Hello again. I'm back and we return with another edition of WiiLink News!

We're returning today with even more news and write-ups for you all to read! Let's get to it.

The WiiLink Pipeline

How are Wii Room and Nintendo Channel videos made? Since old Wii Channels weren't compatible with standard video files, so we have to use our own custom program to make every video compatible with the channels. This makes it so whenever we need to make videos available in a timely manner, it becomes a challenge. Only some of the team has access to the tool (which had to run through a virtual machine), and can sometimes take days longer than planned to release things.

That's now changed though! This month we brought in @J0w03L from the Sudomemo team, who has found a way to make this process possible on Linux, when it was previously only available on Windows. Not only does this give more people access to this tool, but this lets us host the program on a server, making it available as a web tool for all members, called The Pipeline. While this won't be a public release, the effects should be noticeable with speeding up releases of recent videos.

THE ALL-SEEING SPOTLIGHT

Since the beginning of Wii Room v1.0, we've been platforming several creators and making them available on the Wii. But until now, this has all been under separate banners. That's all changing with the new branding Creator Spotlight. This is a brand new room available in Wii Room, headlined by Akfamilyhome! The room is advertised on the main room, and features different videos by our creators.

Future creators will also be represented through the Creator Spotlight banner! Stay tuned for more Creator Spotlight additions.

Striving for originality

With the start of 2026, we're planning to change some things for the future. Specifically about WiiLink Originals! We appreciate all of you who showed up for various WiiLink Originals during 2024 and 2025. However, reflecting on our creation of these shows have showed us that while the scheduled releases have resulted in some success, it's led to more stressful production and more often than not, not being able to actually release in the promised schedule. So, we're changing things up. From now on, we're planning to put less emphasis on release schedules, and more focus on variety. We'll be trying to find more creators who will be making things, so less pressure is put on each individual project and can hopefully lead to easier production of more Originals. With this change, we'll be wanting more creators than ever! Feel free to contact me at [email protected] with your pitches and they'll be read personally by the team. We also want to remind you that you will need a pilot or script that we can base our judgement off of.

Newtendo Channel

We have several pieces of news regarding Nintendo Channel! Firstly, we're changing the format of Nintendo Channel additions. In the past, we've waited until several significant pieces of news release to update the channel. This meant there could be weeks between updates, and suddenly there's 5 updates in 7 days. To address this, we're shifting to a weekly update model, where every week we'll add a number of trailers. This means that first party or otherwise, you can count on Nintendo news being available consistently. Of course, we'll make an exception for Nintendo Directs, where we'll update Nintendo Channel within the day with all the news.

Not only that, we've added 2 line titles to videos. What are these? Well, when the current version of Nintendo Channel originally came out, videos were formatted with 2 lines. However, when we revived the channel, we didn't know how to use this style of formatting. This usually didn't mean too much, but sometimes titles could get really long, especially with the Nintendo Switch 2 having games such as Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World. Real ones remember seeing that on the Nintendo Channel.

This issue is now fixed! This comes along with a slate of new additions to more closely resemble the original Nintendo Channel, including age ratings and descriptors, Pay to Play logos, more buttons and more! We're also working on getting the medal system properly working, so stay tuned.

Pressed for comment

This month, we were covered by Dexerto! Well, kind of. They actually inaccurately called us Wii Link. But this raises a good point; how can organizations cover us accurately? To help any press cover us better, we've created a press site. This site includes everything we think you might want to know when covering us, including stats, our story, our team and high quality assets and screenshots. While this is mostly meant for press, anyone is able to see this page! Check it out if you are interested.

Lost and found

If you remember our Lost Media Wiki thread last year, you'll know that we're looking for lost Wii Room Original episodes, of which there are over 400. But what do we know about these series? Known info about these shows are all over the place, but we have small bits and pieces we can share. So from now on, we'll be sharing info on some of these shows in these newsletters!

Starting off, let's talk about Wii Room Cooking. Wii Room Cooking (originally Wiiの間クッキング) is one of the more well-known series from Wii Room, and seemed to be one of the main free shows available on the channel. How do we know that? Well, that's because there are at least 247 episodes that are confirmed to exist! These were all very short episodes, which each show you how to cook a specific dish. This isn't to be confused with Pokemon Cooking, which actually is available in full through Wii Room. The reason why we know a bit more about this show than most is that very few episodes actually survived! There's actually 3 episodes that we've managed to find, thanks to them being saved by someone using Wii Room Anywhere. These episodes will be coming out on Wii Room for all to see later today.

Help us track these shows down! You can find the Lost Media Wiki thread here.

You've got mail

Remember a couple months ago when we launched Wii Mail Announcements? If you don't, it's basically a way to receive WiiLink news directly from us on your Wii Message Board. We have spent a bit of time figuring out how to use this service, but we've now started using this service to deliver mail announcements! We're mirroring news posts onto the service, so you can now be informed on WiiLink news without having to check other platforms!

To receive WiiLink mail, make sure to use the updated WiiLink Mail Patcher and opt into WiiLink Announcements. Even if you already set your Wii up with Wii Mail, it does not automatically opt you in, so make sure to check your patcher!

Self-referential nightmare

Did you notice this newsletter was much longer than usual? That's because it's part of a directional shift we're making with these newsletter! If you missed it, we put out a form surveying people about how they receive WiiLink news. Chances are though, you probably didn't miss it, because according to the data everyone who reads the site news also gets news from other places. Additionally, only about 20% of users always check the newsletter. And let's be fair, the fact that they answered a survey in the first place probably limits the reach already. What this means then, is that this newsletter is mostly read by the people who cares the most about the service.

So, how are we changing the WiiLink newsletter? Well it's simple: we're going deeper. We're going more in-depth with news, going more into the philosophy behind our changes, and sometimes into our philosophies behind future changes! We're going to be using this format to talk longer about WiiLink and what we want to do with it! Look out for more newsletters following this kind of longer format!

PS. Do you prefer the shorter, more concise format of before? No problem! A truncated version of this exact newsletter is coming to your Wii Message Board, per the announcement above!

Conclusion

That was quite the long post wasn't it? While a lot of the changes we made this month wasn't the most visible, they're important changes we've made for the future of the service. We're at a place right now where rarely, our systems are set up very properly, and progress can continue quite smoothly. As for myself, I have been working on a new room coming to Wii Room this past month. This is something I'm quite excited for, as it keeps Wii Room alive and changing in a way it wasn't before. We'll let you know about this room in the coming months, so stay tuned!