{"id":453818,"date":"2024-01-24T10:57:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T16:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/?p=453818"},"modified":"2024-01-24T10:57:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T16:57:35","slug":"nintendo-to-end-online-play-services-for-3ds-and-wii-u-on-april-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/nintendo-to-end-online-play-services-for-3ds-and-wii-u-on-april-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo to end online play services for 3DS and Wii U on April 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Time marches forward, and with it, gaming must also keep itself relevant. A few months back, we talked about how Nintendo was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/nintendo-shutting-down-online-services-for-3ds-and-wii-u-software-in-april-2024\/\">ending online support<\/a> for two of its now-defunct consoles. A recent update from the company has since narrowed down exactly when that&#8217;s going to be happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of April 8 \u2013 at exactly 4 p.m. PDT \u2013 most online services for the 3DS and Wii U will be shut down for good. That&#8217;s according to a recent Twitter post, which leads to a <a href=\"https:\/\/en-americas-support.nintendo.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/63227\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">customer support page<\/a> that goes into more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">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.<br><br>Find out more: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VdIdewGmB5\">https:\/\/t.co\/VdIdewGmB5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoAmerica\/status\/1749963072998166670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 24, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The information says the discontinuation will be for the following: New Nintendo 3DS, New 3DS XL, New 2DS XL, 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS, Wii U Deluxe, and Wii U Basic. This will affect &#8220;online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution.&#8221; A <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoAmerica\/status\/1749963074583642326\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">second tweet<\/a> says it&#8217;s possible to &#8220;merge your unused Nintendo eShop balance to your Nintendo Account&#8221; for use on the Switch. Details about that can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/en-americas-support.nintendo.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/64132\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-a-number-of-caveats\">A number of caveats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While the servers themselves are being turned off, Nintendo does say that players &#8220;will still be able to use features and game modes that do not require online communication.&#8221; It also won&#8217;t be ending the StreetPass feature for now, as that uses local communication and doesn&#8217;t require online connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the time being, you will still be able to update and redownload purchased games, and the service shutdown won&#8217;t have an immediate impact on <em>Pok\u00e9mon Bank<\/em> and <em>Pok\u00e9 Transporter<\/em>. People should still be able to download update data and redownload purchased software and DLC from the eShop. Again, that can all change in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was honestly surprised online was still supported for the Wii U and 3DS. The latter was discontinued in 2020, while the former&#8217;s lifecycle was ended back in 2017, almost seven years ago. Shows how much I have my finger on the pulse of outdated Nintendo consoles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>StreetPass is safe for now, though (hooray?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":868,"featured_media":453819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"article_type":"","ub_ctt_via":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"[]","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[19129,19110,21245,1305,19130],"internal-label":[22871,22870,24255],"invoiceable_action":[23725],"article_type":[23116],"coauthors":[{"id":868,"display_name":"Andrew Heaton","user_nicename":"andrew-heaton"}],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/nintendo-wii-u-3ds.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","author_info":{"display_name":"Andrew Heaton","author_link":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/author\/andrew-heaton\/"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/nintendo-wii-u-3ds.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/868"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453818"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453980,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453818\/revisions\/453980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453818"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=453818"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=453818"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=453818"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=453818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}