It's Over! Nintendo Shuts Down Online Servers For 3DS And Wii U

So long Splatoon, Mario Maker, etc...
Never had a WiiU, but I can appreciate what it spawned!

Goodbye old friend. I will miss playing Triforce Heroes online.

Bring on Pretendo 🕺🏽💃🤸‍♂

As of 8:23PM EST, I am still online playing Splatoon 1!

I'm on this ride til the wheels fall off. But next stop: Pretendo!
It's not goodbye, it's "I'll see you soon."

I think Splatoon is still up for some people?

I'll never forget those times playing online on both 3DS & WiiU...

End of an era. 😔

Thanks for the memories.

Got some last rounds in Smash 4 yesterday. Great game. Grateful for the times I got to play it, both online and off.

@FishyS I think your idea is a good one. But…is there a work around to the 3DS and WiiU screen dilemmas??

I don’t know…maybe there is and maybe there isn’t.

Still online in SMM1 lol.

I think that this is a good thing. Nintendo will serve its customers better by offering one online game play service at a time. Dividing customers up only lowers quality of the online experience. I felt the same way last year when they shut down the eshop.

@WiiWareWave I was able to play after 4PM and even just after 5PM. I wonder if they are keeping MM1 online.

Let’s pretendo it’s not shut

it is what it is.

It’s Wii U jailbreaking time I guess.

When I tried Badge Arcade yesterday, it claimed I was not connected to the internet.

Although I rarely played online, I lament the passing.

So….someday my Switch will lose online functions? It is hard to imagine that future….

As someone who regularly defends Nintendo I feel that this was too soon

Yeah, no thanks. It’s homebrew time.

It's 9:33 PM EST and I'm still grinding out costumes in Mario Maker.

Had lots of fun playing Monster Hunter in my 3DS. Thanks for the memories!

"If only there was another way!"

I believe I got in a solid hurrah before it all closed!

-Finished Triforce Heroes including Den of Trials with my friends for a really solid and enjoyable time, we all haven't laughed as hard as we did in a long time.
-Tried out Federation force with a friend and found it surprisingly entertaining.
-Got a win in Mario Kart 7
-A few wins and and fun matches in Smash 4
-Wondertraded a whole bunch of Pokemon so I can eventually do a wonderlocke run before bank closes.
-Did some big hunts in MH 4U too. Sergio's always gives me a bit of PTSD but golly does the armour set look wicked!
-Downloaded as many levels as possible in SMM1 and finished all the event courses!

I'll miss the online and social aspect of both consoles. I do hope tech continues to advance so these kind of things will be up indefinitely.

Thank you for the lifelong memories you strange consoles!

@Anti-Matter Thank you for reminding me to install Pretendo on my old 3DS. I've been meaning to do it for some time.

Gonna miss it, but never will I forget it.

@WiiWareWave People aren't trolls just because they have a different opinion

3DS remains to this day one of my favorite gaming machines of all time. Great library and lotsa nostalgia from me. Would say I'm gonna miss it, but I plan on playing mine soon, so not dead to me!

o7 Wii U and 3DS. I know modders will revive it but this is truly an end of an era. I never got a Wii U but I got a 3ds and I remember the days I played with my family and people around the world on Mario Kart 7 and Kirby Battle Royale. 3DS online was truly the best and I hope Nintendo brings it back (but knowing them and Switch online probably won't.) As I said before o7 Wii U and 3DS thanks for the memories we will never forget you 🫡

I have been playing video games for almost 50 years, and I don't know if I ever laughed as hard as I did playing Tri Force Heroes with randoms.

@Anti-Matter sweet collection! I made the mistake when I was younger of throwing away the game cases, so I only have carts and discs and of my old games. I’ve since begun to rebuild my collection at flea markets and the like, but in the meantime I’ve been playing the sonic cd 3ds fan port between sections of my research paper. Have fun with yo Kai watch!

The 3DS was a good console. When life gives you lemons, you make Lemonade. It was a nice run Wii U, maybe one day I’ll Cemu again.

@LeJuiceCup Lets Pretendo you didn't say that, cuz' it was Citra bad pun!

I managed to stay on Super Mario Maker for another three and a half hours after the official shutdown time.

I'm thankful for all of the memories.

If anyone wants to see some Super Mario Maker 1 footage in the future, I've archived a few thousand levels on my YouTube channel, same name as on here.

Sayonara 3DS Online service, we had some good times...😔

RIP. 3DS is comfier on a phone with a bigger screen anyway.

Thanks for the good times, to both of these systems! Had a blast playing so many games on both and I had a good last hour or two last night playing Splatoon again.

Good night, cowboys. 🫡

Went into MK7 online for one last kick at an all-time favorite.. was just a torturous hell of hacked up metal Marios.. good grief and good riddance, lol

@nintendozach I strongly disagree. Older consoles should be supported for as long as possible. I play both 3DS and Switch. They’re both great consoles with different libraries, and there’s room for both.

