Nothing lasts forever in the video game world, or in any facet of life, and that includes the online play services for the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS, which are due to shut down in the near future. If you haven’t already done so, you may also want to merge your Nintendo Network ID with your Nintendo account for use on Nintendo Switch as soon as possible. Nintendo is only giving people until 10 p.m. PT on March 11 to get this done. If you don’t want to lose anything associated with that older account, complete the merge soon.
Nintendo initially announced that services would be shut down sometime in early 2024. Today the company has shared when exactly the services will be taken offline. Beginning on April 8 at 4 a.m. PT (7 a.m. ET), you will no longer be able to use online play services for either of those consoles. This includes most prominently the multiplayer feature for any games that offer one.
If you’re still playing Super Smash Bros. on a Wii U for example, you will no longer be able to find online matches after the morning of April 8. In addition to online play, “internet rankings, and data distribution” will also be cut off Nintendo says. As Engadget points out, other online features being discontinued include the Badge Arcade feature that you used to customize your 3DS home menu and online leaderboards.
The shutdown of online services for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U won’t impact everything online-related
Eventually, Nintendo will completely discontinue anything to do with online connections regarding these two consoles. For now, though, the shutdown of online play services won’t impact everything. Players will still be able to download games from the eShop “for the foreseeable future” if they want to reinstall a game they haven’t played in a while. Say you never finished a particular game, but at one point uninstalled it. You can reinstall it to dive back in. This is great news for the time being because you can still play games on these consoles offline.
So unless the game requires internet, neither console will be completely defunct. Nintendo also confirms that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will still be available for a while yet. The company does confirm though that even those two services may end later on.
This is the trouble with online gaming services. It just doesn’t make sense for companies to keep them running forever.
2024-01-26 15:07:26