On March 3, Nintendo took down the online multiplayer modes for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon in order to address some outstanding issues with their servers. The servers for these Nintendo games were not given a timetable for when they would return online at the time of writing.
The news of the online multiplayer servers for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon comes as the Nintendo eShop clients for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U will cease functioning later this month. On March 27, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U players can no longer access the Nintendo eShop. However players will have until 2024 to transfer leftover funds from 3DS and Wii U to a Nintendo Account, which can be used for Switch titles instead. But, the reason why Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon were taken offline in particular may seem a bit scary for some users.
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On Twitter, known dataminer OatmealDome stated that the reason that these two Wii U titles are currently in maintenance was due to a potential exploit that can hijack a user's console. Dubbed the ENLBufferPwn exploit, this hack can take over the console just by connecting it online to the Mario Kart 8 or Splatoon servers. This exploit was also prevalent in other Nintendo first-party titles, such asMario Kart 7 on the 3DS, but has been subsequently fixed at the time of writing. However, both Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon for the Wii U have yet to be patched, oddly enough. The maintenance does not extend to other titles at this time.
Nintendo has not posted a definitive time for when these games will have online functionality restored, but the extended maintenance should give players some peace of mind that the problem is being
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