Starting May 20, 2014, you will no longer be able to use the online features of the Nintendo Wii or Nintendo DS. Online Play, Matchmaking, leaderboards, are just some of the features that will no longer be available on either of the specified platforms.

Nintendo confirmed yesterday that this is a “global termination” of the online services for both platforms, and that they will all be shut down on May 20th.

Various games will lose all of their online functions; popular games such as Mario Kart Wii, Pokemon Battle Royale, Animal Crossing: Wild World are among the many that will no longer have any form of internet connectivity.

Even though they are stripping the online features for games, you can still go to the Wii Shop channel and Nintendo DSI store to purchase things for your console.

The Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS will not be affected by these changes.

My Opinion

It’s sad to see these go, and even though I only ever used the Wii service once, it’s still the start of the previous generation dying, and that’s always sad. But hey, there’s no stopping it, so I won’t complain about it. I’m curious to see when Xbox Live and PlayStation Network go.