On April 8, online services for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles will be discontinued for good. Online play, including PvP matches, co-op play, and leaderboard rankings will no longer be available. If there’s anything you’d like to accomplish before the fated hour comes, now is your last chance.
Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games can still be played offline, though any modes that require online connections or communication will no longer function. StreetPass will still work, though Spotpass will not.
Additionally, the 3DS and Wii U eShops closed in North America on March 27. Free software will no longer be available and you will not be able to add funds to any purchased games. You also won’t be able to redeem download codes.
Plenty of popular titles will be impacted by this decision, including Mario Kart 7, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 3DS, and Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, and Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U.
Thankfully, players will still be able to re-download games they’ve purchased following the shutdown. However, in the official announcement, Nintendo claims that this will be possible “for the foreseeable future.” It’s best to download everything you can as soon as possible—just in case.
“This is part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time,” Nintendo said in a statement released in 2023. “We are providing this notice more than a year in advance of the end of purchases so users will have plenty of time to prepare.”
