Donkey Kong Country Games Getting Pulled From European Virtual Console

Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3 are getting pulled from Europe's Virtual Console store on the Nintendo Wii on November 25. You can still buy the games until then, and they will remain on your console, but after November 25, you won't be able to download them if you live in Europe.

Rare is the developer behind these two games. Rare is now owned by Microsoft, but Nintendo claims full ownership over the games and the characters, which is why this is somewhat puzzling. Why are just the second and third games in the series getting pulled form the store, and why just in Europe?

[via CVG]