Nintendo TVii, we barely knew you. Actually. You were worthless and we barely used you, especially after that stealth downgrade in 2014.
Nintendo of America
Technology companies like to announce major layoffs and service interruptions in the windy hours at the end of a work week, and Nintendo joined that proud tradition on Friday by ignoring the weirdest service associated with its beleaguered Wii U console: Nintendo TVii.
In an announcement on both the official TVii support site and the Miiverse page, Nintendo confirmed that TVii, a TV guide-style interface intended to help users search live and streaming video listings, will not be available after August 11. would work more. lifecycle, and it’s time to focus our resources on other projects,” the support site’s FAQ read; we’re guessing that means Nintendo thinks a full three years is pushing it in terms of “lifecycle.”
That said, the free service had been fluttering down a figurative toilet for some time. Notably, TVii got a significant stealth downgrade in 2014 that removed its most interesting feature: the ability to search for a TV show through a number of sources, from a cable box to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. With that feature removed, TVii existed primarily to provide basic cable box TV listings and provide a strange, TVii-only forum for sports fans to vote and comment on live games. The service never even launched outside of North America, despite repeated promises from Nintendo of a European TVii launch.
The service got off to a rocky start after missing the November 2012 launch of the Wii U console, despite the console adding a giant “TV” button to its gamepad. That button will continue to work after TVii is removed via a console update, Nintendo said, but it will only function as a standard IR blaster for TVs’ volume and channel controls.