4 ms·

Nintendo's online servers for Wii U and 3DS shut down today

85 points by candiodari 3y ago

ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Related discussion: Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS online services will shut down in April https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37765313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37765313
mysterydip 3y ago
There is a free and open source project aiming to replace these services: https://pretendo.network/ https://pretendo.network/
- kevingadd 3y ago
  I'm really worried that Nintendo is going to sue them to protect their virtual console/nintendo online revenue on Switch. Hopefully they don't, but the Yuzu/Citra precedent is worrying.
  - Teever 3y ago
    I've always wondered how Nintendo is able to be so effective in this shitty behaviour. Like can't you just host the site anonymously in Russia or something?
    - bakugo 3y ago
      > Like can't you just host the site anonymously in Russia or something? They can, but most of these fan projects are monetized in some way, either by simply asking for donations at every opportunity, or by straight up selling access to certain versions of the software via a Patreon subscription (as was the case with yuzu/citra) and they can't do that while remaining anonymous.
    - __loam 3y ago
      This is not a popular opinion but I've become more sympathetic to the idea that Nintendo has some obligations to defend their intellectual property, and that "vigorous" legal defense is partly why they're still around and still very profitable. If yuzu didn't want to get a takedown notice, they shouldn't have included software for breaking encryption. That's the specific illegal thing they did, and to be fair to Nintendo, they did have people playing pirated copies of Tears of the Kingdom on day 0. There's clearly damages here. I think there should be some kind of compromise here where people are allowed to preserve older games (by rom dumping and archiving them) that have reached a certain age and enter the public domain. It's obviously a bad faith argument to say you should be able to play a pirated copy of a game on the day it came out. Nintendo should have an enforced monopoly on their ip for a fixed amount of time. But I should also be allowed to do whatever I want with my 3ds and the games I own for it after they end long term support. If I can't realistically purchase a game at retail from Nintendo, I should be allowed to access the game through other means.
      - Andrex 3y ago
        The Gen Z hyperbolic "this is the worst ever in gaming" betrays a lack of knowing Nintendo's history. They're conservative (business-wise) to a fault and this has served them well. Nintendo fan projects do exist, hell Dolphin has existed for decades now. If you saw the Yuzu situation play out and immediately lept to Yuzu's defense, hopefully Nintendo's request for discovery in that case disabused any notions that Yuzu is somehow "the good guys fighting against corporate tyranny." We also have real world examples of piracy harming systems (Dreamcast, PlayStation Portable). Software is a console's lifeblood and it has to make sense as an investment. It's like fraud: you can never achieve 0.0% and must accept that reality, but you shouldn't let the situation go hog-wild either. And yes, whether it's a small indie or Nintendo, if I lend my creative voice to a company I expect that company to protect what we make. This is why so many got pissed at WB disappearing Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme. Creatives are protective of their work and may factor that into employment considerations.
        __loam 3y ago
        I'm still upset that they took down AM2R which was the best 2D metroid since zero mission. I get it but it's sad.
  - infotainment 3y ago
    Yuzu was specifically encouraging emulating current, pirated games (and even charging money for it) which is a lot different than just “virtual console revenue”. Citra was collateral damage.
cianigga 3y ago
[dead]
JohnMakin 3y ago
Close to 40(!) years later the original NES I grew up with still works and if you can find a cartridge and a TV that will play it, it will fire right up and work. In a sense we are very lucky these days these companies even extend support as long as they did for this particular case - in the future I think the window between "next gen version release" and the deprecation of the previous version will get smaller and smaller. There is no financial incentive for them to keep the servers alive, so they don't. Thusly video game manufacturers should avoid making being online a necessity to play the game - but that's unlikely to get better either. Not sure the solution, other than to provide "offline mode" for most games that really really do not need to be online other than to force players into some microtransaction/tracking hell.
- weikju 3y ago
  The financial incentives just aren't there unfortuately for the game makers.
- sunnybeetroot 3y ago
  With the periodic maintenance on replacing cartridge batteries being necessary otherwise bye bye save states.
- infotainment 3y ago
  This is also unfortunate for software in general, not just games. If I want to relive the 90s, it’s possible to set up an old computer with Windows 98 and Office. But skip forward a decade — you cann’t run Facebook as it was in 2005; it’s gone forever. Same goes for any apps you installed on your iPhone; those are gone from the store and are never coming back.
  - 486sx33 3y ago
    But… this is the plan Stan :)
  - rhplus 3y ago
    You’re on the first steps to enlightenment. All material things are impermanent and imperfect. Facebook in 2005 is never coming back. It was always just a digital mandala created by you and your friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence
scosman 3y ago
Related fun story: there was a group trying to beat every Super Mario maker level. After years of effort, they had 1 level left. They were down to the wire to get it done before the services shutdown. They got it done 3 days ago. https://twitter.com/Team0Percent https://twitter.com/Team0Percent https://www.issmmbeatenyet.com https://www.issmmbeatenyet.com
- sitzkrieg 3y ago
  and thats not to mention the uploader created a TAS automating inputs to get it uploaded!
- scapp 3y ago
  Nice! I wondered if someone would beat that TAS level anyway.
- omoikane 3y ago
  Discussed a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39754943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39754943 - The Super Mario Maker community faces its final boss (arstechnica.com)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

