Wii Internet Channel now free, with updated Flash [update]

by JC Fletcher { Sep 1st 2009 at 10:59AM }

Nintendo just dropped the price of the Wii Opera browser in Japan and PAL markets to nothing, its original "price" during the system's launch, when the browser was in beta. VOOKS photographed the Wii message that announced the price drop, which also revealed that the version of Flash used in the Wii browser has been updated from Flash 7 to Flash Lite 3.1-- which should make the Internet Channel much more useful. Users who paid 500 Wii Points for the browser will receive a refund of sorts in October -- a credit that can be used on any NES game.

In Japan, the same refund offer applies, and Nintendo is providing more opportunities for free Virtual Console games. Since early this year, Nintendo of Japan has offered 500-point bonuses to Wii owners for helping others get online. Starting October 21, Nintendo will expand this program with new rewards: those who achieve "Helper Meister 10" status (by helping 10 others connect) will gain access to every Nintendo-published Famicom game. "Helper Meister 20" will unlock all Virtual Console games on every platform! That should get people going door to door.

Update: The Internet Channel is now free in North America, and the NES Virtual Console download credit will be extended to those who purchased the browser in the region.

Tags: browser, flash, flash-lite, flash-lite-3.1, internet-channel, opera, virtual-console

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 1st 2009 11:02AM

"Helper Master 20" will unlock all Nintendo-published Virtual Console games on every platform! That should get people going door to door."

As in, getting them for free? Hell, if they did that here I'd go around getting everyone I could hooked up. Thankfully since there's so many casuals who don't know anything, that wouldn't be hard to do.

DomoBraden @ Sep 1st 2009 3:35PM

Why was this downvoted? Oh... it's tmac. Nevermind.

I was kinda wondering about this. Does it mean if you help 20 people you get one free game, but you can choose from any of the available consoles, or does it mean that you have access to every single game? I'm going to assume that it's the former, but if it is in fact the latter... HOLY-TROLLING-FLAMEWARS THAT'S AWESOME!

Yeah, it has to be the former... Hooray for ambiguous wording.

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 1st 2009 3:40PM

That's a good question, why was it downvoted? See, when things like this happen you're all telling me you don't want me to say anything nice so I'm forced to go back to how I do things.

idontknow @ Sep 1st 2009 11:08AM

I just downloaded it, and it is free in the US, assuming rest of NA, as well.

Argyris @ Sep 1st 2009 7:05PM

Confirmed: I'm in the US and received a message from my Wii informing me that the Internet Channel is now free. I'm using it now to type this message, in fact, which is a ß!+¢#. YouTube seems to ignore my quality settings, and overall the limited resolution is...well, limiting. Videos play fine and all the pages I tried loaded (eventually). For what you get it's worth the price (which is nothing, aside from the memory space the channel uses), but not much more than that. I'm glad Nintendo has finally come to its senses and made this free. I'll hook up a USB keyboard soon and see if that makes the IC usable.

Ignatius @ Sep 1st 2009 11:10AM

I'd be surprised if they charge for it in the US, when I was using the beta, it was just problem after problem with slow pages, even on a 3Mb cable connection.

TwEE @ Sep 1st 2009 11:10AM

Bring any of this to North America please.

Wes @ Sep 1st 2009 11:12AM

Wow, that's a lot of free games. For helping others? I think Nintendo is worried about its user's karma level :P

Shadow08 @ Sep 1st 2009 11:14AM

Wow. It's rare that a company does all good things like these just to be nice to its customers without a catch. Glad to know NIntendo is being good spirited with their massive Wii profits!

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 11:24AM

Holy fucking savings!

manyquestions @ Sep 1st 2009 3:09PM

. . . Batman!

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 1st 2009 11:24AM

I dont understand WHY they started charging $5 for a BROWSER anyways??

fuck were they thinking??

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 11:34AM

Well, it's kind of a middle ground, I guess, since the PS3 one is free and the 360 one is non-existent. Everyone knows that the $5 is smack dab in the middle of "free" and "does not exist".

I wonder how much they made off of it...

mr nimblewick @ Sep 1st 2009 11:40AM

Opera made the browser, not Nintendo. Opera wanted to make money for all the effort they put into making the browser.

Mr Khan @ Sep 1st 2009 12:06PM

If you had a launch Wii, you got into the trial version of the browser anyway, which was updated to the full version later for free, so i haven't had to pay for it.

sam @ Sep 1st 2009 6:44PM

@Mr: You don't think Opera are getting paid for this one? I'm guessing Nintendo just gave them a bunch of cash to develop it anyhow.

GolfDude @ Sep 1st 2009 11:31AM

it is free in NA as well, and updated with the updated flash as well.. if you dled it already itll show an update tab in the shop channel above the internet channel for you to download... this is in ALL REGIONS

KaBob799 @ Sep 1st 2009 11:33AM

It's awesome that they are offering a refund of sorts for people that paid, most companies wouldn't do that for such a minor purchase.

Infidel @ Sep 1st 2009 11:34AM

for every 100 shovelware games released, nintendo does one thing for the customers

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 11:39AM

Nintendo hardly ever releases shovelware. Take your bitching to EA, Ubisoft and THQ.

