Nintendo Shutting Down Miiverse in November, Hundreds of Games Losing Features

For those of you who have been faithful Nintendo gamers throughout the lifespans of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U respectively, today is a really sad today. Today, Nintendo revealed that it will finally shut down Miiverse for good at midnight CT on November 8. This, according to an official update on Nintendo’s support page.

Miiverse was Nintendo’s primitive, but charming, multi-platform social service. It allowed users to reach out and connect to one another based on shared interest in certain games and software. It also allowed more creative players to express themselves with the Wii U and 3DS touch pads and a stylus, giving rise to some of the most incredible art I’ve ever seen. Incredible drawings like this one are what made Miiverse such a stimulating place to hang out, and it is hands-down the most friendly, constructive, and playful online community in all of gaming:

“We started the Miiverse service in 2012 along with the launch of the Wii U system because we wanted to provide a space where users could share their feelings about games with each other,” Nintendo stated. “Thanks to users’ support throughout the years, we think we were able to achieve that goal. We decided to end the service at this time because, among other reasons, many users are shifting to social networking services.”

Many of you are still playing games on the 3DS which use Miiverse, and some of you are even still playing games on your Wii U (I am!). What will happen to those games?

What will happen to games that use Miiverse?

Nintendo has outlined its most popular games that use Miiverse, and explained what will happen to those games. You can expect similar consequences for all games that utilized the service:

• Super Mario Maker (Wii U): Users will still be able to share levels, but will no longer be able to comment on them.

• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS): While users will still be able to play Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars and complete all 88 levels in the main game, the Community feature will be discontinued, preventing players from sharing levels and receiving additional Stars. As there will be a limit to the number of Stars that can be obtained, not all objects may be unlocked from the Workshop.

• Splatoon (Wii U): Miiverse posts will no longer display in Inkopolis Plaza or the game’s stage maps.

• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS): The Miiverse stage will still be playable, but Miiverse user posts will not display in the background. Players will also be unable to post replays to YouTube/Miiverse, share stages or create tournaments.

• Mario Kart 8 (Wii U): Players will not be able to upload game-play videos to YouTube since they also post to Miiverse at the same time. The tournament function will also not be available.

• Super Mario 3D World (Wii U): In Super Mario 3D World, the Miiverse posts that appear on the course select screen and when selecting courses will disappear. Players will still be able to collect in-game stamps, but not post them to Miiverse.

• Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U): In Xenoblade Chronicles X, the BLADE report feature will no longer be available.

Are all of my posts and drawings going to disappear?

The short answer is, yes they will. You can, however, salvage your entire Miiverse post history and download it straight from Nintendo if you want to. To submit a download request, visit this link.

The following message tells us what can be saved:

If you request your post history through this service, after Miiverse service has ended, you will be able to download a file containing the following content:

• Your posts (including hand-drawn images and screenshots)

  Comments made on posts and messages with your friends will not be included.

  Posts you have deleted or posts that were found in violation of the Miiverse Code of Conduct will not be included.

• All images in your album

Yeah, you have until November to do this, but we both know that this is something that you’ll totally forget about if you don’t do it sooner than later, so get this knocked out. I know that some of you have some amazing drawings that you may have forgotten.