Nintendo Wii Shop To Close Virtual Doors On January 30, 2019

Nintendo hit a homerun with the Wii in the previous decade, and had its first really popular console of the modern era. The replacement for the Wii, the Wii U was a flop with sales being much lower than its predecessor. However, Nintendo is back on top again with sales booming for the Switch console that launched earlier this year.

One of the offerings that launched along with the original Wii was the Wii Shop, which is an online market for buying and downloading games, apps, and other content. Wii Shop originally launched in November of 2006 and Nintendo has announced that it will close on January 30, 2019. The math works out to 13 years in operation, which is actually quite a long run.

The closing of the Wii Shop might worry some since it will be the first online market for its console generation to close its doors. The Xbox 360 and PS3 still operate online marketplaces. Some might fear with Nintendo closing its marketplace doors, Sony and Microsoft might follow suit.

With the announcement made setting the closing date, it's time for folks who still use the Wii Shop to gear up for the closing. Gamers can receive Wii points until March 26, 2018 and can make purchases all the way through January 30, 2019 when the store closes. Nintendo writes that after the January 30, 2019 date it "will be closing all services related to the Wii Shop Channel, including re-downloading purchased WiiWare, Virtual Console titles, and Wii Channel, as well as Wii System Transfer Tool, which transfers data from Wii to the Wii U system."

With sales of the Wii U being bad from the get go, it's hard to imagine the loss of that transfer agent between the Wii and Wii U being a big issue for many people. The Switch is well on its way to matching the success of the Wii, which sold over 101 million units globally according to estimates. The Switch was the top selling game console in the U.S. beating out the PS4 back in August.