Nintendo announced that all online services for the 3DS and Wii U will end in early April next year.
It means that online play and communication will cease to work for the New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, New Nintendo 2DS XL, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 2DS, Wii U Deluxe, and Wii U Basic. A specific end date for when the online services will go dark hasn't been announced yet, with Nintendo only promising to tell us "at a later date."
In the announcement, Nintendo warns that, "if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned."
The good news is, Nintendo intends to keep offering software update downloads and the ability to redownload purchased software and content from the 3DS and Wii U eShop. So as long as your hardware continues to function, you'll be able to access any digital content you purchased "for the foreseeable future."
StreetPass will also keep working because it relies on local communication, but SpotPass won't be available anymore after April. Pokemon Bank will still be available, but Nintendo warns access "may also end at some point in the future."
Back in March, Nintendo stopped selling digital 3DS and Wii U games and associated content through the eShop, in what the company referred to as "the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time." Turning off online services for both platforms was inevitable. Nintendo quietly discontinued all 3DS models back in 2020 and stopped making the Wii U in 2016.
Nintendo's focus is squarely on the Switch, but also increasingly the hybrid console's successor. We're expecting the Switch 2 to launch in 2024, with Nintendo announcing this week it will continue to release Switch games until March 2025.
