Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel Can't Be Accessed Right Now

That's it I'm sending Nintendo a very strongly worded DM on Twitter, they won't get away with this terrible slight

Good thing the Wii is incredibly easy to hack.

Man this is the end for Nintendo! They're going to die, and have to become a third party developer for PlayStation and Xbox!!11¡‽‽ 😭😭😭

Oh no what ever will I do with my time now!

Clearly they've realized the errors of their ways and are busy adding all the games again and making them free for everybody.

@HotGoomba
Oh, no.
Nintendo will going 3rd party and change their name into Dotennin.

It would be disappointing if being able to redownload games does go away since the wii virtual console had quite a few games the wiiu one didn't, and the switch's retro service outright doesn't let you buy the games so access to them is dependent on the service.

while i feel like the wiiu's virtual console did have its issues (library not carrying over from wii, N64 and NES games looking overly dark etc) it had some great features overall such as being able to remap buttons on a game-by-game basis.

I used homebrew to backup all my Wii games/updates and saves.

Doing the same thing with 3DS and Wii U this month.

85% of the stuffs I had on my Wii are physical games anyways, a majority of the VC stuffs are games I myself already own on the real systems. The only three platforms that would be missed are Wii Ware, NeoGeo, and Arcade games but since we got NeoGeo for Switch anyways, it's not that big of a loss for me on that. Some arcade games are coming via HAMSTER, the only real lost are Wii Ware games, kinda wish games like Dragon Quest Wars, LostWind 1& 2, and the Konami Rebirth games got a second chance for purchase again.

Never buy digital games from Nintendo, buy digital games on Steam and GOG, but not on Nintendo consoles.

Not buying any digital game on Switch until Nintendo proves you can trust their digital purchases, only buying DLC because I don't have a choice.

@Tasuki Because you could still download the games you bought.

Seems that the time has come, you can't download the games you bought anymore, the only saving grace is that if you downloaded them before, you can still play them, but if something happens, you can't download them again.

Oh well, good thing I hacked my Wii and got games on there through cough cough totally legal means

@Eel Oh, how I wish.

Nintendo:

Haven't been able to access it at all for years anyway as in buying games but I have been able to redownload purchased titles. I was fortunate I downloaded my games just before it closed. I still play on them quite a lot, especially Pokèmon Rumble and Pokèmon Ranch.

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

@victordamazio In some aspect you won't had any choice either, some games are exclusives digitally as well such as Dragon Quest Wars, LostWinds, Blaster Master Overdrive, Excitebike World Rally, Contra Rebirth, Pokemon Rumble, and Onslaught.

@BenjyK Just change to another region and try again. All regions of the eshop had about the same amount of games except China so you should be able to shop for anything just fine.

@victordamazio people are quick to forget how steam was intially drm and didn't allow offline play of physical games. I remember buying my shiny new copy of half life 2 and having to install steam to play my physical game. Of course its better now they allow offline play but all PC games are tied to store/launcher.

Really guys? The Wii sold almost as many units as the Switch and is still widely played today. If Nintendo did end access to games people had paid good Wii Points for without any notice it would be a jerk move no matter how old the platform is. (I'm not saying that's what's happened. We don't know.)

Though I'm more annoyed with myself that I never bought anything from WiiWare despite it hosting some great games, and now I can't.

Man Nintendos "service" is really bad, low quality, compared to any other online services.

The wii is still being played by alot of people.

Commence panic and complaints about a corporate business not caring for customers! Or at least the former since it's debatable if we ever take a break from the latter.

Who even had their Wii on let alone attempted to get on the Wii shop channel at this point to find out? Last time i checked the Wii was so 2012.

Just hack the damn thing and your problem is solved. It's extremely simple to do.

You'll be able to play your entire Wii library without using the discs and add any Nes Gameboy, Snes, Genesis or even GameCube game you want. It's a retro fans dream i tell ya! Oh and you can even still get all those Wiiware games you never bothered to buy if you know where to look. Sorry can't tell ya. Figure it out.

