You’d think after Nintendo shut down the Nintendo Network servers for the 3DS and Wii U in April, even the most die-hard of players would move on. Yet here we are, over a month later, and there’s reportedly three people who are somehow still connected to the Nintendo Network, and it only recently used to be four.
This is according to Twitter user Gaffs, who runs a Nintendo Network After Hours Discord and has been documenting the aftermath of the servers being shutdown. One of the players, Lcd101, we already reported on last month as they’ve been sharing daily updates on what Splatoon 1 looks like now that its online features don’t work. The other two are Fishguy6564 in Mario Kart 7 and SlitherySheep in Super Mario Maker.
A fourth player, xc_omoroid on Twitter, used to part of this exclusive crowd, having stayed connected to the servers for RPG Xenoblade Chronicles X. Although it’s primarily a single-player game, Xenoblade Chronicles X did boast online functionality, allowing players to share their custom characters so others could use them in their party. Thankfully, the game is still functional even without the servers, but xc_omoroid decided to see how long they could stay online following the shutdown.
They were finally booted from the game on May 21, which they consider a “miracle” since Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s netcode apparently wasn’t very good; they even describe it as the worst of any Wii U game. In a follow-up post, they said they also managed to beat all the online exclusive content, assuring they’ll forever have a truly complete save file. Honestly, this reminds me how I never got round to playing Xenoblade Chronicles X myself and, even though the servers are gone, I’m half tempted to dig out my old copy.
I have to imagine the remaining three players won’t stay connected to their respective games for much longer. Then again, I would’ve thought that one week after the servers shut down and yet they’ve lasted for over a month. At this rate, they could make it well into June. Whatever the case, they will be booted eventually, and then it will truly be an end of an era.
