Online play ending | Wii U and 3DS | 8 April 2024

Yes, it's the end of an era. All online play functionality for Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS systems will stop on 8 April.

In recent years I suspect that not too many folk have ventured onto the internet to play stuff on these consoles but I recall the heyday of playing classic titles like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker online. There was no online subscription cost, either!

It always feels a little sad when system functionality is turned off. It's perhaps comforting to know that we can still play our Wii U and 3DS titles in offline modes... well, until they break down, anyway. Enjoy them whilst the sun shines!

I think MK8 was the only game I played online on either the Wii U or 3DS. But yeah, it is a shame when this happens.

MiiVerse closing down was still the real tragedy.

jawa_ wrote:Yes, it's the end of an era. All online play functionality for Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS systems will stop on 8 April.

In recent years I suspect that not too many folk have ventured onto the internet to play stuff on these consoles but I recall the heyday of playing classic titles like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker online. There was no online subscription cost, either!

It always feels a little sad when system functionality is turned off. It's perhaps comforting to know that we can still play our Wii U and 3DS titles in offline modes... well, until they break down, anyway. Enjoy them whilst the sun shines!

There's a group called pretendo who thanks to custom firmware are working on keeping all of these games online. They did it with all the Wii stuff so I have faith they'll do it with this also.

Pokemon Bank is the big loss, but that isn't due to go off on the 8th, they just said it'll turn off at some point in the future but they don't know when yet.

Qikz wrote:

jawa_ wrote:Yes, it's the end of an era. All online play functionality for Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS systems will stop on 8 April.

In recent years I suspect that not too many folk have ventured onto the internet to play stuff on these consoles but I recall the heyday of playing classic titles like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker online. There was no online subscription cost, either!

It always feels a little sad when system functionality is turned off. It's perhaps comforting to know that we can still play our Wii U and 3DS titles in offline modes... well, until they break down, anyway. Enjoy them whilst the sun shines!

There's a group called pretendo who thanks to custom firmware are working on keeping all of these games online. They did it with all the Wii stuff so I have faith they'll do it with this also.

Pokemon Bank is the big loss, but that isn't due to go off on the 8th, they just said it'll turn off at some point in the future but they don't know when yet.

That sucks. But I'd argue that the loss of hundreds of thousands of user made Super Mario Maker levels is a bigger one.

EDIT: One plus point is that with Nintendo disconnecting itself from the Wii U/3DS, it really opens those consoles up for homebrew. They won't really have to worry about bans or anything like that anymore and it'll be interesting to see what people do, especially with the Wii U.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

Qikz wrote:

jawa_ wrote:Yes, it's the end of an era. All online play functionality for Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS systems will stop on 8 April.

In recent years I suspect that not too many folk have ventured onto the internet to play stuff on these consoles but I recall the heyday of playing classic titles like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker online. There was no online subscription cost, either!

It always feels a little sad when system functionality is turned off. It's perhaps comforting to know that we can still play our Wii U and 3DS titles in offline modes... well, until they break down, anyway. Enjoy them whilst the sun shines!

There's a group called pretendo who thanks to custom firmware are working on keeping all of these games online. They did it with all the Wii stuff so I have faith they'll do it with this also.

Pokemon Bank is the big loss, but that isn't due to go off on the 8th, they just said it'll turn off at some point in the future but they don't know when yet.

That sucks. But I'd argue that the loss of hundreds of thousands of user made Super Mario Maker levels is a bigger one.

EDIT: One plus point is that with Nintendo disconnecting itself from the Wii U/3DS, it really opens those consoles up for homebrew. They won't really have to worry about bans or anything like that anymore and it'll be interesting to see what people do, especially with the Wii U.

Pretendo is working on saving the Mario Maker servers at least so that's good. Once Bank is gone you won't be able to trade from the old gens to Home like at all.

RIP the best version of Splatoon (because it had the minigame while queuing).

Obviously Devil's Third multiplayer got turned off ages ago though so the greatest loss is already well behind us.