The grim day for many Nintendo fans has finally come. The online services for both Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles shut down on Monday, April 8th at 7 PM ET and 4 PM PT.
Here’s the full statement from Nintendo:
Thank you very much for supporting our products.
At 4pm PDT on April 8, 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution.
You can find more information about badges for decorating the Nintendo 3DS HOME Menu using Nintendo Badge Arcade here.
Please note that if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned.
We sincerely thank players for using the online services of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software over a long period of time and apologize for any inconvenience.
Nintendo of America
All the first-party Nintendo games and most of the other titles will lose their multiplayer functions on both the Wii U and 3DS consoles. This means, no more competing against each other in multiplayer matches, teaming up for cooperation, checking leaderboards, and more.
I’ve seen many people on social media and YouTube posting about their fond memories with both consoles, some even stated their careers as creators started with these systems.
It’s nice to see such a heartful goodbye from fans. Myself included. As I had awesome memories with both Wii U and 3DS I say goodbye to them with this post.
While both of the systems were not nearly as popular as their predecessors (especially the Wii U), they were fantastic consoles and a lot of fun. To this very day, I play my 3DS often, because of the great games.
As for Wii U, we have a lot of ports and sequels for many franchises on the Nintendo Switch, so I have not played it as much lately, but still sat down for a nice session yesterday and checked some online games while I still could.
While most of the services will go offline, the Street Pass on the 3DS will remain active, because it is not an online feature. So we can still find some new people via green light on our train rides. Although these will be less common with time sadly.
Nintendo stated that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will remain active, but might be (and of course, will be) shut down eventually as well.
So as of today we won’t be competing and playing together in titles like Super Mario Maker, Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS, Splatoon, Mario Kart 7, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and many, many more.
While we got sequels, remakes, ports, and more of these games, I will always look back at these and their systems with fond memories. And I will continue to have fun with the single-player experience on them for a long time.
