Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS online services will shut down in April

Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS online services will shut down in April

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Next spring, Nintendo will shut down the online services behind nearly all 3DS and Wii U software, affecting both first-party titles and third-party software (with some exceptions). News of this early April 2024 shutdown follows the return of online features for the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon, which had disappeared between March and August while Nintendo dealt with “vulnerability related to online play.”

One title that will continue operating, for now, is Pokémon Bank, and gaming offline is still possible. Also, this FAQ from Nintendo says that players will be able to download patches and redownload games purchased from the eShop “for the foreseeable future.” eShop sales of Wii U and 3DS games ended in March of this year.

As of early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.

Find out more: https://t.co/nOyzBImHCE

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 4, 2023

SpotPass features are also going away, but Nintendo says that StreetPass between 3DS family systems will continue to work anywhere you can find someone else who has one, even after these servers go away.

This planned early April 2024 shutdown will occur just over ten years after the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service went offline, ending online services for Nintendo’s Wii and DS titles in 2014.

With 13 million or so sales since its 2012 launch, the Wii U was one of the worst-performing consoles in Nintendo’s history. After it was discontinued in 2017, the company moved on from that era with ports and sequels of its best games that made the originals seem obsolete. Earlier this year, there were reports of memory errors that may make maintaining archives of the system’s games on original hardware even more difficult.

The 3DS had a slow start when it launched in 2010 but eventually moved over 75 million units, with strong sales that continued even after the launch of the Switch before it was discontinued in 2020.

If you’re wondering what this suggests for the future of Nintendo’s other online services, this summer, its CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said the current Nintendo Account system is key to smooth its transition to a new generation of hardware after the Switch. He noted how difficult it was to rebuild customer relationships each time it launched a new network with previous systems.