Nintendo announced they would discontinue online support for Wii U and 3DS soon while preserving some of their games in a controversial manner.
Nintendo isn't exactly known as a company that has a good reputation when it comes to preserving their classic games. They have gone after people making copies of their games on numerous occasions, often letting the lawyers go scorched earth against these individuals, even though they proved to be the only reliable way of accessing classic Nintendo titles.
With all that in mind, the company has announced the end of online support for Wii U and 3DS, at varying times for different services:
- You won't be able to add funds to a Nintendo eShop account via credit cards on either console from May 23, 2022, onwards
- You won't be able to add funds to a Nintendo eShop account via eShop Card on either console from August 29, 2022, onwards
- Download codes will be redeemable until late March 2023
The fans' main question at this point will likely be "what about games that are only available on these platforms?". Well, you won't find an answer to that question on the blog FAQ now because Nintendo deleted the initial answer .
What it essentially said was that even though games won't be obtainable through regular means, owners will be able to access them if they are using Nintendo's subscription model.
Nintendo
This is another step away from players having any control over their games library and it's unlikely to go well with many fans.
