It is the end of the road for Netflix on Wii consoles. The media streaming company has announced to this effect, with January 31, 2019 set as the deadline for the same to be implemented.
Netflix emailed current Wii users informing them of the development and suggested upgrading to a supported device to continue enjoying the complete Netflix experience with all the features that it comes with. All of this shouldn’t be too surprising either given that Wii is already more than a decade old now, or 12 years to be precise. That makes it quite reasonable for Netflix to suspend their operation on the console given that many of its latest features might not be available on Wii.
In fact, the Wii Shop channel too is headed for closure a day earlier, that is Jan 30, 2019. Nintendo too had been shutting down channels for some time already, which means there is precious little that can be done with the console in the days to come. Of course, users can still play games with it though those will have to be done offline and also with titles that are currently available. And that such titles too are a dying breed is all too evident as well.
Among the other limitations that are set to come into force include the inability to transfer data from Wii to Wii U. The same would have otherwise been possible using the System Transfer Tool.
Similarly, users won’t be able to download again any of the WiiWare and Virtual Console titles that they might have bought earlier.
Amazon Prime and Hulu were the other two streaming options that users of the Wii console could have opted for though unfortunately, with the Wii Shop Channel too set for its official closure soon, those two streaming options too are as good as a naught. With other channels getting closed down, Hulu too was missing for some time already.
Meanwhile, there, of course, is the Nintendo Switch that users can upgrade to – if they haven’t already, that is – and understandably has better app support than its predecessor. That includes Hulu and YouTube though unfortunately, Netflix is missing on the Nintendo Switch as well. Meanwhile, the is also a new Nintendo Switch due for launch in 2019.
