Rumour: Wii U System Update Hints That Miiverse Is Coming To An End Soon

Everyone saw this coming. It's really not surprising that this is happening.

Gasp! No more Tingle bottles with perverted drawings of Wind Waker Link? Only time it's really affected me.

This will pretty much kill Super Mario Maker for good.

I'm unsurprised but sorry about this. I particularly enjoyed Miiverse in the early days of the WiiU - it felt like a friendly community of Nintendo enthusiasts who were nice to interact with.
I'll be first to admit I have not used it much over recent years (no time!), so I understand why it is being shut down.

Yeah keep those doodles coming! Sorry.

@DaLoneSheep actually i'm VERY surprised that this is happening so soon. I was expecting that they let it run for another 5 years or so.

This is Nintendo acknowledging that Facebook and Twitter are very much here to stay and not transient, which was an Iwata directive. Fair enough.

But where will all of the 8 year olds go to try and find a boyfriend/girlfriend!?

I wouldn't mind Miiverse leaving if there wasn't so much awesome art on there.

People are jumping the gun here, I reckon. This update could just be future-proofing. And let's not forget that the decidedly not-abandoned 3DS has Miiverse as well. Miiverse's days are numbered, that much is clear, but I think it's a decently high number yet.

Miiverse was a ton of fun in Mario Maker. I felt like it was kind of out of place in most other games though. ( Never played Splatoon, but it looked like it worked well there too. )

The game help and tips were the best part, the doodles were a bit rubbish...

Ahh very sad about this. Made some Great pals on miiverse

Such a shame. RIP Miiverse

Too bad, it was a fun idea.

Though, the best part about it was pretty much to doodle/write comments that appeared in other peoples games - and that functionality seems to be staying in some games (at least in Splatoon 2).

I never used the actual forums much, if at all.

The wow factor of Miiverse hit home in ZombiU where developer messages and leaderboards appeared on the walls. That was incredible.

Don't know of any other games which did something similar?

Wii U is already dead so it's not really a big deal. Don't know how useful it is on 3ds though.

Bye bye, Mario Maker, the only game rooted deeply enough in Miiverse for me to actually care about the service! Hope to see you in a sequel form someday!

Sayonara, Miiverse...

Haven't touched it in probably 2 years

What about miiverse on the 3DS?

When they do shut it down, I hope they give notice ahead of time instead of picking a random night and pulling the plug.

@wiggleronacid Right? Until Splatoon came along, I dismissed it completely. Then some great black and white art started showing up in my Plaza and matches. I gave some in-game 'yeahs' and started following some great artists. Hopefully they post up in Splatoon 2, even though we won't be able to look for them

@Jayvir Aside from the junk, the Art Academy games (Pokémon AA, Disney AA, and the original Art Academy) still have a decent community of focused artists. Too bad MiiVerse never had a search option, it's frustrating finding new good art by mere chance or sifting through page after page. And the YouTube community seems to be acting like the 'general' section for posting drawings. 10x as difficult than the AA games to find the great art/artists.

That's a shame. I figured with the New 2DS XL dropping next week that Miiverse would linger a bit longer.

I used Miiverse for Smash, Bayonetta and a few VC games on Wii U. Not much else, but I use it a lot on 3DS with Animal Crossing.

@olrodlegacy one day, I hope someone(s) does a complete retrospective on ZombiU and how it was pretty much the defacto Wii U game in every aspect. UbiSoft did a better job than Nintendo themselves at showcasing all the amazing potential that Wii U offered.

I'm glad Miiverse is gonna die. Good riddance.

This will basically kill Splatoon's lobby…

so what does this mean for games which rely heavily on Mii Verse such as Sonic Lost World or Wind Waker?

It's gonna be a real shame to see the service disappear. I thought it was great and I did have an awesome time with it. I mean in honesty I haven't used it in a very long time but if it had been moved to Switch I would have used it again without hesitation. Maybe it'll be replaced sometime in the future with a newer, better social network created by Nintendo. One with less restrictions perhaps?

Great idea, iffy execution. Still sad to see it go. Nintendo will probably just integrate into the common social media sites for future needs.

One of the main reasons that the Switch has been hard to play on unless I am playing with my kids is because it lacks any social network. Miiverse helped me feel part of something bigger than just someone playing random people online. Also Nintendo should integrate the friend system to show what your friends are playing on mobile and 3ds too. I understand why the Wii U would be excluded, but it would be nice to see what other online games I could connect with my friends on other than just seeing their recent played Switch library.