85 points by candiodari 3y ago

Related discussion: Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS online services will shut down in April https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37765313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37765313

mysterydip 3y ago

There is a free and open source project aiming to replace these services: https://pretendo.network/ https://pretendo.network/

kevingadd 3y ago
I'm really worried that Nintendo is going to sue them to protect their virtual console/nintendo online revenue on Switch. Hopefully they don't, but the Yuzu/Citra precedent is worrying.
- Teever 3y ago
  I've always wondered how Nintendo is able to be so effective in this shitty behaviour. Like can't you just host the site anonymously in Russia or something?
  - bakugo 3y ago
    > Like can't you just host the site anonymously in Russia or something? They can, but most of these fan projects are monetized in some way, either by simply asking for donations at every opportunity, or by straight up selling access to certain versions of the software via a Patreon subscription (as was the case with yuzu/citra) and they can't do that while remaining anonymous.
  - __loam 3y ago
    This is not a popular opinion but I've become more sympathetic to the idea that Nintendo has some obligations to defend their intellectual property, and that "vigorous" legal defense is partly why they're still around and still very profitable. If yuzu didn't want to get a takedown notice, they shouldn't have included software for breaking encryption. That's the specific illegal thing they did, and to be fair to Nintendo, they did have people playing pirated copies of Tears of the Kingdom on day 0. There's clearly damages here. I think there should be some kind of compromise here where people are allowed to preserve older games (by rom dumping and archiving them) that have reached a certain age and enter the public domain. It's obviously a bad faith argument to say you should be able to play a pirated copy of a game on the day it came out. Nintendo should have an enforced monopoly on their ip for a fixed amount of time. But I should also be allowed to do whatever I want with my 3ds and the games I own for it after they end long term support. If I can't realistically purchase a game at retail from Nintendo, I should be allowed to access the game through other means.
    - Andrex 3y ago
      The Gen Z hyperbolic "this is the worst ever in gaming" betrays a lack of knowing Nintendo's history. They're conservative (business-wise) to a fault and this has served them well. Nintendo fan projects do exist, hell Dolphin has existed for decades now. If you saw the Yuzu situation play out and immediately lept to Yuzu's defense, hopefully Nintendo's request for discovery in that case disabused any notions that Yuzu is somehow "the good guys fighting against corporate tyranny." We also have real world examples of piracy harming systems (Dreamcast, PlayStation Portable). Software is a console's lifeblood and it has to make sense as an investment. It's like fraud: you can never achieve 0.0% and must accept that reality, but you shouldn't let the situation go hog-wild either. And yes, whether it's a small indie or Nintendo, if I lend my creative voice to a company I expect that company to protect what we make. This is why so many got pissed at WB disappearing Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme. Creatives are protective of their work and may factor that into employment considerations.
      - __loam 3y ago
        I'm still upset that they took down AM2R which was the best 2D metroid since zero mission. I get it but it's sad.
- infotainment 3y ago
  Yuzu was specifically encouraging emulating current, pirated games (and even charging money for it) which is a lot different than just “virtual console revenue”. Citra was collateral damage.

cianigga 3y ago

[dead]

JohnMakin 3y ago

Close to 40(!) years later the original NES I grew up with still works and if you can find a cartridge and a TV that will play it, it will fire right up and work. In a sense we are very lucky these days these companies even extend support as long as they did for this particular case - in the future I think the window between "next gen version release" and the deprecation of the previous version will get smaller and smaller. There is no financial incentive for them to keep the servers alive, so they don't. Thusly video game manufacturers should avoid making being online a necessity to play the game - but that's unlikely to get better either. Not sure the solution, other than to provide "offline mode" for most games that really really do not need to be online other than to force players into some microtransaction/tracking hell.

weikju 3y ago
The financial incentives just aren't there unfortuately for the game makers.
sunnybeetroot 3y ago
With the periodic maintenance on replacing cartridge batteries being necessary otherwise bye bye save states.
infotainment 3y ago
This is also unfortunate for software in general, not just games. If I want to relive the 90s, it’s possible to set up an old computer with Windows 98 and Office. But skip forward a decade — you cann’t run Facebook as it was in 2005; it’s gone forever. Same goes for any apps you installed on your iPhone; those are gone from the store and are never coming back.
- 486sx33 3y ago
  But… this is the plan Stan :)
- rhplus 3y ago
  You’re on the first steps to enlightenment. All material things are impermanent and imperfect. Facebook in 2005 is never coming back. It was always just a digital mandala created by you and your friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence

scosman 3y ago

Related fun story: there was a group trying to beat every Super Mario maker level. After years of effort, they had 1 level left. They were down to the wire to get it done before the services shutdown. They got it done 3 days ago. https://twitter.com/Team0Percent https://twitter.com/Team0Percent https://www.issmmbeatenyet.com https://www.issmmbeatenyet.com

sitzkrieg 3y ago
and thats not to mention the uploader created a TAS automating inputs to get it uploaded!
scapp 3y ago
Nice! I wondered if someone would beat that TAS level anyway.
omoikane 3y ago
Discussed a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39754943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39754943 - The Super Mario Maker community faces its final boss (arstechnica.com)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]