of motion-based gaming and turn millions of non-gamers into dedicated players (only for them to arguably drift away towards smart devices not long afterwards), it also sold a staggering 101.63 million units globally, making it Nintendo's most successful home console of all time.
However, all good things must come to an end, and Nintendo has confirmed that it will no longer offer repairs for the Wii in Japan, citing difficulty in sourcing the parts needed. Repairs for Wii peripherals will also close as soon as stock is exhausted.
So, the end of an era. If your Wii is playing up then you might want to get it sorted sooner rather than later as we imagine Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe will follow suit soon – although, with over 100 million consoles in the wild, you shouldn't have too much trouble picking up a spare.
[source nintendo.co.jp, via japanesenintendo.com]
Comments 40
''If your Wii is playing up then you might want to get it sorted sooner rather than later''
By sending it to Japan?
my problem in finding extra backups lies more in the fact I have the older model that could play gamecube games.
@Octane Repairs in the west remain ongoing, but once Japan stops them, you can be sure they'll be coming to an end elsewhere in the world, too.
@edgedino isn't that the most sold version?
Why would you have Nintendo repair it anyway? You can just get a used one for like 30 bucks. They would charge you way more than that to fix it depending on what the problem was. I called Nintendo once about a gamecube repair and the guy on the phone said just buy a used one and save yourself the hassle.
No waiting around for your repair to get back to you and it's cheaper too!
Thanks to emulator like Dolphin, Wii will lives on - spiritually, in the body of a PC.
This stirs up my biggest issue in gaming. Maybe someone else feels the same. I've been playing video games since Atari at my friends home and I had Colecovision. My issue is we spend all this time and money on a console and the games. We have great experiences and then someone decides when it ends for us, (like the VCR/DVD scenario). My Colecovision is long gone but to be able to play on the original (not some AT Games Retro junk box) should still be an option. Or to be able to maybe play any of those titles and I mean any title, on my Switch should be an option even though it won't be as good as the original. Same with other systems as well. Why should I have to say, "Remember HERO or Bump n Jump on Colecovision? Or Golvellius on the Sega Master System?" Soon to be saying "Remember Excite Truck on the Wii?" We should always be able to play it without jumping through hoops..find a way around rediculous licensing. In short, not to keep going because I could, that is my biggest problem in gaming.
@NoTinderLife I always found PC emulation to be so unoriginal.
@NoTinderLife
I play Wii games with genuine Wii machine, without modding, without Homebrew, without pirated game copies. All Original 100%
I had some bad experiences with shipping consoles for repair. My original Wii got sent in three times in a year! Once for artifacting, (basically an overheated Cpu) again for that issue of no longer being able to read dual layered discs and lastly a fan that worked fine before i sent it in but didn't after it returned to me.
Also i once shipped a PS4 for repair and made sure it was double packed with bubble wrap and those styro peanut things and when i got it back there was still a quarter sized chunk knocked out of the frame from careless handling and yes it was marked fragile.
So no for me shipping is a last resort.
@Anti-Matter
I'm sure Nintendo is very appreciative of a kind and caring soul such as yourself that deprives themselves of a superior gaming experience to stop the evil piracy of irrelevant hardware and its associated software.
Such stalwart bravery! Bravo!
Meanwhile I'll keep playing my Wii games (and the $1300 in eshop/VC games that were downloaded and lost when my machine died) with superior resolutions, textures, controls, and framerates.
@TurboTEF Nailed it!
Funny, I got my Wii out from a box in the basement... yesterday !
It was the first time I turned it on since... 2012 !
It was like seeing an old friend again.
I wanted to try it on my new 20" PVM with the official Nintendo RGB Cable I bought this week-end. And the result is... gorgeous.
I always had the memory of a machine with bad graphics, atrocious aliasing everywhere, fuzzy edges, but it was because I used it on flat screens, not CRT, with the poor composite cable that was sold with it.
Even later in 2008 when I bought a Plasma and YUV cables, it was not THAT beautiful.
Everyone should rediscover Wii on CRT with RGB : it's gorgeous.
Cherry on the cake : Virtual Console plays 100% like original hardware, which is amazing and impossible on hdmi consoles (even on Wii U)
Justification for piracy as unlawful as it may be can be summed up by one game. Mother 3. Now if and when Nintendo ever decides to make this legal to purchase in the united states i will happily remove it from whatever emulators i may have. Until then, Suck it Nintendo! You don't wanna play ball? Drastic situations call for drastic measures. That's all i gotta say about that.
