Nintendo has announced that they are sunsetting some online features of the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS handheld system that will adversely affect some of the more popular titles.
Beginning May 20th Nintendo will disable online play, matchmaking and leaderboads on several games including; Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros., Brawl Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
It’s important to note that they aren’t taking connectivity away totally. Both systems will be able to connect to Nintendo’s online store to download content and stream services like Netflix and Youtube, but networked games will cease on both systems.
The Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS will not be affected by this switch but Nintendo Wii or DS games played on the newer generation of hardware will not have access to the networked features. Nintendo plans to switch off all of these services by May 20th.
Nintendo started sunsetting the Nintendo Wii back in October when they announced that production had stopped in Europe and Japan. They’ve made no official announcement as to when they plan to entirely cut support to the Nintendo Wii system. The follow up to the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo Wii U, has not gained the momentum Nintendo had originally hoped for, and has faired even less well since the release of the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One.
