The 3DS and Wii U will be seeing more of its functions discontinued in the next year. In a recent announcement by Nintendo, 3DS, 2DS, and Wii U users will soon be saying goodbye to online services in their devices in early 2024.
As of early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.
Find out more: https://t.co/nOyzBImHCE
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 4, 2023
According to the report, any feature that uses online functionality will be discontinued including online cooperative play, internet rankings, and data distribution. StreetPass will still be available to use due to the feature using local communication between Nintendo 3DS family systems. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for SpotPass.
Additionally, Nintendo stated that certain online services will still be available to play even after online services end like Pokemon Bank. That said even those services will likely be discontinued sometimes in the future.
While a tentative date was set for some time in April 2024, an exact date will be revealed as the year comes to a close. However, Nintendo noted that online services could be turned off early if an event makes it difficult for them to continue online services in 3DS and Wii U software.
Fans were unsurprisingly not thrilled about Nintendo’s announcement, considering the eShop for those systems were closed earlier this year. That and now the upcoming discontinuation of 3DS and Wii U online services, for many spells end for those systems.