Poll of the Day > Wii U and 3DS servers shutting down in April 2024

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-shutting-down-3ds-and-wii-u-online-servers-in-2024

Pokemon Bank will be spared the shutdown. At least for a while.

I maintain that they have zero reason to do this at all.

They say "it costs money"... yeah but not that much.

Rip Mario Maker 1, a game that people still are playing.

That article is unclear whether that includes downloading purchased content, which is bothersome.

Yellow posted...

I maintain that they have zero reason to do this at all.

They say "it costs money"... yeah but not that much.

And it wouldn't cost anything if they used a unified server system for all platforms. Same with the eShop. It's 100% an effort to push holdouts into using newer platforms.

I'm sorry for your loss but I'm also really not because Steam has existed for almost 20 years now and other companies have no excuse. Also PS3 system software still gets updates (latest was 7 months ago) so this really is just not acceptable.

BoomerKuwanger posted...

They better figure this shit out for Switch, it's already ridiculous, but the idea that they could shut people out from doing anything involving online with their best selling console is totally absurd

It's Nintendo. They don't want to figure it out.

Oh yeah RIP all your digital software lol

Literally unavailable if you click that uninstall button

I guess "team physical hardware" was right all along? At least with Nintendo, yeah. Sorry, we can't host a single endpoint for a download that will be called maybe 200 times a day. And the used disk space? That would cost at least $200. We're not made of money over here.

Yellow posted...

They say "it costs money"... yeah but not that much.

They're just small indie devs. Please understand.

Yellow posted...

Oh yeah RIP all your digital software lol

Literally unavailable if you click that uninstall button

I guess "team physical hardware" was right all along? At least with Nintendo, yeah. Sorry, we can't host a single endpoint for a download that will be called maybe 200 times a day. And the used disk space? That would cost at least $200. We're not made of money over here.

It's crazy because the PS3 has a much larger library and its digital store is still available. It's not a piracy thing either because the PS3 store is heavily exploited by pirates.

Our 70 year old shareholders don't understand how technology works and think legacy servers are going to be a huge drain on our company. We tried talking them down but failed. Please understand.

Judgmenl posted...

It's crazy because the PS3 has a much larger library and its digital store is still available. It's not a piracy thing either because the PS3 store is heavily exploited by pirates.

Yeah, because giving digital purchases a lifespan of 12 years would be an easy way to make people regret buying stuff from you digitally, which is what you want so you don't lose 20% of your profit to retailers and physical production

I don't support this crap, but at least fans will get some servers up like they did for Wii. I can still play MarioKart Wii on my modded Wii. It's crazy how many people are online via the same methods.

Yellow posted...

I guess "team physical hardware" was right all along?

It wasn't really a issue of "right" or "wrong." The pros and cons of each option were very obvious from the beginning. This isn't the first or second time that I've seen digital stores/servers go down.

Yellow posted...

Our 70 year old shareholders don't understand how technology works and think legacy servers are going to be a huge drain on our company. We tried talking them down but failed. Please understand.

Yeah, because giving digital purchases a lifespan of 12 years would be an easy way to make people regret buying stuff from you digitally, which is what you want so you don't lose 20% of your profit to retailers and physical production

We're at the point where we have to take things into our own hands. You can play all of the games on the original hardware. All the files are available. If they won't let us play it legit then....\_()_/

BoomerKuwanger posted...

They better figure this shit out for Switch, it's already ridiculous, but the idea that they could shut people out from doing anything involving online with their best selling console is totally absurd

The funny part is where you think anyone on their end gives a shit.

This is part of the reason why people have been complaining about an always-on ecosystem or server-based gaming in general. This outcome isn't even remotely a surprise. It was pretty much inevitable.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The funny part is where you think anyone on their end gives a shit.

This is part of the reason why people have been complaining about an always-on ecosystem or server-based gaming in general. This outcome isn't even remotely a surprise. It was pretty much inevitable.

Indeed. Short of legislation that requires publishers to commit to and clearly indicate an end-of-service date for any digital games that they don't plan to support in perpetuity, this will keep happening. In turn, that legislation won't happen because most courts that handle matters of business are run by people that still aren't quite sure how e-mail works, let alone the nuances of digital purchases and the lack of transparency around their lifespan.

Fortunately, there's zero reason whatsoever to hesitate to pirate games you've purchased but lost access to through no fault of your own. Yar har fiddle dee dee.

I'm surprised anyone cares at least about the WiiU, it seems to make sense. But I took for granted how many are playing Mario Maker. Man, wish I played that more.

adjl posted...

are run by people that still aren't quite sure how e-mail works

The real irony is, most younger people aren't entirely sure how e-mail works either.

I mean, most people don't know how email works. Basic networking stuff isn't too tough to wrap your head around but most people just never have to learn it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The real irony is, most younger people aren't entirely sure how e-mail works either.

True, but for different reasons (the medium becoming less relevant to colloquial interactions vs. not having caught up to the new developments of 30 years ago).

I will say, though, that I'm really amused by the number of people in their 40's and 50's that I work with that format their Teams messages like emails, with a greeting, line break, body, line break, and pseudo-signature. They break from that once it gets into an actual conversation, but cold calls like that are kind of funny because I can tell that they're having trouble adapting to using something other than email to initiate contact with people.

ReturnOfFa posted...

I mean, most people don't know how email works. Basic networking stuff isn't too tough to wrap your head around but most people just never have to learn it.

The underlying mechanisms, no, but most people at least understand how to use it.