On April 9, 2024, Nintendo shut down their Nintendo Network services, which powered the Internet connectivity features included with their Wii U and 3DS game consoles. Dozens of games like Splatoon and Pokken Tournament, that had once relied on this infrastructure were now significantly hindered gameplay-wise, if not completely taken offline, rendering those aspects of the titles unplayable. Even before the full online-service shutdown, Nintendo had already closed down Miiverse, the two consoles’ accompanying social-networking platform that facilitated communication between users, seven years prior.
Nintendo Network, to put it briefly, was Nintendo’s answer to services like Xbox Live and Playstation Network. Hoping to use their family-friendly and cost-effective ideals to their advantage just as they had done the previous generation, Nintendo decided to make all aspects relating to their online services free to use and easy to access, with both Nintendo Network and Miiverse having been functionally baked right into the software at launch. Miiverse was the video-game juggernaut’s way to both facilitate communication between users and provide such a service in what it had hoped to be a heavily-moderated, sanitized setting in an attempt to assuage the fears of anxious parents rattled by the seemingly-ever-prevalent existence of bad actors and dangerous challenges on popular networking sites like Facebook and Kik.
However, the Wii U, and even the 3DS upon its conception, were unpopular with fans. While the latter managed to experience a surge in popularity following the implementation of a much-needed price cut in 2012, the former wasn’t so lucky. The Wii U sold roughly 13-and-a-half million units throughout its lifespan, making it one of the biggest failures in the company’s history.
Because of this lack of popularity, Nintendo opted to shed this family-friendly branding as soon as possible, with the slick, lifestyle-focused reveal of their next console, the Nintendo Switch, representing a readily-apparent shift in the company’s marketing strategy. After the Nintendo Switch was announced, they abandoned the Wii U almost immediately, announcing they would cease production of the console in January of 2017 – two months before the Switch had even launched.
Following the Wii U’s discontinuation, Miiverse was shut down on November 11, 2017, leaving dozens of games that relied on its user-generated posts and content feeling a lot emptier than usual. In Nintendo Land, for instance, the main hub was an area called Nintendo Land Plaza and, walking through there, the player could see myriads of messages and doodles from others all around the world through Nintendo’s now-sunsetted social networking service, Miiverse. Since the platform’s shutdown, the Plaza has been filled with generic, placeholder avatars and holds little substance, erasing much of the game’s charm and sense of community. It was a plaza, after all, designed to make the whole experience of Nintendo Land that little bit more lively; now it looks like an abandoned Midwestern metropolis after the devastating socioeconomic consequences that stemmed from the collapse of the Rust Belt.
Despite Miiverse’s closure, however, the servers for playing games online were still very much active, with games like Splatoon gaining a small, but dedicated following. This was all abruptly put to end with the sunsetting of the Nintendo Network in April of this year, though, leaving many games like Super Mario Maker and Wii Sports Club without any of their core gameplay mechanics which involved sending content or battling players through Nintendo Network. Splatoon is a husk of its former self, with none of the weapons, ranks or currency serving any purpose in the game’s meager offline offerings.
This all begs the serious question of whether or not it is ethical for a company to significantly alter or remove content a customer paid good money for in a medium like this. Sure, it is understandable that these servers need to be turned off at some point. After all, it is laughably unreasonable to assume that the company would even have the money to maintain these servers forever, let alone cultivate an audience to play them. Having core components of a game permanently redacted from something a consumer paid good money for, however, is an entirely different issue. There should be, at the very least, a way to play to continue enjoying these multiplayer matches and previously-online functions offline, but no such effort was made.
The community, on the other hand, made a monumental effort. See, while there is no official way to play Wii U and 3DS games online, there is a community-run, open-source, donor-funded project called Pretendo Network which aims to recreate the functionalities of all of Nintendo’s former services, which includes both Nintendo Network and Miiverse, through a new service called Juxtaposition, renamed to avoid the various copyright holdings related to the term “Mii.” While not all games are supported, online functionality in those that do support it runs flawlessly – even better than Nintendo’s own offerings at times. Pretendo also has its own account management and friending systems just like the Wii U did back in the day. Juxtaposition is in a much rockier state right now, with only a select few games currently supported and access being blocked behind donating due to the Pretendo staff not having enough manpower to moderate the platform effectively if it were to be openly accessible. With Pretendo, it really does feel like the Wii U is alive and well again and I can only hope that the 3DS is given the same amount of love, too.
