Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from Future Wii

August 17, 2011

Nintendo of Europe is giving the Wii a facelift and will make some key changes to the system as it prepares for a holiday bundle late this year. This most notable change for Europeans will be that the system will no longer offer backwards compatibility for GameCube games. Chances are that those who would care about that already own a Wii and would therefore be unaffected by those changes. Since the set won't play GameCube games, NOE will also remove ports needed for GameCube controllers and memory cards.

The new bundle set for a Christmas 2011 roll-out in the UK will contain the new Wii, a controller, Wii Part, and Wii Sports. Nintendo UK also confirmed with Gamasutra that the current Wii model on stores shelves in Europe will be phased out.

"In Europe we will focus on the new Wii Bundle/s going forward," Nintendo UK said.

Nintendo will reportedly introduce a number of other Wii hardware and software bundles later this year. Nintendo of America tells Gamasutra that it has no plans on releasing a new bundle in North America.

Perhaps backwards compatibility is more important to U.S. consumers...

Source: Gamasutra.

Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for the link.

Posted in Europe Nintendo

Comments

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by kgagne on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 15:20.

The bundle comes with "Wii Part"? What's that?

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 19:07.

It's a typo. It's supposed to be "Wii Party."

Andrew Eisen

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Vake Xeacons on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 09:34.

Okay. No more GC. But what's with this "facelift?" What GOOD things did they do to this system? Cause I saw the bundle, and the Wii looks exactly like it did before.

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Grif on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 21:41.

Removing the memory card slots I can understand, but the controller ports? What about Wii games that are compatible with Gamecube controllers? I know games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart have followings that refuse to play using the Wii Remote/Nunchuk scheme. Also, Almost every single VC game is compatible with the Gamecube controller, as well.

Atlanta Video Games Examiner for examiner.com

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 22:00.

That is why Nintendo has the Classic Controller attachment. Every game with GC controller compatibility has classic controller support too.

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Kal on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 20:10.

...Why? I mean, it doesn't matter all that much, considering that, as you said, most everyone who cares probably already has a Wii by now, but still, why?

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 20:16.

Probably because removing those components makes it cheaper to manufacture.

Andrew Eisen

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by SimonBob on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 16:04.

Oh no, a five-year-old system won't be able to play ten-year-old games? Now what will those poor Europeans do? They'll just have to content themselves with titles like Xenoblade and The Last Story, which are coming out over there but not in North America for some reason.

---
Fangamer

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Vake Xeacons on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 09:35.

Yeah, I have to agree. That just means they have to put GC on the Wii U's VC.

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 15:29.

I know BWC is important to me, because not every game I want to play is going to wind up on the virtual console. And in the case of the VC I hope to see games I never got to play the first time.

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by Austin from Oregon on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 15:01.

It's not that important. With nintendo reselling us our old games over and over again anyway...

besides, most people can keep their old system if they want to play old games.

-Austin from Oregon

Feel free to check out my blog.

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by HarmlessBunny on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 17:32.

Good point. However, remember how people were pissed off that the newer PS3's no longer were backward compatible with PS2 games? Lots of little upsets tend to hurt sales a little bit, not drastically. Thankfully an old GC you can find for $20 - $30 all over the place. Same with PS2's.

Still though people will use this to vent outrage and threaten non-existent boycotts.

==============

James Fletcher, member of ECA Canada

Re: Nintendo Europe Removing GameCube Compatibility from ...

Submitted by MechaCrash on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 23:15.

Part of the reason that people were unhappy with it is because Sony made a huge deal about their backwards compatibility, and the PS2 was, to put it lightly, rather ubiquitous. You were more likely to find someone with a large PS2 library than GameCube.

There is also, I feel, a matter of timing. When Sony went back on backwards compatibility, the PS2 was still very much alive and kicking, with new titles being released for it. But I think it's safe to say that the GameCube is well and truly dead, and has been for some time.

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