It’s a well-established fact that Nintendo were in last place over the last two generations in terms of online support. The Wii Shop Channel was a promising presence before and during the launch of the Wii, offering the Virtual Console outlet for gamers to rekindle their love for classic video games of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Unfortunately things petered off quite quickly and many consumers looked enviously at those reveling in their PSN and XBLA games, feeling disappointed by the dismal efforts of WiiWare.
Those feeling burned by the last six years shouldn’t lose hope for the Wii U though. According to Jonathon Holmes of Destructoid, some of the engineers who helped create and strengthen Xbox LIVE are also working to develop Nintendo’s new eShop.
Lately Nintendo has been making strides in their online efforts with the eShop across both the 3DS and the currently unreleased Wii U. The 3DS now offers simultaneous retail/online releases with its first-party games, having started with New Super Mario Bros. 2. The Wii U will see similar support from both Nintendo and 3rd parties. In fact some heavy-hitting downloadable titles will see new life on the eShop, such as the critically acclaimed Trine 2.
As exciting as this may seem for Nintendo fans, we’ll just have to wait and see for sure when the Wii U releases in the US on November 18th, Europe and Australia on November 30th, and Japan on December 8th.
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