Nintendo shuts down online services for Wii U and 3DS
Nintendo announces that Wii U and 3DS no longer will have online communication support as of next year.
Nintendo of America announced on October 3rd that they are ending online play and functionality for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as of early April 2024. This announcement came through a tweet on Nintendo of Americas official X (former Twitter) account. See the tweet below:
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
The link inside the tweet takes you to the support page where there is a list of questions and answers:
- You will still be able to play games offline that does not require online communication.
- Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will still be avaliable but may also end its services in the future.
- Online services from other publishers than Nintendo will also end but with a few exceptions.
- It will still be able to download update data and purchased software from Nintendo eShop.
- StreetPass will still be avaliable, but not SpotPass, since that uses online communication.
For the full list and more details, see the link here.
This clearly marks as a end of an era for both Wii U and 3DS, like a final nail to their coffins. Nintendo tried several times in the marketing campaign of the Switch to convince their customers that Switch would not replace the Wii U or 3DS. But only a few months in to Switch’s lifespan, production of Wii U and 3DS games decreased significantly until the production came to an halt all together.
