GDC 09: Wii Shop Down In Prep For Nintendo's GDC Keynote [UPDATE]
With only an hour remaining before Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gives his GDC 2009 keynote address, it seems like Nintendo might have something up their sleeves. It seems that the Wii shop channel is down and "undergoing maintenance" at the moment. Given the timing, it's not unreasonable to guess that Iwata plans to make some announcement in his keynote address with the Wii shop channel coming back online right after the speech.
What kind of announcement could it be? Most likely it will at least consist of the currency name change from Wii points to Nintendo points in preparation for the launch of the DSi shop. Of course, I also have my own wish list of new features that I would like the updated Wii shop to include, like a download queue and ability to download directly to an SD card. Who knows, Nintendo hasn't launched a new Wii channel in a long time, so maybe there'll be something new there too, although that wouldn't warrant shutting down the entire shop channel. Who knows? Well, I guess we will relatively soon since the keynote address is scheduled for 9:00 A.M. Pacific Time.
[UPDATE] In the keynote address Satoru Iwata has just announced Wii System Menu 4 which allows you to download directly to an SD card, as well as (finally) the ability to play Virtual Console and WiiWare games straight off of an SD card. And best of all, the system update is available right now!
As for the Wii Shop update, as of today Nintendo has added arcade games to the Virtual Console. The first four games are Gaplus, Mappy, Star Force, and Tower of Druaga. The latter 3 games are available for 500 Wii points, while Gaplus (sometimes referred to as Galaga 3) costs 600 Wii points. Nintendo promises that more arcade games are on the way, which will presumably be a part of the regular Monday updates.
NaviFairy
Posted to GDC, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 25 March 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: GDC 2009, keynote, Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, under maintenance, wii, wii shop
Play from SD card support!!!! Yeaaa!!
Best news evah!!! I can't wait to get home and check it out!