@Divinebovine
Watch, I'll get labeled a pirate or something when I'm ready to buy these games again for Switch if they they remaster them properly in HD (and not the lazy Nintendo way of just tossing an overpriced SD rom in the shop with barely any improvements, i.e. various N64 ports on WiiU).
@smashboy2000
That's how I played my Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox Gamecube, and Wii
Absolutely gorgeous looking on my 24" flat screen crt I got back in 2001
I'm good, I have 3 wiis and a Wii U, 2 of them play gamecube games too😊
@TurboTEF Yeah, I've played a little with my PS2 on it and a RGB cable : Gradius V is absolutely stunning.
SF Zero Fighter's Generation too.
I've tried the Megadrive and the Saturn and it's gorgeous.
I've yet to try my Dreamcast.
I love my OLED, its HDR especially, but man CRT are something different... and awesome too. And it's so good to play with no lag (I'm very sensible. The 21ms lag on my OLED is a nightmare for me)
@TurboTEF wow yeah nailed it, you really showed that guy with your sarcasm and your flexes cool guy, keep up the good work cool guy
Odds are they are running out of spare parts that are no longer in production. Thus it's no longer cost effective for them. But the Wii sold like absolute bonkers, so if you really need parts, they're out there. You'll just have to fix it yourself, or find someone who can - and people who know how are out there too.
Thank god for emulation.
@commentlife
Eh, I only commented because it was cringe and replied in kind.
2 wiis and a Wii u.
1 Wii is only used for burning gamecube and Wii games to hard drive.
The end of an era....Seems like I gotta nick the old Wii off of my parents and check out its status. I don't think the poor thing has been used for at least a year. I found out recently it's also one of the GCN-capable models too.
Oh crap... recently I tried to finally finish Xenoblade, but I couldn't get my American Wii living in Japan to read the disc. I tracked down an official cleaning disc thing, and somehow that made it worse, so that now it won't read ANY discs. I look forward to Nintendo of Japan telling me that they can't fix my Nintendo of Americraine Wii. Ugh.
Well it's being 13 years since it's launch so now it's time to put that console to rest. I'm surprise Nintendo even make it last as long as it could.
meaning End of LifeSpan what else would it be.
Also keeping in mind that every Wii U basically contains a Wii in it. Really the only reason Wii Us came with that sensor bar in the box.
Wiimotes were still sold well into the Wii U era, too. Perhaps the main thing that will run out of supply is the Nunchuck, so you may have trouble playing Mario Galaxy on a Wii U without one of those.
With 100M sold, finding something to play the discs will always be possible.
The problem is all the DL-only software.
I had to ship mine once, years ago, for repair. Time to make sure it is still working.
@PiXeLSteF no idea but because its older its also in the most hands of people who won't get rid of let alone most who didn't keep it safe all the way.
Just fix it yourself.
Nintendo isn't being very considerate toward their customers who intend to play Just Dance 2021 (and beyond) on their last-legs Wii.
Traded in my Wii when I got my Wii U. Kept all the games and controllers though. Love backwards compatibility. I don't have space to keep two consoles that do the same thing on the off-chance that one breaks so I've got a spare.
@TurboTEF They don't get that not everyone wants to pay stupid prices and track down some of the cool, but rare games on it too
My old Wii is still working! 11+ years!
@Divinebovine They don't get that not everyone wants to pay stupid prices and track down some of the cool, but rare games on it too
Actually they do. You can't survive on older hardware that is no longer selling in Retailer. If they didn't make a the Switch they would die a thousands code cuts. So be careful what you wish for here. There will be online people doing repair for a long time til the hardware parts can no longer be found. Nintendo can't keep doing this when they aren't selling new Wii or WiiU hardware.
@Zeldafan79 Drastic times calls for drastic measures describes stealing bread to feed your family. The situation you described is of a petulant child who wants what he can't get so he takes it anyway. You may have justified it to yourself, but you're no different than the guy who shoplifts to most people.
@TurboTEF I appreciate that unlike most people attempting to justify theft, you at least own it.
@teamdave2002
Considering the GBA and it's games are no longer in production and whatever money they were going to earn from sales of these games has already been done and over with i don't feel too bad about it.
I would be more hesitant to pirate if the games were more widely available to legally purchase. If they want my money then get it on store shelves!
@Zeldafan79 I understand your argument. I just can't get behind it. Theft is theft, no matter the context. Now, as mentioned above, there could be mitigating circumstances behind the theft, but wanting to play a video game that you otherwise couldn't is not one of those.
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