Almost 5 years ago, the Nintendo Wii U was released worldwide. This moment issued out a dawn of the next-gen consoles for Nintendo, leaving the Wii in the dust. Not really, though, as both consoles shared a striking resemblance. That doesn’t mean that the differences weren’t there or anything because they were. But with the recent release of the Nintendo Switch, the original Wii, which was released about 11 years ago, is becoming more and more obsolete every day. After June 30, YouTube support on the Wii will be discontinued.
The Wii isn’t the only device being targeted, though, Other devices that use the YouTube Flash App–the older version that’s being removed–won’t be able to use the app as well. Although this is going to be the case after June, there’ll still be other ways for people to use YouTube. An updated list of supported devices can be found here.
It’s recommended that people watching YouTube with devices that use the YouTube Flash App should upgrade to devices that use HTML5 version of the YouTube App. This advice to upgrade brings me back to my first point: the Wii was outdated with the release of the Wii U. It has been a long time since the release of the Wii, and I can understand people’s attachment to the console, but it may just be time to move on. Sure you can still use the Wii to play those games you can’t play anywhere else (like Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Wii Sports), but it may be time to upgrade for the sake of progress.
Not having YouTube is a small step towards making the most recent generation consoles or TVs an absolute necessity to have. For now, we can rest easy knowing that it’s only YouTube that’s leaving the Wii and nothing else. As time progresses, though, we can expect to see more changes like this for older generation devices.
E3 is coming next week, so stay posted on any news regarding Nintendo during the event.
