Splatoon 1 servers are down

[Frenetar]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but it apparently the servers of both Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 are down for maintenance due to some kind of vulnerability found in both games.

 

[Forma]

Yeah, we presume this is to fix the ENLBufferPwn exploit, detailed here:

https://twitter.com/Pablomf6/status/1606637941329215488

No idea when they'll be back, but it's nice (and totally unexpected) that Nintendo is actually doing something about it.

 

[Octmari]

Hopefully pretendo network is kicking into high gear for these games because of that. It's a shame to not have splatoon 1 playable










i dont really care about mk8 LOL

 

[Lightspeed_Lunatic]

...And it's still down :(

 

[TOD13]

it's not down permanently is it? i dont have the first game so i have no way of telling

 

[Elbowtross]

Apparently Nintendo is doing something about fixing the servers. Though, fixing an 8-year old game on a dead console is, for sure, not a top priority for them right now. I wouldn't be surprised if this goes on for several more months, maybe even indefinitely.

 

[Cephalobro]

They'll probably fix it once they finished support for Splatoon 3. Hopefully, I'm wrong and they fix it earlier than that.

 

[Frenetar]

I wonder if this is just closing down the servers for good, de facto.

 

[Forma]

It's not impossible, but NIntendo tends to be pretty open with shutdown dates. It's pretty obvious this is far from a priority for them, though.

 

[Forma]

Nintendo Support: Notice Regarding the Ending of Current Maintenance for Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Good news! The servers are coming back up relatively shortly. Bad news: if another exploit is found, they're just going to take them down permanently.

 

[Elbowtross]

Bad news: if another exploit is found, they're just going to take them down permanently.

I give it a month or less until someone breaks the servers again. So a I'll make a pre-emptive farewell to Splatoon 1. Shame it had to end this way, but always the fate of many online games.

 

[Gab1bb0]

I give it a month or less until someone breaks the servers again. So a I'll make a pre-emptive farewell to Splatoon 1. Shame it had to end this way, but always the fate of many online games.

Its unlikely that another vulnerability like that will be found in short time, the issue wasn't in the servers but in the shared network library used to implement online features in 3DS, WiiU and Switch games, in fact it affected even Splatoon 2, Splatoon 3 and other games where a fix was delivered swiftly, honestly I suspect that it took so long for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 1 just to "encourage" players which stays with these to get the newer games/Nintendo Switch Online (I read of people which own a Switch but still play online on WiiU because of free online). Said library failed to validate data coming from other consoles allowing for an overflow which can allow the execution of undesirable code (if you like a more detailed explaination on overflows I'm happy to give it). If that's was the only way for consoles to communicate with eachother I think we're safe for a long while.

 

[Elbowtross]

Well that's good to hear. I thought a couple of unsavory folks had found a method to brick online play for others. Glad that's not the case.

I still won't go back to 1 anytime soon. Maybe with it up and running again it will be a little bit more active, but I'd rather just stick to 3. Gotta get those conch shells y'know.

 

[LandonAndEmma]

So, the servers are back, but now the employees are somehow still cracking down on hackers, like wow... in most games they don't even check, mainly MK8 and MK7 but for Splatoon 1 they still care, that surprises me... Because I got banned in 2022 for doing some stupid hacking crap because I thought it was funny, even though I only did it like 1 time I still got banned, I still am banned but It's great to tell others so that they don't make the same stupid mistake I did.

 

[Frenetar]

So I heard the servers are back up, but now the company announced they'll close them all by spring of 2024. Bummer.

 

[Cephalobro]

It was to be expected once they introduced a new Nintendo online service, and I highly doubt Nintendo Switch Online will be universal either, given the name being console-specific.