Nintendo closing TVii service
July 27, 2015
Nintendo is shutting down its video service for the Wii U console less than three years after it launched.
The gaming giant confirmed that TVii will be ending on August 11th, via a message on a company support page. “Every service has a life cycle, and it is time to focus our resources on other projects,” Nintendo said, adding that third-party video-on-demand apps will still work on the Wii U console.
TVii was launched in the US in December 2012 as a single interface for cable, satellite TV and Web video, with the Wii U Game Pad as a universal remote. Users could receive content recommendations and search for shows by title or genre. But TVii was not complete when it launched, and lacked common and popular apps such as Netflix and TiVo.
The closure comes about six months after Nintendo revealed it would not be offering TVii in Europe.