During the holidays, we republish some choice characteristics of the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual mix of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia and, of course, enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy Holidays!
Nintendo recently unveiled its schedule for closing its digital storefronts for the 3DS family of systems and the Wii U. As of March 2023, you will no longer be able to make new digital software purchases of any kind on the 3DS and Wii U eShops, which include digital versions of physical versions, digital-only downloadable games, and all forms of downloadable content. You will be be able to re-download purchases made before that date (much like you can still download previously purchased original Wii titles on this console) “for the foreseeable future”, but obviously this feature will eventually be removed.
“So it is,” you might think, “it was never going to last forever.” And while most of us can sit down and rationalize that, yeah, sure digital services have a finite lifespan, not, obviously we didn’t expect to be able to redownload our copy of crimson veil When it’s the 90s, seeing digital store closures happen so quickly after these eShops first appeared is a bitter pill to swallow if you’re the least bit concerned about video game preservation.
Nintendo sees the first 2 years as the indicator of when to start packing it with a console
The fact is, however, that Nintendo – and all companies operating similar stores selling digital goods – are planning controlled closures like this many years in advance.
“Nintendo knows they have to support a product for at least 10 years or they risk a class action lawsuit,” a former Nintendo of America employee told us. The source, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that Nintendo has been contemplating this shutdown for a long time now, and that the 10-year shutdown comes in November 2022, a decade after the launch of the Wii U. “Internally, NCL [Nintendo Co. Ltd, the main Japanese company of which NOA is a subsidiary] been waiting for this day since 2014 based on sales… Nintendo sees the first 2 years as the indicator of when to start packing it with a console.”
A failure on Nintendo’s part to succinctly demonstrate the benefits and value of the GamePad controller’s asymmetrical gameplay—or to successfully differentiate the console from its predecessor in the eyes of the general public that had been a key element in the Wii’s popularity— resulted in lackluster sales from the start. By 2014, it was clear that the concept just hadn’t hit a mainstream audience, and according to our source, the company was quick to pivot and change course internally.
“While NX was being worked on, you saw a test with amiibo and a bunch of weird apps that interacted with the Wii U ones. All of them were busy filling the sales void until NX [Switch’s code name] would happen. Same with mini consoles… panic products aimed at filling the NX void for Christmas.”
While NX was being worked on, you saw a test with amiibo and a bunch of weird apps that interacted with the Wii U ones. All of them were busy filling the sales void… Same with the mini consoles
The relative commercial failure of the Wii U (13.56 million units is not nothingbut from its line of consoles, only the Virtual Boy sold fewer units) caused headaches throughout the company and supply issues emerged earlier in the console’s lifecycle, especially with regard to spare parts.
“We started talking about repair and replacement numbers for the Wii U about a year before the launch of the Switch,” details our source. “NOA was almost out of optical drives for the repair/replacement program…and I mean, like in 2016, you could see how many were left. NCL had a good supply, so they transferred that inventory to NOA so that we can manage repairs at least until the Switch is launched. [End-Of-Life] program at least for the console started before the launch of NX.”
This shutdown plan came only a few years after the internal rollout of a “Wii U Upgrade Program”, which encouraged Wii owners to upgrade to the new console at a discount while NOA recycled the old console.
“In 2013 we were still dealing with Wii repairs and Nintendo was eating $7-10 per repair. There was an employee who met in the spring of 2014 and they were looking for inside ideas for savings or ideas sales… This was around the time I started hearing inside jokes about “what do we upgrade them to when these Wii U’s are sent in for repair”.
Asked about the full end-of-life process and how long the ability to redownload previous purchases can remain in place for 3DS and Wii U, our source is less than optimistic about that timeframe compared to Nintendo’s official line on “the foreseeable future”; they predict a total shutdown of services within just a few years. “They will give notice in 2023 that the server will be shut down after a while.” After this time, it is suggested that online play, re-downloads of purchased content, and everything else will disappear completely. “People will lose their games 100% if something happens to their Wii U or the drive they have their games on.”