Oh my god this actually makes me super sad, I love miiverse and I don't want to see it go. I really really hope that Nintendo at least archives the posts so they still show up in games that use them. I like the sense of community in games like Splatoon and Wind Waker HD, and Super Mario Maker seriously utilized them. All I want is for them to archive it all rather than just wiping it from existence, I've made a lot of fond gaming memories on there and I don't want to see them disappear.

NOOOOOOOOO!

The shut down will affect the ability of to add friends aswell. I know people are moving on from the WiiU, but there will still be people playing games online for as long as Nintendo keeps the servers open.

I guess the Miiverse stage on Smash Bros will just be a plain stage now.

I remember disagreening with people that claimed that Miiverse and Miitomo could take on Facebook while even Google failed to do it.

TO be fair I opened Miiverse only after I realised I could get coins for it. I gathered some coins and there is nothing to buy with them.

What a shame. I never used it actively, but it was nice to drop in every once in a while and see the doodles.

Once it shuts down, the Wii U will truly be dead.

This is sad, Miiverse was special. If it does shut down, I hope at the very least that by the time it shuts down Switch has a Super Mario Maker port/sequel that allows you to add messages to stages like how Splatoon 2's message system acts like Splatoon with Miiverse.

Thank you Nintendo for letting it go.

A completely shame! I'm still loving and using Miiverse on 3DS. It brings back such good memories of videogaming discussions, passion and lots of helps and hints from another players, something reminiscent of my childhood - only virtual this time.
And this community seems so eager to put an end on WiiU/3DS era! I could not disagree more! While the WiiU was ill fated and mostly dead (execept on Miiverse were people still play passionately) the 3DS still lives on and I advocate that it may still live! So we need Miiverse to share our passion!

Lololol it only took 1 year, 6 months and 2 days for a new update. Rip Wii U

@filterclay my 3ds will always be my most used system. I got a Switch and I barely touch it.

@gatorboi352 As much as I like to verbally smack around Ubisoft for their half-a$$ed treatment of the WiiU, ZombiU was an incredible game that got nowhere near the attention it deserved.

I will sincerely miss Miiverse such as shame it's coming to an end, a little social feature that was the Wii U's best app.
The Switch needs Miiverse.

Arghhhhhhhh!!! That is so typical Nintendo BS.

I just started Zelda U last week and I am very much enjoying Journaling my game as I play along. I mean, that's why it's called a journal. Zelda is the perfect game for keeping a journal as its such a long personal adventure. I was mad at them for at long time when they turned off the Wii Channel on Wii b/c for some stupid reason that was where they kept the log of how long you played. If they turn this off before my kids and I finish playing games Zelda that's going to be so freaking anmoying. I don't care and out the anonymous social aspect all that much, but my kids and I like looking at each others cool pics. And there are several people here on NL I communicate with.

It's already bad enough I'm playing Zelda with a black Game pad screen, I couldn't even use it to name my horse for some stupid reason, there's no reason for them to take Miiverse away, we still need the Ballad of Champions DLC to chronicle and that's not even due out for months yet.

Sure, I know Miiverse will end at some point, but at least wait got the Zelda DLC to end. At least wait until Switch sales surpass Wii U sales, it's not even close to gal way there yet. How many times can they kick Wii U owners, people who gave them $300 or $350, in the face?

That stinks. I used it semi regularly. My daughter loved drawing pictures and we had just gotten Mario Maker a few months ago.

They better not remove it any time soon.I still use it regularly.

@olrodlegacy "The doodles were a bit rubbish"

Back when I used Miiverse, I saw lots of amazing art; better than what I could do digitally, for sure.

Let's slow down... you're all wanting to hold a funeral before the patient is dead.

There's a good chance this may be the last WiiU update released (or at least the last update for a while). Nintendo may have added the message to this update so they don't have issue another update later. Just because its there doesn't mean it's going to be used right away.

I have a hard time believing that while the 3DS/2DS is still an active system, they'd shut down the service anytime soon. And even when they decide to shut down MiiVerse (which they will do eventually), I'm certain they will give fair warning before they pull the plug, at least 6 months to a year's warning.

Remember, the first word in the title of this article is RUMOR.

Whyyyyy? Miiverse should not go away, I don't want to be posting my game stuff to some stupid mainstream social media where I am a nerd. Also Miivers is special, it has that special Nintendo feeling and the Miis are genius. Of course, that message doesn't mean that the Miiverse is going away right away, but as long as it's not on Switch, everybody can feel that it's slipping away. I wish it was on Switch...

@FitnessGamer Finally, someone who agrees with me.

Good. Never cared for

@UK-Nintendo what are you thanking them for? How does its existence harm you in anyway/ how do you benefit from its closure?

God now I miss stability updates

still no proper screenshot tool on 3DS and Wii U...

What a shame. Miiverse was/is amazing.

