Author Topic: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services  (Read 2920 times)

Offline idolminds

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Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« on: Wednesday, February 26, 2014, 11:19:27 PM »
Sad

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Examples of Discontinued Functionality:

    Online play and matchmaking
    Leaderboards and tournament data
    Sharing of user generated content (ghost data, user created levels)
    User exchange of in-game items or characters (Global Trade Station)
    Free add-on content or downloads (new levels, in-game items, Mystery Gifts)

The Wii and DS shops will remain up and apps like Netflix and Youtube will still be usable.

Nintendo, now it is time to give us Clubhouse Games 2. You cant leave me hanging....

Offline K-man

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #1 on: Thursday, February 27, 2014, 08:44:46 AM »
Not totally unexpected, but shitty nonetheless.  This forces people into upgrading, which will render games like Mario Kart Wii useless for some.  I guess Smash Bros. Brawl, too.  bah, and I don't even want to think about the functionality my DS backlog will lose.

The one advantage Kart Wii will still hold is the fact you can use gamecube controllers. 

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #2 on: Thursday, February 27, 2014, 11:27:39 AM »
It does something entirely different for me.  It convinces me that anything requiring online access from Nintendo is a bad bet.  The Wii just became their former console, and it's already shutting down nearly everything?  What does that say about the current and future systems?  Compare this to XBL and the Xbox 360.

Offline K-man

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #3 on: Thursday, February 27, 2014, 12:42:35 PM »
Yeah.  You basically will have to buy under the understanding that it contains a planned obsolescence.

Offline idolminds

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #4 on: Thursday, February 27, 2014, 01:01:17 PM »
Online servers are fragile on any platform. If they do not release server software for people to run themselves or the games don't have any kind of direct IP connect option then they will eventually disappear. Unfortunately even on PC it seems like this is a growing trend.

Offline idolminds

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Offline K-man

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #6 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 06:43:05 AM »
I feel exactly what he's feeling.  In fact when the news was announced my first thoughts were about DQ IX.  Things like this do undermine a game's legacy.  Part of being a "great" game is being able to put it back into rotation 10 years later and have just as much fun with it.  These games will be compromised.  But I suppose that is the reality of online functionality.

I spent a ton of money on Xbox Live and PSN over the years.  I think there was some reasonable expectation what you would be able to transfer all that content to the new consoles. When that was proven false I immediately vowed to become much more selective in my future purchases.  I am also looking to move some games over from console to PC like Skyrim, Dishonored, etc.  Say what you want about Steam, but it seems it is our best shot for futureproofing these titles. 


Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #7 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 07:32:34 AM »
How is making something dependent on third-party software that has to be running (and the company running it) good for futureproofing? Not trying to make that a snarky question, I just don't see the logic. I guess I just sort of wonder what Steam is going to be like in 15 years, if it's still around, and how that's going to work with changes in OS and such. Like are we going to have to contend with not only compatibility as far as OS is concerned, but also Steamworks.

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Offline K-man

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #8 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 08:06:44 AM »
I'm basing that statement on the reality of the situation at hand.  Obviously the best option would be installing software with no third-party support, but that has quickly become the exception rather than the rule.  The reality is that I can take my Steam games with me to my next PC.  I cannot do the same for their console counterparts.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #9 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 08:22:01 AM »
I guess I was looking at it more from the perspective of how easy will it be to get games running successfully into the future. But you're right, that's certainly a huge advantage compared to the crap we've been forced to swallow with consoles. I've definitely changed my mind on buying titles like Jet Grind Radio that I might want to play into the future on a console that won't allow me to. I've got more time with mine given that I'm not planning to buy a PS4 any time soon and I never really bought anything on 360, but otherwise, I'd be a little pissed.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #10 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 11:55:37 AM »
The consoles aren't the enemy.  Releasing incomplete games that require online access to something out of your control to make whole--that is the enemy.  Even online-DRM schemes can be circumvented in the future by enterprising archivists.  But entirely missing code and data?  Hardly. 

Having been a gamer for so long (as long as it has been humanly possible, in fact), I have a lot of perspective on this.  Up until recently, I could count on going back and replaying absolutely everything that I had in the past.  The games had always been complete, self-contained works.  Put together the right hardware and software, and off I go down memory lane, as far back as blips and bloops, if I want.  Things like the PC version of Diablo 3 violate that historic integrity, and I will in no way support them.  Consoles have at least maintained the independence of game software from servers, for solo play anyway.  Once you have it, by whatever means (disc or download), it's yours to keep and replay as long as you can hang on to the files and the systems.  Depending in any way on the benevolence of some random online presence I've always seen as pure anathema to this longstanding environment.  Now that some of my fears are becoming reality, I guess I'll see more kindred spirits join in my sad realizations, like this article's author.

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Of course, you could argue that consumers have no right to do that, that buying software is merely purchasing a temporary license that leaves you at the tender mercies of a publisher's whims, that you have no personal rights once they yank support for the products you've paid for. But that's exactly the sort of miserable, consumer-unfriendly idiocy that drives many people to piracy in the first place.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Nintendo shutting down Wii and DS online services
« Reply #11 on: Sunday, March 09, 2014, 07:09:30 PM »
How is making something dependent on third-party software that has to be running (and the company running it) good for futureproofing? Not trying to make that a snarky question, I just don't see the logic. I guess I just sort of wonder what Steam is going to be like in 15 years, if it's still around, and how that's going to work with changes in OS and such. Like are we going to have to contend with not only compatibility as far as OS is concerned, but also Steamworks.

As always - back-up your game-files (game itself, patches, extras, etc) of anything you buy digitally somewhere. Just in case...dev's patch DRM out, someone unofficially cracks DRM, someone makes the game compatible w/ newer OS's, or whatever the case might be.

Check the Steam Games that are DRM-FREE games list on GOG (i.e. they don't come w/ CEG and don't have any other DRM).

If necessary, make sure you get DRM-FREE versions of games you love, if available somewhere - if you want to play them years down the road. All of GOG titles don't have DRM; and Gamersgate sometimes sells some games w/out any DRM.