Nintendo has announced the exact date it will shut down online services for the 3DS and Wii U, but you’ll be happy to know that you still have a few months to play some classic Call of Duty on the latter.
While we already knew from the announcement late last year that the online element would be gone for both consoles in early April 2024, it’s nice to have a specific date finally confirmed. After all, how is someone buying a brand new Wii U in 2023 going to deal with all the uncertainty surrounding their prized possession?
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In case you were wondering, Nintendo has now officially confirmed that April 8, 2024, is the day when “online play and other features that use online communications” will disappear entirely from the 3DS and Wii U. This means online collaboration, network ranking and data distribution will also say goodbye on this day.
Still, some things, like the Pokemon Bank, will still be available after others are gone, though it’s also possible that it’ll be further down the line, and you’ll have until March 12 to transfer your unused Nintendo eShop balance to your Nintendo account , so you can access it on Switch. Nintendo added that “if an incident occurs that makes it difficult to continue the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software online services, we may have to terminate the services early.”
But let’s say that doesn’t happen, and you’re one of the interesting people who’s been playing games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Wii U in recent years (yes, those people actually exist, or were, as of this time last year) , how many Team Deathmatch matches can you participate in between now and April 8th?
Well, given that Black Ops 2’s deathmatch follows the traditional formula of ending once a team gets 75 kills or reaches the 10-minute time limit, let’s get that out of the way. If you leave work at 5pm today (UK time), you’re still approximately 74 days and 6 hours away from 11pm on April 7th (a reasonable bedtime). This is approximately 106,920 minutes.
So allow an extra two minutes for you to quickly enter and exit each deathmatch – if you can find an endless amount of deathmatches – and if you play non-stop in between, you’ll be able to enter 8910 of them Field time point.
However, this number assumes that each match has reached its time limit, rather than ending early due to one of the teams reaching the aforementioned 75 kills. So, what I’m basically saying is, if you have a really good K/D ratio and can make that endless game happen somehow.
So, yes, no one has actually been able to do what I just outlined in practice for obvious reasons, but it’s technically sound in theory, and it’s fun.
If you like older Nintendo games, some classic Game Boy Advance RPGs have recently arrived on Switch Online.
