Nintendo to shut down streaming video for Wii in 2019

US-based media services giant Netflix has emailed its users that Nintendo was going to "suspend Netflix" and other streaming video services on the Wii after January 31, 2019.

The Wii, also known as the Nintendo Wii is a home video game console released in November 2006.

"Netflix's notification indicated that Nintendo will suspend all streaming services for the device, and that presumably means that Amazon Prime and Hulu also won't be able to be used on the console.

"It makes a bit of sense, given the age of the device -- the Wii was sold between 2005 and 2011, before streaming video really took off with consumers, and before services like Hulu and Amazon Prime were launched," The Verge reported on Sunday.

The announcement comes in conjunction with Nintendo's announcement that it would be closing down the Wii Shop Channel -- its portal to download virtual console games on January 30, 2019.

As a seventh-generation console, Nintendo Wii competed with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

This isn't exactly shocking. The Wii is 12 years old, and Nintendo started phasing out channels in 2013, according to Engadget.

--IANS

ksc/ksk/vm