Hacked Wii's are the shiz nit!

Some people called Nintendo’s customer support and according to them it’s a temporary issue on Nintendo’s end and that they can’t give a time as to when it will be fixed. I have no idea how this happens considering Nintendo probably hasn’t touched the Wii or its servers since the Wii Shop Channel shut down in 2019.

I Highly recommend Buying the Nintendo Switch, if you haven't already done so. Nintendo Switch is Incredible with so Many Outstanding Exclusives, with So much more to Come!

It's sad to see it gone even though the vast majority of the Wii Shop Channel content I bought have been bought on other platforms as well (only exceptions being Gradius III and Smash 64 which aren't on newer platforms).

The worst part is it doesn't bode well for the ability to redownload 3DS and Wii U content after purchasing is removed in March 2023.

@Truegamer79
But I want to play Wii and Gamecube games just the way it is, without hacking the machine and adding illegal pirates games.
My Wii is in original state, already got some updates, only play original Wii and Gamecube games.

It’ll happen to the Wii u/3ds eshop soon. Where you lose access and can’t redownload your games.

When people question why I buy physical copies of games and not digital, this is a prime example why.

We all knew this would happen...its over guys!

@TheBigK you'll have to sign into your AIM or ICQ accounts to talk to them about it though.
good luck in the backrooms

@Mike1 the article is about the Wii. Everyone bought their Wii games physically. It was the only option. You couldn’t buy retail games digitally on the Wii.

Nintendo deserves all the hacking in the world.

@1UP_MARIO Many Wii games were released exclusively on digital stores.

Not only the store was half-closed, not allowing us to purchase those games, and many of these games never had ports to other platforms, meaning that if you never bought them, you can only play them with piracy, but it's time to completely close the store, not allowing you to redownload your purchases.

@NintendoEternity What does that have to do with the situation?

@victordamazio I think it's just an error. They wouldn't take it offline without telling us beforehand.

Look at this page: https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27560/~/wii-shop-channel-discontinuation

In response to the question "When will all Wii Shop Channel services be discontinued?" they reply "In the future we will close all services related to the Wii Shop Channel ... we will announce specific details as that time approaches."

So this is probably unintentional.

Nintendo:
This effort is no longer profitable!

Haven't used my Wii for a long time it's crazy to think I used to use it a lot for retro games from the Virtual Console now the Wii is a retro console itself.

@1UP_MARIO I know it's about the Wii. My point is I have friends that tell me I'm nuts for still buying physical games and should only buy digital. This is a prime example why. If game companies shutdown servers, you can't download a game again. Secondly, if they do shutdown the store, there were some digital games that were only released digitally such as Contra Rebirth that will be gone forever.

@Mike1 physical games are cheaper to buy

@Truegamer79 I use my Wii for my gamecube.

Have it hooked up in case I feel like playing Paper mario TYD or streets 2

If this isn’t sus I don’t know what is. I really can’t think of a reason why people would try and break the Wiishop because you can’t really get out of it. I think it’s an internal issue on Nintendo’s part, or maybe this was on purpose, but not public

Nintendo just wants you to hack your Wii and add your own roms. That's the signal they send by refusing to sell their back library

@Wilforce I'm sure this public service announcement followed me home the other day.

@victordamazio I think you can infinitely copy the data to other devices but you still are dependent on having a SD card and that exact Wii in working condition. That is normally, though I did the HBC softmod to be able to backup my disc games. Not sure if it yet allows saving my firmware with permanent mods.

If I were to guess it's the weekend and they're moving some stuff around and it'll be back up.

If you have a Wii just hack the thing and add all the games from the eshop you could ever want plus many many more

I'd love it if it suddenly came back online and every WiiWare/eshop exclusive was available for everyone to download for free.

It's truly wild that I can freely re-download and play X360 games I bought nearly 15 years ago on my Series X, with improved graphics and load times, and yet Nintendo is still pulling this anti-consumer b.s.

@SmashFan347 absolutely nothing. Just telling people how incredible the Nintendo Switch is!