The update itself didn't close Miiverse, it likely future proofed the system for when they do finally decide to close Miiverse in a few years. It also seems to only apply to the Wii U side of Miiverse since the 3DS didn't get this update at the same time since the 3DS is still being supported. The whole thing could also be a hoax because the "data-miner" that got credit for finding it in a tweet has his Twitter account set to private.

Nooooooo!
Why would they do that?!

Apart from the fact that I used Miiverse quite a lot, I still find it stupid and inconvenient that the Switch doesn't have its own social network. How am I supposed to get in touch with people on my Switch friend list? Sadly, Twitter and Facebook can't be used for that.

I used to exchange Miiverse messages with other players (that I don't know personally), now there's no way to talk about games or to coordinate a time to play together.
Miiverse was also crucial for Mario Maker. How is Mario Maker Deluxe supposed to work without it?

Splatoon 2 is the most recent piece of evidence that Miiverse is necessary. In the first Splatfest demo, you could write or draw messages, but you couldn't post them for Inkopolis Square, only on Twitter and Facebook...

And even though they didn't continue Miiversr on the Switch, why not just leave it as it is on Wii U? This makes no sense.
Nintendo are showing really irrational behaviour lately, like someone who just broke up with their partner and throws everything away that they bought for themselves during that time.

Good riddance, never had a thing for miiverse tbh.

I loved Miiverse. You could post in the game pages for help on specific games and include screenshots to describe the issue more easily, and actually get answers from fellow gamers. Unlike traditional social media where you mostly just get troll responses. I also very much loved the Tingle Bottle feature in Windwaker HD. I got most of my Nintendo Gallery screenshots from it. I've almost completed the Nintendo Gallery in that game but I definitely relied on this service to get images I missed earlier in the game, or even photos of creatures and characters I've yet to see. Gonna have to take a break from Breath of the Wild now to finish Windwaker HD before Miiverse shuts down for good.

I'm actually surprised that Miiverse won't continue on the Switch.

Haven't used Miiverse in a long time, but I really enjoyed it in the early days of the Wii U. It's a shame it didn't do a better job of evolving and expanding to stay relevant. Made for some good memories, but can't say I'll miss it.

Well, I better get to completing my figurine list in WW HD.

lol, here we go again...

@gspro15198 wind waker goes back to the game cube days.nothing wrong with that

Hmm... could be "future proofing" the Wii U, could be something that will be used very soon.

I think the flag that a lot of people are missing, is the fact that, so far, no 3DS update has this message(which was already mentioned in this comment section). The 3DS family has a MUCH higher user base, so to cut off support so soon would be a tad bit illogical... and typical of NIntendo, I'm afraid.

However, most of the regular users have gone away a long time ago since the major change to Miiverse's infrastructure happened, especially the implemented post limit.

actually i was just in miiverse an hour ago in 5.5.2 and it worked fine, it didn't come up with that message.

This is sad news.

I found MiiVerse to be a nice gathering place for people to post screenshots, share their opinions, and some random silliness too.

I knew it was coming when communities for less popular games were being phased out, and some new games (Like SteamWorld Heist) didn't even have one.

It's a shame. I hope they bring it back in some form, but the realization that my Wii U is no longer a supported device is coming to pass.

Good job I've blocked Nintendo's CRAP updates I'm sticking to 5.5.1 thankyou.

@soopa_fitign_rob that's because Miiverse is still running - the message is not ready to be used yet.

@CheddarSword I use it all the time on Wii U. Excellent service - it's clear you never did and are simply regurgitating all the garbage spouted by trolls on line who hated Wii U from the start.

@Indielink "As much as I like to verbally smack around Ubisoft for their half-a$$ed treatment of the WiiU"

At times, Ubisoft treated Wii U better than Nintendo themselves. I have nothing bad to say about them in re: to Wii U at all. Nintendo fans were lucky to even get Watch_Dogs.

I'll make the most of my Wii U while I can.

@nab1
OMG YOU ARE RIGHT!! 😨

Um...why would Nintendo do this while the 3DS is still being supported?

All these people saying "good riddance" and "I'm glad it's ending" genuinely confuse me. Miiverse was home to a variety of quirky and charming communities, and was a great feature in tons of games like Smash, Splatoon, WWHD, Mario Maker, etc. People made friends there, hours of entertainment have come from reading the stupid and confusing posts, not to mention the art we got from it.

Not that it was perfect but the concept of Miiverse was such a "Nintendo" feature, and I was fairly fond of it. One of the defining things the Wii U had to offer. I will definitely miss it.

First we lose Club Penguin, and now this. 2017 is a tragic year.

What a shame.

I used to use Miiverse all the time when I played my WiiU. I thought it was great.

