Although, video game archivists point out some of these games may never be available for purchase again. There are a ton of emulators out there which allow people to steal Nintendo software and since the Wii U has the same CPU as a computer it surely couldn't be this hard for them to get this feature. There aren’t enough people complaining to make a difference. We’ve seen similar shutdowns over the years - when the bulk of consumers move away from older services, companies can shut off access to purchased content to save money. Nintendo has promised to add more, but it’s clearly not a priority. The Switch only supports about 30 classic games, all of which are locked behind the subscription Switch Online service. When it’s gone, the selection of classic games is even thinner. So, there are a lot of games for older systems that you can’t purchase at all right now. While the Wii virtual console features nearly 400 titles, the Wii U has 140 fewer.
You can still access a virtual console on the newer Wii U, but there’s an unfortunate trend here. However, those titles will no longer work at some unannounced future date, and there’s no way to back them up. For the time being, you can still download the classic titles purchased in the virtual console. The company also gave everyone warning last year that it planned to kill the feature, giving gamers time to spend their points. After all, the Wii is now two generations out of date. That means some of Nintendo’s classic games are now unavailable on any modern platform, and this comes as the company intensifies its crackdown on ROM sites.Īfter more than 12 years, it’s understandable that Nintendo would want to sunset the Wii Shop Channel. You can no longer buy content from the store, and any unspent Wii Points are now useless. Nintendo will begin the next phase of shutting down the Wii virtual console today. Part of the Wii Shop Channel, the virtual console offered a way to enjoy the games of yesteryear, but that era is coming to a close.
Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006, and with it came the virtual console.