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| The message you get now when trying to access the Nintendo Channel. |
Coffee Beans
If you have read stories around here over the last few years, chances are you have probably seen my data report stories on Wii games. I would gather information from the Wii's Nintendo Channel, and then create images with the reported play-time on games that showed things like average times played and total hours played. You can even read a data report I did on the Everybody Votes Channel, HERE.
Well, as of now, the Nintendo Channel (seen above), Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, and Check Mii Out Channel have been taken offline on the Wii, to never return again. Perhaps Nintendo will release a News and Weather app on the Wii U, but I doubt they will ever release a Nintendo Channel app that shows play-times of Wii U and Wii games, because that data could provide hints of sales numbers for games as well.
You can see the how the other Wii Channels now appear if you attempt to visit them, in the image below.
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| Click to enlarge |
Caffeinated Thoughts
I have used the Nintendo Channel almost weekly, for the last 3+ years. Even weeks and months when I didn't post data reports, I would record the data for my records (data nerd). Seeing the Nintendo Channel services discontinued is the biggest disappointment for me out of all the Wii Channels discontinued. There were some newer Wii games I was hoping to get to report on, like Pandora's Tower, but due to the Nintendo Channel service being stopped that data will now most likely never be known.
While we used the Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, Check Mii Out Channel, and News Channel, none of them were used anywhere near as much as the Nintendo Channel in our house, and some of them hadn't been used regularly in years.
The Nintendo Channel was by far my favorite Wii Channel and not just because of the data, but also because Nintendo started things like Nintendo Week on it and it provided a good way to watch trailers of new games coming out as well.
Questions
Did any of you use a Wii Channel (or two) regularly, and perhaps will be disappointed now that these Wii Channel services have been discontinued?
Did all of you know that the Wii Channels in the U.S./Western market were being taken offline? I didn't see any sites really report on them being discontinued in the U.S., but I did see it mentioned for Europe and Japan.