WiiU News (Folkloner) had an amazing page with all the WiiU news. Miss those times. I was disappointed when I found out it was not going to be on Switch...

Surely they've got to also update Mario Maker to function without it right?
...
...
...right??

@daveh30 I agree, yeah. Same feeling.

I'll miss Miiverse. It added some interesting flavor to Mario and some other games. Where I'll definitely miss it is in the AC community. Lots of activity and fun had over there! I wish they had brought it to the Switch as I felt that Miiverse had a certain special something that you don't get from a more generic online community like Twitter or Facebook.

Granted, I'll miss it, but man they had a nasty habit of nitpicking what was acceptable and what was not.

So sad. I'm really pissed about the missed oportunity Miverse has been. Soo much potential unused... another Nintendo failure, and another deception for the fans.

I can't imagine anymore a Nintendo system without Art Academy and Miiverse. Such a painful lose.

BTW, I want Miiverse for the Switch.

Tragic. Miiverse was superb. Sure, there was a lot of dross, but some of the great drawings and witty humour found within made the wading totally worth it. I hope to see it resurrected in some form in the future, but I'm not holding my breath.

But at least we still have Nintendo TVii..!

...

So what will the main plaza screen look like now? Like the Wii?

@Kimyonaakuma lol exactly what I was thinking

@CheddarSword I won’t miss it either

I still find myself posting to Miiverse once or twice a month....

Next up: ending online support for all Wii U games.

I hope this isn't true anytime soon. I love spending time on the all Nintendo social media, drawing pics. (Nothing amazing but I had fun :3) Also getting to talk to other people who play the same games as me. I can't really do the same on Facebook or Twitter because they're too general so it's a stab in the dark for me.

If they delete everything is be very upset... It's Flipnote Studio all over again.

RIP, it was good fun

Why the hate. Miiverse was a great place for artists.. well, minus the zealous administration.

I did my best drawings on there.

I met great people on there and it was a neat compliment to games. It was just badly promoted and used by Nin. It mostly needed an adult section and child one, to minimize alienation and derp.

@Smokingspoon
That's really good stuff. I'm a cartoonist. Your stuff impresses me. Can I use it as a wallpaper?

Well I guess it's time to get in the dirty doodles while we can then.

@Priceless_Spork Sure thing, I'd be honored
Take it from my tumblr though, the resolution is better there.
https://smokingspoon.tumblr.com/

A little upset about how this ends drawings in games like the original Splatoon, but otherwise I don't really care. Hopefully this doesn't mean they are pulling the plug on online on Wii U soon. Xenoblade X is almost impossible to 100% without online... I hope they port that game to Switch.

I use it to upload some screenshots, but that's it. I guess I keep going to terrible communities because all my comments for my screenshots are either a) totally unrelated to the screenshot (ppl asking for my age, ppl asking for me to go to their page, etc, etc), and/or b) made by really young kids, based on their numerous typo-filled posts and the way they type.. I've only ever 'met' a total of 1 person who actually posted coherently and typed with proper spelling.

If Miiverse ever goes for good, I'm not going to miss it too much.

I quit using Miiverse because the app was so annoyingly slow to load up on Wii U and 3DS. I also just don't have the time for it.

Plz nu

Nintendo and NintendoLife do not even think about the 3ds much, so obviously it was not even considered that miiverse could possibly stick around for the 3ds. BIAS MUCH, NINTENDOLIFE?!

I will miss it for the free coins (not that they are very useful), but I didn't use it often otherwise. Nintendo never really used it to the full potential I saw in it. Imaging if they had engaged communities with high-score challenges, community playthroughs of classic games, or the like that would have helped build community and celebrate the hobby.

I gotta create an album of all my favorite posts before they get rid of everything!

@Smokingspoon Thanx. So cool. What programs do you use for the red alien with the celestial cape? (my wallpaper)
My biggest thrill was when a coworker found a doodle and told me she put it on her fridge.

Art Academy on WiiU! You can't post anything on miiverse that isn't a software on eshop lol.

Although I use A.A. Sketchpad, which was a version beta of it. The full, pricier, version is the only available version on eshop now. It's a formidable drawing software really. Although, it lacks layers and undo/redo-history that is a basic feature nowadays. Which means I basically did those drawing as if it were real paint lol.. kinda.

The red alien is a Vorlon from a sci fi tv show of the 90s called Babylon 5. It's a fantastic show that inspired Mass Effect a lot, among other things.

@manu0 why would they keep it running for 5 years? Miiverse isn't on the Switch so they have no point in keeping it for 5 years.

What happens to the miiverse accounts when the service ends? Will they be deleted or deactivated? I have a new Nintendo 3DS.

I don't get why they did this..