Cody @ Sep 1st 2009 11:40AM

ROFLMMFAOOMGTEHLULZ!!11!1!

Orion @ Sep 1st 2009 11:53AM

Translation of WRE:

"STFU for saying something everyone knows is true as I'm still playing the same IPs I've been playing for the last few console generations instead of something new since I can't afford anything more than this little white box...WAAAHHH"

There we go.

Mr Khan @ Sep 1st 2009 12:03PM

Oh Orion, your newfound Nintendo hating is so cute...

Acting like we're the ones in denial... lol.

Johivin @ Sep 1st 2009 12:04PM

Actually, Orion, the correct translation would be:

"Nintendo is a company that has rarely released a game that is considered shovelware. Most Nintendo produced games are of a much higher quality than those produced by 3rd party developers. There have, however, been a rash of poorly constructed games released on Nintendo's Wii console system which have tarnished the reputation of Nintendo."

Perhaps if you could look past your "hardcore gamer" viewpoint and remember what FUN is, you could properly interpret someone's statements.

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 12:11PM

Translation of Orion:

Huuurrrrrr!

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 12:43PM

Oh, Orion, my PSN ID is WorstReviewEver and my gamertag is HaloKissesBoys. We can also play on the DS together if you really want to. I'd give you my friend code, but I don't carry it with me. So there goes your retarded "too poor" argument.

Yan @ Sep 1st 2009 2:54PM

Sure is butthurt in this chain of replies.

WREturns(There was once a dream called Rome) @ Sep 1st 2009 3:23PM

You're butthurt.

Protodude @ Sep 1st 2009 4:31PM

HURR HURR! Oh my god, Infedel, you are so cool and witty!

Yan @ Sep 1st 2009 5:00PM

cool story, bro

You go on being your asspained self. Sure isn't the first time you were told proper. Certainly won't be the last.

Vidikron @ Sep 1st 2009 11:38AM

So how does this actually work? How do you prove that you helped someone else get online?

Espiownage @ Sep 1st 2009 11:50AM

It's probably done by referral or something. Like maybe you enter your Wii number in when you help them go online.

Hardy @ Sep 1st 2009 11:57AM

That promotion isn't available out of Japan so we can't do anything.

Getting people online should be a priority for Nintendo of America, but I guess they care more about rolling around in money for games that are years old.

T-Patch @ Sep 1st 2009 11:39AM

Just got the updated browser (in the US store btw) and starte checking things. first, so far, is that it's a good 30 blocks smaller the the previous version. Second, While the new flash is great, I still cannot watch Joystiq's viddler videos....

Ryan @ Sep 1st 2009 11:58AM

I couldn't watch anything on Hulu. What's the point of having internet on TV if you can't watch videos?

Mr Khan @ Sep 1st 2009 12:04PM

Yeah, i was pleasantly surprised. I had 503 blocks, and it said it would take up 203, but then when it was done, i had 533

T-Patch @ Sep 1st 2009 12:13PM

After looking around for a bit, the only new thing I can confirm is that you can now watch embedded youtube videos. Otherwise, it reacts mostly the same as it did before for things involving flash 8+

searchman.exe @ Sep 1st 2009 11:57AM

Also a sad part about the flash player... it does not play Hulu videos... meaning my dreams of a giant screen hulu playing machine are now squashed.

Fausk @ Sep 1st 2009 12:03PM

Even if it did work, like it did for a brief while on PS3, Hulu would find a way to block Wii users, too.

edgore @ Sep 1st 2009 12:21PM

Grab the new beta of Playon - it supports Hulu streaming to the Wii, along with netflix and a number of other services (including streaming windows media,divx, etc).

I've been using it to get Hulu on to my 360 and it's been great. Haven't tried the Wii streaming yet, but from what I have heard it's good.

guttertalk @ Sep 1st 2009 1:06PM

Playon's Wii streaming was exciting at first, but the picture quality just isn't there. And the Amazon streaming video is very jerky and unwatchable.

bkmulder @ Sep 1st 2009 1:22PM

Yeah I checked out Playon's wii support to see if it was worth telling my Wii-only friends to get it, and it is kind of low-quality. If you have no other way to get Hulu and Netflix and Southpark on your TV, then it might be worth it for you, but it's not great.

Actually, I've found the PS3 is the best for working with Playon. It keeps the source directory structure intact, unlike the Xbox which re-alphebetizes all the folders, making it harder to navigate.

Highlar @ Sep 2nd 2009 1:57PM

I've been using PlayOn for about a week or so to watch Hulu using my Wii, and it works pretty good. Sure, the video quality/resolution isn't the highest, but that should already be expected with viewing on the Wii. The actual streaming of the vids works fine. The only problem I have with it, is that you can't skip through vids to any certain part. If it locks up, which it does with me sometimes (which I think has to do with me iffy wireless connection in the basement, not the program), I have to start a vid all over again even if I was most of the way through it. Other than that, it streams nicely and videos play full screen (with the albeit already said lower resolution). The resolution doesn't bother me. The fact that I can now watch Hulu no a full sized TV rather than a small monitor on my laptop makes me smile. :) That, and animeshippuden. Been drooling over getting that one running on my TV too. :)