Nintendo Discontinuing Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Features for Wii/DS Games

Nintendo has announced that they will discontinue the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for Wii and Nintendo DS software on May 20, 2014. This will be a global shutdown.

On May 20th, you will no longer be able to play Wii/DS games online, participate on leaderboards, share user-generated content, exchange data or access free DLC. However, you will be able to still access the Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop and video-on-demand services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and YouTube. Of course this does not affect the Wii U, 3DS and their software in any way, only Wii and DS software.
Many games will be affected, such as the Wii/DS’s Call of Duty games, Mario Kart DS/Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Phantasy Star Zero, and most importantly the DS Pokémon titles (though The Pokémon Company has been shutting down features for the older Pokémon games already).
It looks like Nintendo believes the traffic on the WFC is just too small to keep these games online, especially since the Pokémon games have started to lose features. And for those sad to lose Brawl’s online, just remember that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS will be right around the corner at that time.