This coming Monday, April 8, is set to be a particularly sad day for Nintendo fans, as that's the day that the online services for the company's Wii U and 3DS systems will shut down forever. Online service shutdowns are a sad reality of modern gaming, effectively blocking players from enjoying the online components of various games and, in some cases, erasing entire games from existence. This isn't the first time that Nintendo has shut down the online services for its consoles, so many fans have been anticipating the same fate for the Wii U and 3DS.
The Nintendo Wii featured a variety of online services for gamers, including online multiplayer and a shop that let players download exclusive WiiWare games along with retro titles via the Virtual Console. Unfortunately, Nintendo shut down Wii's online multiplayer in 2014, with the shop shuttered in 2019. Similarly, the Nintendo DS online services were discontinued in 2014 as well. Now the same is happening to the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Whereas the Wii kept its shop open awhile after it shut down most of its other online features, the opposite is true for the 3DS and Wii U. The 3DS and Wii U shops closed down last year, though online services for various games on the two platforms have remained available. That will soon come to an end, as the online for both the Wii U and 3DS will be shutting down on Monday, April 8. From that point forward, the online functionality of all 3DS and Wii U games will cease to exist, so anyone interested in experiencing those features should be sure to find some time to dig out their old consoles.
When Are the Wii U and 3DS Online Services Shutting Down?
The good news is that the vast majority of Wii U and 3DS games don't put a big focus on online multiplayer. By and large, online features were complementary to the core of the games, as opposed to being built entirely around them. There are some exceptions to that rule, though, like with Splatoon. The original Splatoon features some offline modes, but the core of the game is its PvP multiplayer experience.
Since the Wii U online is shutting down on April 8, Splatoon is nearing the end of an era itself. When the Wii U online shuts down, the multiplayer for the original Splatoon game will stop working, and the leftover product will be a shell of its former self. This is certainly disappointing for Splatoon fans, though the good news is that there are at least newer Splatoon games to play on the Nintendo Switch, with both Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3 readily available with functioning online modes at the time of this writing.
Wii U
Brand: NintendoOriginal Release Date: November 18, 2012
Hardware Versions: Wii U
Original MSRP (USD): $299Deluxe Sets: $349
Weight: 3.3 lbs
