We’ve known about it since February, but finally, D-day (Deactivation Day) has arrived for online services on Wii and DS games. At some point in the next 24 hours, Nintendo is turning off the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service as used for Wii and DS games. This means you’ll no longer be able to use the WiFi on Wii and DS to play those games online, download new content, or access leaderboards.

That means no more Mario Kart DS races; no more Professor Layton downloadable puzzles; no more online Multiplayer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl or the original Monster Hunter 3. And while it was originally suggested that DSi-enhanced games would not be affected, this seems to have been wishful thinking, as even Pokémon Black and Pokémon White and their sequels (along with the other DS-era Pokémon Titles) are being disconnected (Nintendo UK’s page about it only lists games with Downloadable Content as being discontinued; the American site is a little more comprehensive, although some titles have different names between regions).

While the games will no longer be playable online or be able to receive downloadable content, local Wireless is unaffected – so you can still wirelessly race, battle, puzzle against or otherwise play with your mates within a ten-metre range; and use Download Play if your game offers it. The games will also continue to have all their offline play features. Meanwhile, Pokémon fans worried their Pokémon collections from Generations 4 or 5 are permanently locked to stay in that generation need not worry – using a 3DS, it’s still Possible to move Pokémon from some DS Pokémon Titles to the Pokémon Bank and then to Pokémon X and Y, thanks to the Poké Transfer app for 3DS which remains functional.

Online services that do not use Nintendo WFC, such as Netflix and Youtube apps, also remain functional on their respective devices (for as long as the companies behind those apps continue to support the Wii or DS, anyway); and Internet Browsing is still also possible. Meanwhile the Wii Shop Channel is also remaining up and running for the moment, so WiiWare and Virtual Console games can still be downloaded, gifted and so on. Even so, it’s clear where the real focus of online for Nintendo is now – Wii U, 3DS, and the Nintendo Network, all of which will continue their normal lives long after their predecessors are cut off later today.

At E3 2013, one of the bigger games demonstrated to a favourable reception was Tom Clancy’s The Division. Shown off at the event using the new Snowdrop engine the game looked good and the game was very well talked-about about after the event. The game was scheduled to be released at some unscheduled time this year, but now the word’s come through that the game has been delayed until some unscheduled time in 2015 purely so Ubisoft can work on making sure the game works.

It doesn’t really come as a surprise. There’s been little word on the game since E3 ’13 and games get delayed all the time these days, release dates pushed back to allow for games to be tweaked to a level closer to perfect due to unexpected obstacles appearing. At the very least, pushing back a release date to make sure a game is working properly is preferable to games that get released in a buggy half-finished state just to meet a deadline. Also the statement that was released says that everyone involved are ‘proud’ to be working on such a project. So the delay is going to bring a better game from a group of people who are passionate and in love with the idea of the game they’re creating. This can only be a good thing all round.

We should be seeing more footage of The Division now at E3 this year, so we should get some information about how much work has been completed since the event last week and possibly be able to estimate how close to being finished the game is and therefore maybe which quarter of 2015 we could see the game being released. Until then though, we just have to wait.

Sources around the internet, including Variety are reporting that YouTube is nearing a deal to buy streaming site Twitch for $1 billion. The deal is purported to be an all cash offer that would close imminently. Countering this, The Wall Street Journal has released a report stating that discussions on this deal are early. If such a deal does go through, it would pull a massive amount of traffic firmly into the Google stable.YouTube  missed out on the rise of streaming, and Twitch is the premier destination for the folks that want to see all manner of games played live. Twitch functionality has even been built into both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, and theres no doubt that YouTube would like to aggregate all of that traffic, and ad revenue, under on easily controllable Google colored umbrella.

Naturally, spokespeople for both Twitch and YouTube have declined comment. And, of course, rumor also has it that if the deal really is in the works, Google is already lawyering up to combat the likely regulatory challenges.

Stay tuned to Sanitarium.fm for the latest on this story.

The beauty of indie games are that the studios are small, creative and as long as they can make it work as a game, they are free to program and serve up to us any number of weird, wonderful and crazy ideas for sale to the gaming public. That’s how games like ‘Glorious Leader!’ get born.
 
Made by the people at Moneyhorse Games, the game is a 7-level retro-style side-scroller in which you play as Kim Jong Un in an epic adventure in which you fight off the entire American army while either on foot or riding a magical unicorn. If you have a friend to come play with you, the second player can be Dennis Rodman. Seriously.
 
There’s a trailer up on Youtube now and the game will be out for PC, mobile and tablet soon. Can’t wait to see the let’s play videos for this one.
 

Take Two Studios have spoken about a desire to maybe acquire a few more studios through purchase to help with their future ‘growth’ plans.

Take Two have had a good fiscal year in 2014. They posted net profits of $2.35 billion, with sales of Grand Theft Auto 5, the latest in that franchise, making up about half of those profits for Take Two. Thus the CEO of Take Two, Strauss Zelnick has said in a statement that while they typically prefer the ‘organic’ growth of studios internally, if there was a chance to grow the company by acquiring a smaller studio that fit with their ideals and disciplines for ‘inorganic’ growth “then [they] would absolutely do so”.

He also spoke about future plans in other areas, mainly in the way of which platforms we could look to find future games being released for. While both the Oculus Rift and Nintendo’s consoles were talked about, there doesn’t seem to be any plans to release games for either in the near future with it being “too early right now” for Oculus support and although Nintendo is still considered an important business partner there hasn’t been a lot of talk about releasing games on their platforms. He has praised Microsoft’s recent decision to unbundle the Kinect from the Xbox One too, saying that anything that “increases the installed base” is good news.
 
 
Take Two Interview is here.