Nintendo Wii U and 3DS online functionality ends today

As of today at 4pm PDT (midnight UK time) the online functionality for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles will come to an end, as Nintendo shuts the servers down for good.

Now, while this means that you can still play your games offline, and that’ll be fine for the majority of titles, any that use online will no longer work in the same way. For example, Super Mario Maker will no longer have any part of the online accessible, meaning you can no longer search, play, or download online levels. Nintendo says that “Players will still be able to use features and game modes that do not require online communication”.

“This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution”, say Nintendo, adding “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”.

The official support page says: “With some exceptions, online services will end for all Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Please contact publishers for information about the online services for their software”, but adds that this won’t affect purchases in case you wish to redownload games: “For the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to download update data and redownload purchased software and downloadable content from Nintendo eShop”.

However, it’s not quite an end to StreetPass, it seems. Nintendo says: “StreetPass uses local communication between Nintendo 3DS family systems, meaning that it will still be available even after online services end. However, because SpotPass uses online communication, SpotPass features will no longer be available. 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)”.

There are some services that won’t be closing, in the form of the Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Transporter. This is a good thing, since the Bank allows you store and send Pokemon between different games, and is a service many still use today.

So there you have it. If you want to play Super Mario Maker or Splatoon on Nintendo Wii or Mario Kart 7 a quick go on 3DS, today is kind of you last chance to do it.