Nintendo confirms Wii U and 3DS multiplayer shutdown date for April

thesixthaxis.com:

Nintendo has confirmed the date and time of the online multiplayer server shutdown for Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS for 8th April.

The specific time will be on 8th April 2024 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET / 12am (April 9) GMT.

After that time, all online play and online communications functionality will be shut down for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, so games like Mario Kart 7, the original Splatoon and more will no longer let you play over the internet. Additionally things like online leaderboards will not work. Games with local ad hoc multiplayer features, however, will still continue to work.

A limited set of online features will continue to work, though. Nintendo has confirmed that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will still have online functionality, and while the Nintendo eShop has shut down for both systems, you’ll still be able to redownload previous digital purchases for the foreseeable future, as well as game updates for both digital and physical games.

Once again, it’s a reminder that online games, digital purchases and so much more are just temporary with our modern video game systems. Nintendo is easily the boldest of the main console manufacturers when it comes to cutting off older systems – Sony tried to shut down older stores, but quickly backtracked. Here’s hoping that the Switch 2 has got backward compatibility, so the Switch doesn’t have the same fate in a few years.

There’s good reasons for this, with older servers and software often having vulnerabilities and weaknesses that can be exploited – heck, Nintendo had to take the Wii U Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 offline to fix exploits last year – and there’s the simple fact that older systems inevitably have dwindling player bases. However, there’s often still a great deal of fervour and support for the classics. With the end looming, there’s already an open source fan network that is able to restore some online features and functions (though only on a system with custom firmware, so…. look all this up and do that