Nintendo to shut down online play across 3DS and Wii U as of "early April 2024"
Offline features will still be available.
Nintendo has announced it is ending online play services for both the 3DS and Wii U. These services will be terminated "as of early April 2024," the company wrote in an update earlier today.
Nintendo has been steadily winding down its support for these older consoles, having sunsetted the eShop for both platforms last year. Of course, this had no effect on the online play capabilities of the games.
However, as of April next year, games on either the Wii U or 3DS will only be playable offline. This means "online cooperative play, internet rankings and data distribution" will also be affected. It also means no more online town hopping in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (pictured above).
Pokémon Bank won't be affected immediately by this end of service, however Nintendo has said its online services "may also end at some point in the future".
Nintendo reiterated that features and game modes that don't require any online communication will still be available after the end of its online play support.
The company has said it will announce a specific end date for these online services at a later time. Nintendo also stated that "if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software" it may be compelled to end these services "earlier than planned". We will, of course, keep you updated.
In a follow up Q&A, Nintendo's support team confirmed it will still be possible for users to "download update data, and redownload purchased software and downloadable content from Nintendo eShop" after the online play services close down.
It also said that StreetPass will still be available as this uses "local communication between Nintendo 3DS family systems". SpotPass, however, will not be available, as it depends on an online communication to work.
"For example, you will be able to use StreetPass in StreetPass Mii Plaza, which is pre-installed on Nintendo 3DS family systems, but you will no longer be able to use features that use online communication (such as receiving new panels in Puzzle Swap)," the company explained.
"We sincerely thank players for using the online services of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software over a long period of time and apologise for any inconvenience," Nintendo closed.