Wii U and 3DS Online Play Are Officially Ending In April

Nintendo has officially given a date for the end of Wii U and 3DS online play and communication services.

They shared this statement on Twitter:

“Update: as of 4/8, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.”

In the official support page on this issue, Nintendo clarified this will be on 4 PM PT. They also shared this warning:

“Please note that if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned.”

So the real end date is anytime between now until April 8, dependent on if another issue comes up before then. The most likely candidate is if hackers try to attack these servers again, but there can also be legal or other reasons for them to do so earlier.

Nintendo also addresses all the many different questions fans may have, so let’s go through them one by one.

Obviously, all games that have offline modes can still be played offline. Nintendo’s first party games mostly have a huge emphasis on offline on-disc.

 Now, many 3^rd party online games like Lost Reavers and Devil’s Third had their offline modes disconnected long ago. This could affect a small number of Wii U and 3DS titles that still have online, such as Tekken 3D Prime Edition and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Nintendo states there will be some exceptions, so players need to contact individual 3^rd party publishers about online modes for their games, so who knows? Maybe we can still play Tekken online on these platforms in the future.

Nintendo reassured Pokemon fans that Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Transporter will still be usable in the near future.

Nintendo will still push updates for Wii U and 3DS firmware and software. It will also still be possible to redownload previously purchased software.

Streetpass, which is based on local communication between 3DS consoles, will continue to be available. But, Spotpass features in Streetpass are online, so they will no longer be available after April 8.

Finally, regarding Nintendo Badge Arcade, the actual Nintendo Badge Arcade app, and the Practice Catcher mini-game, will no longer be available. Nintendo already removed the ability to buy badges years ago, because they had produced so many badges that it hit the limits of 3DS’ memory.

Now, if you have a huge badge collection, you will have to handpick what badges you want to keep. While it’s unlikely most players even hit this limit, they will have to choose 1,000 badges, and 100 categories, and those are the only badges they can keep.

While many fans will lament the end of services for these platforms, everyone also knows that these end of services are a sign of something else. Which is that Nintendo is setting this up, in preparation for new platforms that will have new online services.