Topic: When do you think Nintendo will shut down 3DS/2DS servers?

Something I'm not sure anyone has added to this conversation is the fact that the Wii/DS servers were out of Nintendo's control. Towards the end the Wii/DS online servers were owned by IGN's parent company. They were the ones who shut the servers down. The shop channels are, I would assume, a bit of a different story but I'm not 100% sure where the control for that service fell. It may be similar.

Either way I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo decided to manage things differently with Wii U and 3DS. Afterall your Nintendo Network ID is still potentially the way you login to your Nintendo Account. So shutting down that infrastructure entirely might cause more headaches than it resolves.

Possibly a bit off topic but a couple of things worth mentioning. Firstly there's nothing inherently superior about CDs vs other digital formats including mp3s assuming the bitrate is decent. And vinyl is most certainly technically sub-par in terms of sound quality compared to CD. The idea that vinyl "sounds better" comes from two separate things. Firstly the colouring of sound from the technology itself which is entirely subjective but also how old music is mastered vs how the dynamic range is killed in some modern releases. I personally like buying physical copies of music and have a small vinyl collection. But, lets be honest, it's for the collector factor not for "better quality sound".

None of which matters at all for games BTW. The physical and digital copies of a game are literally identical. The bigger concern for digital distribution of games is that the servers might die and your drive might die which will cause issues because games can't be copied like movies or music.

Well they're shutting down the Streetpass relays in Japan at the end of the month, so I'd argue that they've already started.

Well I don't know about ya'll but I've literally never used Streetpass or Spotpass ever so those functions shutting down wouldn't be of much bother.

@GetWoke The fact that they are shutting it down is going to hurt me, A LOT. I use Streetpass to get peoples game records so then I can compete against them, and I use Soptpass to download software while in sleepmode. Streetpass is a 50/50 when it gets shut down. Shut down Spotpass, though, and your going to have a massive headache when it comes to people downloading their newly purchased software at a later time when they are connected to wifi and have their systems in the sleep.

@skywake You managed to pull something from a discussion I had with another user yesterday. Not all of that discussion is on track with this thread, but some of it is still relavant. I'm at that point where I'm having to go beyond just collector for some of my music and games, though, as they get pulled off of digital stores. One of the metal band I listen to, As I Lay Dying, temporalily pulled their music from Google Play in the past. Being an Android user, that threw me into a panic, got me to copy my files to my computer, and then proceed to burn them to discs. Physicals aren't just for collectors anymore as it seems we get closer and closer to an all-digital future. And developers telling us we shouldn't have to make backup copies now is complete bull, as the situation described above could happen and then what can you do if you don't have a backup? NOTHING, abosulitly NOTHING. I can understand the hybrid mediums we have now, but an all-digital will hurt quite a few people, and even though you can pay up to $100 for a physical depending on what edition you get, all-digital will only raise those prices even higher as physicals come into demand by not only collectors, but the paranoid that one day the digital will be pulled from the marketplace, leaving you stranded if you don't have a backup stashed somewhere.

@skywake And even then, I found a wormhole with copying digital games for the Nintendo 3DS. You have to be willing to back your system files up to multiple SD cards in order to use them, though, but its good if your game gets pulled, or you like a different software version before an update ruined it for you.

To me, it was well worth it, especially when they temporalily pulled VVVVVV from the 3DS eShop. Thats a digital only, and if I didn't make multiple copies of my system files, I'd of spent hours redownloading my purchases after setting my system up the third time, cause my little sister played the fool and formatted it. Then after setting my system back up and getting everything working I enabled Parential Controls so she couldn't do it again. Hahahaha, how do ya like them apples, little sis?

@Aiodensghost Thinking about it, i'll probably miss Spotpass, but I live in a pretty quiet area with next to zero people with a 3DS/2DS so I've never really been able to use Streetpass.

All I know is it can't shut down until I buy Federation Force and go through that whole game online.

That sounds like a joke, but I'm serious. I feel obligated to play every Metroid game and the general consensus is that Federation Force is only worth people's time with multiplayer.

I'd quite like to play Federation Force too actually, and I still need to finish Tri Force Heroes... Hopefully there's still a decent amount of life left in the 3DS servers.

Yes but why would you purchase a digital album and not have a copy? Especially when music, of all things, can be sourced from all kinds of places even legally. I get the concern for games but music really doesn't suffer from the same problem

I would not worry about this. They didn't shut down the DS servers until well into the 3DS's lifespan. They certainly wont shut them down while they are still releasing content on the system.

@Aiodensghost @GetWoke
Spotpass has nothing to do with Streetpass, and Streetpass has almost nothing to do with Streetpass relays.

Spotpass is just a fancy word for "your internet connection to Nintendo's official servers".
If your Spotpass stopped working, it would be because Nintendo had shut down the 3DS eShop in its entirety. No adverts. No promos. No buying games. No special golden pants Reggie.

Streetpass is just peer to peer connection between devices. It's the same technology that powers local multiplayer, and it will never be shut down because the hardware, software, and services are all managed by your 3DS.

Streetpass Relays are just regular routers with an internet connection, with a particular SSID. (router name) The 3DS is hard programmed so that when it connects to a router with this name, it goes online to some "streetpass online server". I am not sure if these servers have propietary software and thus can only be run by Nintendo, or if someone has made a mirror and come up with some DNS settings to keep the option for this feature alive in the absence of Nintendo, like the Save Nintendo Wi-Fi project.

I am a 3DS owner and the Miiverse channel, or whatever you wish to call it, has been shut down. I am very sorrowful to say they are shutting down the services for the 3DS Systems.

Please don't revive dead threads.