Nintendo announces the closure of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U online
It was a matter of time before this happened. After announcing the closure of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U digital stores last year, today Nintendo has decided to finish the matter by announcing the cessation of online services for these consoles .
According to Nintendo in a statement published on its website, “at the beginning of April 2024, online play and other features that require online communication will no longer be available for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. This also includes online cooperative play, internet rankings, and data sharing.”
From then on, it will be offline or it will not be
The new measure affects the online services of Nintendo 3DS, the “exclusive programs” of New Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Nintendo has not given an exact date for the closure , it has simply said that early April 2024 and they anticipate that they will announce the specific date and time later. However, they assure that “if a situation were to occur that made it difficult to continue with online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U programs, it is possible that these services would become unavailable sooner than planned.”
What will remain from then on? The offline mode for those games that have it, obviously. The consoles will continue to be functional, but after the store closes and the end of the online mode, the truth is that obtaining games and making the most of them becomes more complicated. There will always be the second-hand market and single-player games.
From Nintendo they affirm that the closure of online services will affect all Nintendo 3DS and Wii U programs, but they state that there are “few exceptions” of programs from “other distributors” that may continue to work. However, Nintendo has not provided any further information on this matter. The only thing the user can do is go to the distributors for more information if they wish.
One of those exceptions is the Pokémon Bank , which is used to transfer Pokémon from one game to another (and is also a paid service). Additionally, it will still be possible to use StreetPass, as it uses local communication between Nintendo 3DS consoles, but not SpotPass, which requires an Internet connection. In the same way, “it will continue to be possible to download update data and re-download previously purchased programs and downloadable content from Nintendo eShop,” they conclude from Nintendo.