When Nintendo announced their Wii Speak peripheral back in 2008, I thought it seemed like a good idea, but one that I could certainly wait on.  After all, at launch, the microphone system was only intended to work with Animal Crossing: City Folk; a game I didn’t care about.  I figured that, eventually, there’d be a nice library of Wii Speak-compatible titles, and I’d pick the thing up on the cheap.  Of course, that never happened, and publishers never bought in to the whole idea.  Now it looks like even Nintendo is done with the peripheral.

Gamestop is reporting that Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii Speak peripheral is being phased out, and will only be available at “limited retail locations.”  Nintendo did leave some slim hope for the nine people who still want one of these things, stating that "additional shipments can be made if consumer demand increases."  Don't worry; it won’t.

As for the Wii Speak Channel, a still active Wii channel where rooms full of gamers can talk to other rooms full of gamers, Nintendo hasn’t closed the doors just yet; "We have nothing to announce regarding the future of this channel, and it currently is being enjoyed by many gamers.”  'Many' is kind of a strong word, don't you think?