Official announcement about the end of the Wii Shop Channel from Nintendo of Europe
Just in case you had any doubts that the Wii Shop Channel’s closure would be limited to Japan, Nintendo of Europe has posted a notice on its website that essentially confirms that the news applies to all regions.
You’ll no longer be able to add points after March 26. Nintendo will then close off the ability to purchase content and download channels after January 31, 2019. It all ends with the Wii Shop Channel’s full closure and disabling of redownload functions sometime in 2019.
Here’s the full announcement:
In 2019, we will close the Wii Shop Channel used on Wii and Wii U (the Wii Shop Channel is accessible on the Wii U via the Wii backwards compatibility feature), which has been available since December 2006. We would like to thank our loyal customers for supporting the Wii Shop Channel, and would like them to continue to enjoy software downloaded from the shop.
We plan to end all services related to Wii Shop Channel, including the purchase of WiiWare and Virtual Console software, downloads of Wii Channels, and use of the Wii U Transfer Tool, which transfers data from Wii to Wii U.
End date of each service
Adding points to the Wii Shop Channel: Monday 26th March 2018 at 20:00 UK time
Purchase of WiiWare, Virtual Console software, Wii Channels (including free software)*: Thursday, 31st January 2019 at 06:00 UK time
Full closure of the Wii Shop Channel and disabling of redownload functions in 2019 (more details to be announced at a later date)
