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WiiSpeak Has An Expiration Date

Big A2 | November 14, 2008 | Blog | Wii

With the release of Animal Crossing: City Folk and Nintendo's new thingy, WiiSpeak, creeping up on America this weekend, pressthebuttons.com has a look at just how useless WiiSpeak will become in a year or two.

How do you know when a gaming peripheral isn't expected to have a long and healthy life? When the company behind the latest gizmo goes out of its way to make it inoperable right out of the box. Consider Nintendo's new WiiSpeak microphone that comes packed in with Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii. Nintendo seems to be trying to discourage sales of secondhand WiiSpeak units as MTV's Stephen Totilo surmises.

News Story attached to:

Animal Crossing: City Folk [Wii]

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0 thumbs!
Sakuraba Neku | November 15, 2008

Thats *bleep*ing stupid, its decided. I'm not buying it.
- 0 thumbs!
  Big A2 | November 15, 2008
  
  I decidede that ages ago. Animal Crossing is compatible with any old USB keyboard, so I'll just get a wierless one of those.
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    Sakuraba Neku | November 15, 2008
    
    I've been debating between those since Animal Crossing was announced...
0 thumbs!
Gotenks | November 15, 2008

Never planned to get one anyways. I'd probably only use it like once anyways and never use it again.
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  ShortMan | December 18, 2008
  
  That is most probably what I would mostly do. It isn't the best accesory.
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Gogetenks | November 15, 2008

The article is ridiculously misleading.

When you buy Wii Speak, there is a code that you use to download the Wii Speak Channel. It's as simple as that. There is no "expiration date" and it is not "inoperable right out of the box". How the writer made that connection is beyond me.
- 0 thumbs!
  Big A2 | November 15, 2008
  
  He means that you can't do everything it's meant for out of the box, and that once Nintendo stops making WiiSpeak units, they will expire, because you won't be able to use the Wii Speak channel with pre-owned ones.
  - 0 thumbs!
    Gogetenks | November 16, 2008
    
    It is true that pre-owned units won't allow you to use the channel, but it's a rather minor feature. It's not going to kill the peripheral.
    
    While there is definitely a chance of this dying the same way many GC peripherals did, it won't be because of the Wii Speak Channel. A new unit will never "expire", and Nintendo won't stop making them unless people don't buy it. The only thing this would affect is used sales (which affect new sales, and in turn, discourage further production). As long as more games come out that support this (and people actually buy it new) then Nintendo will continue selling the peripheral. If they stop, the only loss is the channel, which is hardly much use anyway.
- 1 thumbs!
  Krunal | November 15, 2008
  
  It makes sense to me. It's as simple as what Big A2 said. If you read the article, you'll note that they've mentioned other peripherals that have become useless such as the DK Kongo Drums... and the author expects this to go the same way, and I agree with that view...
1 thumbs!
BANDITO ATTACK | November 15, 2008

who cares about wiispeak. at least they got a damn mic in the first place. that would be nice with brawl or mario kart. but, you know...
0 thumbs!
HawkMan | November 15, 2008

no i don't know. seems ill concieved imo.
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Linkerd101 | November 15, 2008

How the hell does he know if Nintendo Wii stop Making WiiSpeaks?
its a good contraption, you shouldnt just buy it for animal crossing. The WiiSpeak channel has some good features, too.
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  Slumpy monkey | November 16, 2008
  
  Do you really think there going to keep shipping them out forever? They will eventually stop.
  - 0 thumbs!
    ShortMan | December 18, 2008
    
    It happens a lot to console accesories.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Slumpy monkey | December 18, 2008
      
      Well done, Took you about a month to come up with that.
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StewieRox11 | November 16, 2008

I'm getting it. It will be useful for games in the future. I can tell. USB Keyboards are also useful, but only if you're a fast typer so you don't keep people waiting forever for you to reply.