Nintendo Ending Some Wii/DS Online Functionality

We’ve been seeing the stories all over the gaming sites… It’s true, Nintendo is truly ending online services for a good bit of games. However, like a good number of stories, the headlines and quick reads aren’t enough.Various stories I’ve read have made it sound like anything at all on the Wii or DS that uses the internet would go away, including the Wii Shop Channel (for example). This is not true.

Don’t think I’m advocating that I think it’s ok for Nintendo to shut down their proprietary servers effectively removing functionality that consumers paid for. I’m not. I support the idea floating around that in these situations, the server software should be open sourced for remaining customers to be able to use.

Unfortunately, it does not appear to be a small list.

For example, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time and Ring of Fates, along with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales and Chocobo’s Dungeon, and Final Fantasy III all make the cut.

So, consider this your word of warning. Don’t count on keeping the features you pay for forever on your own hardware, and if you own any Wii or DS games that you do use online functionality with, take advantage of it before May 20, 2014.