Nintendo to End 3DS and Wii U Software Online Services 

Nintendo will be discontinuing online play and services for 3DS and Wii U software next year, the company announced.

As announced on the Nintendo official website, any feature, functionality, and service that utilizes online communication in 3DS and Wii U software will be discontinued in early April 2024.

Such services that will be shut down include any online multiplayer feature, internet rankings, and data distribution.

At this moment, Nintendo has not announced the exact end date and time, and more information will be revealed in the future.

However, the company noted that they may discontinue services earlier if there are any event occurred that altered their plans.

“We sincerely thank players for using the online services of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software over a long period of time and apologize for any inconvenience,” said in its official statement.

Further Clarifications

According to the official announcement, Nintendo has also answered a few questions and clarified how the discontinuation of online software service would affect users.

As stated by Nintendo, both Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will still be useable after the mass online service shutdown, however, they may also be disabled at some point in the future.

Nintendo has also clarified that online services will end for all 3DS and Wii U software, albeit there will be a few exceptions for services that came from the publishers.

For the foreseeable future, Nintendo stated that it is possible to download data, purchased software, and downloadable content (DLC) again from the Nintendo eShop.

StreetPass is also noted to be functional after the service discontinuation as it uses local communication between the 3DS family systems, however, SpotPass will no longer be available as it uses online communication.

Aside from the end of online play, Nintendo had also previously ended eShop online stores for both 3DS and Wii U platforms in March 2023.

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