Nintendo will discontinue online service for 3DS and Wii U consoles in April 2024, the company announced in a recent blog. After this point, the 3DS Pokémon storage app Pokémon Bank will be the only software accessible online.

Otherwise, owners of the 12-year-old 3DS and 11-year-old Wii U will no longer be able to engage in online co-op, rankings, or “data distribution,” Nintendo writes in its blog. As part of this, the Nintendo Badge Arcade, which lets you customize your 3DS home menu, will be completely lights out. The 3DS will save your badge data, but if you experience an SD malfunction, you won’t be able to restore it, Nintendo indicates in a different post.

Nintendo has not yet released a specific date or time for discontinuing online capabilities, but it notes 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.” Kotaku reached out for comment.

Earlier this year, Nintendo discontinued the 3DS and Wii U eShops as “part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time,” it wrote on its website. It’s possible that the Super Mario developer is clearing out its console cobwebs to make more space for the fabled Nintendo Switch successor, which seems to be scheduled for a 2024 release. During Gamescom 2023, Nintendo reportedly demoed Switch 2 hardware behind closed doors for a certain number of developers.

While Nintendo plots its official line of succession, the open-source project Pretendo is working to preserve and replace the Nintendo Network.

“We have been made aware of Nintendo’s plans to shut down Nintendo Network in April,” Pretendo wrote on Twitter. “We have begun discussing our development road map internally to accommodate this.” The service is not currently available for public use.

The Wii U was certainly not the most successful console Nintendo’s ever released, and while some may fondly remember it in 2023, at least one person actually bought a brand new Wii U from a store as if it was 2013 all over again.

Launched in 2012, the Wii U was Nintendo’s follow up to its massively popular Wii console. While the Wii would go on to become one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time, things went much differently for the Wii U and its tablet controller. The console never came close to selling as well as the Wii, and by 2017 Nintendo had moved on to the Switch, which would go on to outstrip the Wii U’s lifetime sales in its first year. But we can now add one more Wii U sale to its total tally.

This odd stat comes from Mat Piscatella, executive director at Circana (formerly NPD) who posted on Twitter (X? Whatever) that one (1) new Wii U was sold in the United States in September. According to Piscatella, this is the first time a new Wii U has been sold in the U.S. since May 2022. Which is also very strange, now that I think about it.For those unaware, Circana tracks “individual store level sales data” to keep tabs on what people are buying and selling. They then sell that data to folks who care. What that also means is that this Wii U wasn’t a used one at GameStop or something like that. This was a “new,” sealed Wii U console that was finally sold a decade after launch.

How did this happen? We don’t know specifically, but as folks who have worked retail at big chains have explained in the comments below Piscatella’s tweet, this isn’t that uncommon. Speaking to some folks I know who have worked at stores like Walmart and Target, old shit can get buried in the back. Or maybe a Wii U had been sitting for the last decade on a store shelf in, like, Georgia or Montana and finally, after a decade, someone decided to buy it and play some Super Mario 3D World. I hope they enjoy it!

Also, Piscatella added that three new PS Vitas were purchased in November 2021. I’m glad these forgotten consoles, sealed up in boxes and buried in storerooms or lost inside decrepit Best Buys, are finding homes. Brings a tear to my eye.

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