A handful of WiiWare games were just pulled from the U.S. and European Wii Shop channels. As far as I know, the full list of removed games includes The Magic Obelisk (in the U.S.) and LONPOS, Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem, Diner Dash, Racers’ Islands – Crazy Racers, Gods vs Humans and Racers’ Islands – Crazy Arenas (in Europe). The Magic Obelisk is a great little action puzzle game, so I’m sad to see that one gone, and Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem is basically the Birdemic of videogames, so it definitely deserves your attention (even though it totally doesn’t).
I’m guessing that these aren’t selling enough to justify whatever it costs to have them on the Wii Shop channel. That must mean they really aren’t selling, as the last I checked, it costs nothing to keep your game on the Wii Shop channel once you’ve already got it up there. Reports are coming in that Zallag, the developer behind Gods vs Humans and the Racers Island games has actually gone out of business, and that’s why their games were pulled. I hope this doesn’t mean that Game Arts (developers of The Magic Obelisk) and Hudson (publisher of Shootano and Diner Dash) are also in trouble. I couldn’t stand to see Hudson close down twice in the same year.
Anyway, I hope this motivates some of you slackers to go ahead and buy those one-of-a-kind WiiWare games that you know you want to play, but have been too lazy to actually download. One day you could wake up and find that Tomena Sanner, You, Me, and the Cubes, Muscle March, the ReBirth games from Konami, and many other classic WiiWare home console exclusives are gone for good. Buy them while you still can!
Zallag explains why their company closed [GoNintendo]