People will lose their games 100% if something happens to their Wii U or the drive they have their games on
The Wii hasn’t been Nintendo’s current console for a decade, so it would be less of a surprise if Nintendo shut down servers for downloads of that system soon. Wii U, however, was Nintendo’s primary platform until Switch launched nearly five years ago in March 2017, so the idea that access to re-download your digital library and play online might be gone. from 2023/24 gives food for thought.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment regarding our source’s claims and the company’s plans after March 2023 for the networks. We were directed to the business Wii U and Nintendo 3DS Online Store Shutdown Support Pagewhich – as we mentioned before – states that online play, software updates and the ability to re-download previously purchased content will remain after the end of March 2023 “for the foreseeable future”:
For the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to redownload games and downloadable content, receive software updates, and play online on the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
With specific reference to online play, the page also states that “no further changes are planned at this time”.
“The discussions I heard were to take the NNID bolt-on system off and just use the Nintendo Account system,” our former NOA source explains. In fact, it looks like the Nintendo Network ID system that was ditched for Switch in favor of the new Nintendo Account system (but “intentionally bolted to the current system so they can at least merge wallets/payments and bring the people in the Switch ecosystem earlier”) may be another cause for the company’s eagerness to end last-gen console storefronts and networks.
“They may change their minds about how and if they will allow access to your purchased titles, but this system was such a mess to tie to Nintendo Accounts that they may choose a service solution with some sort of credit” to return happy customer “for Switch.”
When you look at the relatively long lifespan of the Wii Shop – which is still accessible in 2022 to re-download purchased titles – we assumed this was simply due to the massive install base of the original Wii, which our source confirmed. “The Wii Shop was a fairly confined store environment and yes, the install base is still huge.”
Of course, those Wii purchases won’t be available to redownload forever, and it’s not unrealistic to imagine Nintendo rolling up the complete shutdown of all of its old networks – Wii, Wii U and 3DS – all at once. . The company knows as well as anyone how this news will get across to die-hard fans. from a PR perspective, it’s better to eliminate everything at once than to present multiple targets for negative press and general player dissatisfaction.
Ah, who caresyou can cry – who plays 3DS or Wii U online now anyway? Well, maybe more people than you think. Former Nintendo Life video producer Jon Cartwright investigated the online activity of both systems – Wii U December 20203DS in January 2021 – and found a surprisingly active playerbase for a number of online games. Admittedly, these tests were carried out while much of the world was staying at home more than they otherwise would for pandemic-related reasons, but there is obviously still a demand from gamers, however small, that these services remain active as long as possible.
it’s not unrealistic to imagine Nintendo rolling up the complete shutdown of all of its old networks – Wii, Wii U and 3DS – in one fell swoop. The company knows as well as anyone how this news will get across to die-hard fans.
Ultimately, anyone who stops and considers the financial realities of maintaining servers and devoting resources to networks built for older consoles – services that are only actively used by a tiny fraction of gamers – will see the writing on the wall here. That’s cold comfort for enthusiasts like us, or curators, or young gamers 5 or 10 years from now who might want to explore the libraries of these systems to find them inaccessible.
Most of the biggest 3DS and Wii U eShop games got physical releases, but not all of them — not by a long shot. The price of a used 3DS has skyrocketed in recent years, with prices on auction sites reaching exorbitant levels, which is somewhat surprising for a system with lifetime sales of almost 76 million units. . If you want a nice, clean one, you can expect to pay hundreds. Conversely, there are less than 14 million Wii Us in the wild, and a much smaller number with copies of Affordable space adventures on them. subtract from this understand the hard drive corruptions, crashes and data loss that these systems will inevitably experience in the future and…well, you can see why people are so passionate about this topic.
Our advice? We highly recommend backing up your hard drives if you have them and getting your personal 3DS/Wii U stuff in order while you can. It’s easy to get up in arms and melodramatic – and we’re keen to encourage cool heads and quiet conversation – but time is running out.
