Nintendo Shuts Down 3DS and Wii U's Online Feature

Nintendo has shut down yet another online feature earlier this week. As of Tuesday, the 3DS and Wii U no longer support native image sharing via Facebook and Twitter, as per Nintendo's recently updated support pages.

Nintendo has been actively working on gutting the Wii U and 3DS for the better part of this year, hoping to streamline its infrastructure and keep all focus and all of its resources on supporting the massively successful Switch ecosystem. Unfortunately for them, it hasn't been well-received by the public, inviting criticism that Nintendo is destructive toward gaming history.

Nintendo already detailed the image sharing service shutdown last month, confirming that it's disabling the 3DS and Wii U feature globally. The company is no longer allowing users to log into their Nintendo accounts on a 3DS or Wii U using Facebook and Twitter profiles, creating speculation around if it will be possible to login with an apple or google account.

While Nintendo will still allow users to redownload their existing libraries of games and DLC, the only real way to purchase new Wii U and 3DS games past March will be to look for some physical copies, which are becoming increasingly rare and exorbitant in price. This discontinuation will come exactly six years after the company shut down the Nintendo DSi Shop.

The only issue is that Nintendo's track record suggests it will take years and at least one more console generation before any of the most popular 3DS and Wii U games are once again ported over, and slapped with higher price tags. Will these games be lost in history, only time will tell.