If you’re still playing Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo doesn’t know how else to tell you to retire them and get a Switch (or, depending on how long you wait, a Switch 2). After all, Wii U production ended in January 2017, and 3DS production ceased in September 2020. Naturally, the next step is to discontinue their online functions and turn them into two lovely playable paperweights. The times are changing, folks.
I can’t handle all this vintage anymore
In March, Nintendo decided to close the online stores of the two consoles before the Switch, leaving a good number of titles in the realm of abandonment and lost media. What’s happening now is simply a step further, announcing the end of the vast majority of online functions, with a few exceptions.
In March 2024, we’ll bid farewell to functions like rankings, data distribution, or cooperative gameplay, beyond Pokémon Bank, which can’t close unless they want chaos in the streets of Kyoto. Additionally, they have announced that there will be a few games spared from this fate, without providing further details.
For now, we can continue updating games and downloading those we bought back in the day. But it’s only a matter of time before the company puts an end to everything related to these consoles, and they become part of Nintendo‘s history. 3DS in the hall of successes and Wii U in the chapter of resounding failures (undeserved, I would add).
At the moment, it seems like Nintendo is more focused on the development of Switch 2, the announcement of which could come at any time, given that the games being announced for their primary console are mostly compilations akin to a “grand finale.” When their online functions cease, we’ll officially realize just how old we’ve become. Even more so.
