Wii U & 3DS Online Service Shutdown

[Forma]

Nintendo Support: Announcement of Discontinuation of Online Services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Well, it's officially here. Online play for the Wii U and 3DS will be a thing of the past soon, and that will include Splatoon 1.
Not sure what to say besides "this sucks". There's an alternative on the way, but that requires console modding and services like that are never as populated as the official servers.

 

[Cephalobro]

It was an inevitability as soon as Nintendo created a new network for the Switch. It's the same fate that the Wii and DS faced before, so it's really not surprising.

The only way Nintendo will keep online preservation is if all future systems use the same network. Running online networks costs money no matter which way we look at it, so Nintendo will always prefer to only have one online service active rather than two.