@Doctor-Moo Nintendo is a big company, but relative to the world population has a drop in the bucket market. All Nintendo gamers should be funneled into one service. Imagine playing Mario Maker 2 for the first time last year. Nintendo had a situation where some of those gamers were on the Wii U and some on the Switch both playing similar games but divided. If I was Nintendo I would want all those gamers to be playing Mario Maker 2. Old games are great and I have a huge library of digital copies on the 3DS and Wii U. We have to remember though old games were once not old but new. That's what made them great. Nintendo should always focus on the new or they will lose their relevance. For example, when was the last Sega console released? It is really easy to get tripped up in the past but it's better not to. Especially for a company like Nintendo. I know it sounds strange to some, but I am literally happy they closed it down finally. It took long time though.

I didn’t get through DQ7 in time but oh well. Didn’t get the DQ9 dLC either.

The end of an era but not that surprising considering the Switch itself is also close to its end too.

Hacked 3ds after ehops colusure, wiiu in february (gamecube-a-tron, great, fzero AX is a beauty to behold), and installe dpretendo on both last month.. ready for the future!

I enjoyed finishing Metroid Prime Federation Force with some online people before it ended and some Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It sucks they have turned servers off. I love Nintendo but this 8s depressing. So many great games and online games lost to time.

@Anti-Matter Lovely collection.. one could argue thoguh (as i did with my self in the end), that hacking the wiiu now brings it back to it's intended state, since my warawara plaza is back alive..

(Since i lived in Rome.. it's basically the same with every house remodelling there)

My wildest 3DS memory will forever be when I got a StreetPass Plaza hit with someone from my rural town… when both of us were in Disneyland… while both of us were hundreds and hundreds of miles away from said hometown! Heh.

Nintendo is becoming more and more untrusty company/hypocrites by saying we are extremely against piracy and we sue those who boosts that (and they does that), but then they extremely force fans that are poor or nearly medium earnings to do piracy!..

Surprising that Nintendo supported them for as long as they did. Especially since they have a track record of washing their hands of their servers as soon as their next big thing is out.

The real news is that Nintendo has ended free Mario Kart online after nearly 20 years. I still resent Nintendo charging for online play.

Part of me wonders how this will affect Xenoblade Chronicles X, as I never did finish that game. Either way, R.I.P. Wii U and 3DS servers. You will be sorely missed.

RIP to the last free online plays. I've had fun til it lasted. The 3DS is probably my favorite Nintendo handheld so far. The Switch is awesome and all but the 3DS just feels very unique with its library of games

I'll never forget those Pokemon I got from wonder trades (even if most of them are questionable)

Goodbye and thanks for every fun Splatoon match and Mario Kart 8 race.

@dodgeskill100

"RIP. 3DS is comfier on a phone with a bigger screen anyway."

"on a phone"?

I haven't played anything online on Wii U or 3DS since I got a Switch in 2017, so this online closure means nothing to me.

@AstroTheGamosian
Guessing you won't run into other people's recruitable avatar characters out and about anymore. And the multiplayer raids will be gone which might make some quests impossible or much more painful.

Didn’t a group go Xbox fans prevent Microsoft from shutting their online service by keeping their Xboxes on? I think this was the original Xbox.

They have to move on and support current Gen hardwares otherwise we get nothing. That's the nature of gaming hardware. An now it's Switch what platform would one expected to be supported. It cost time and labor to support hardware no longer in production. This should come as surprise to anyone. Nintendo company servers will go but fan sites will remain that's the other part left but without Nintendo servers they can't connect.

Greedendo at it again. Too bad I just discovered an entire series of games I would have still bought. I feel like such a consumer again. Nintendo should treat its fans better.

@AJWolfTill As long as the game is still playable and beatable, that's all that matters to me.

I managed to play Splatoon 1 for 4 hours and 25 minutes past shut down and only stopped due to a power outage. I wonder how long people actually managed to stay on for. I would guess the rotation 8 hours in post of the shut down was likely the end.

@AstroTheGamosian Certain software is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

Good bye friend 🫡

@Ashina 3DS and Wii U is the last online service that was free and didn't require a subscription, sad to see it go like that, at least there is an alternative for now

Nintendo should at least have no problem porting their own 3DS titles to Switch for the remainder of its lifespan. We already know Dark Moon is coming to Switch. Hopefully, 3D Land will, too.

Sadly, currently many aspects of the Wii, 3DS, & Wii U are not really supported, even as legacy features. Miis, Photo/video channel (Wii), the polls, and contest channels on Wii (Check Mii Out, Everybody Votes), Miiverse, Nintendo Video channel (3DS), the video chat feature on WU (don't remember the name), detailed play history (Wii), note functionality (Wii/3DS), etc.