Miiverse (2011 – 2017)
Nintendo’s popular social networking service, Miiverse, has just been given its walking papers. The service was launched with the Wii U, later making its way to the 3DS in 2013. Since then, Miiverse has been constantly full of players who enjoyed hanging out in Nintendo’s virtual world. However, that will all come to an end during November 7th, 2017, at 10 PM PDT / 1 AM EDT.
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. 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.
Users can download their old Miiverse posts (without comments or messages from others) by visiting http://miiverse.nintendo.net and registering before the Miiverse service ends on Nov. 7, 2017 at 10 p.m. PT. Once registered, users will receive an e-mail via Nintendo Account mail a few weeks after the Miiverse service ends, which will include a unique URL to download their past Miiverse posts.
The closure of Miiverse will have a deeper impact than others may realize.You see, Miiverse is heavily present in a number of Wii U and 3DS games, as it also powered the chat function. Take Super Mario Maker for example, as people use Miiverse to comment on other people’s levels. Or with Mario Kart 8, gamers will no longer be able to chat with each other. Killing off the social aspect completely.
Nintendo currently has no plans to replace the service as the Switch can already connect to several social networking services.
Currently Nintendo has no plans to implement any services to replace Miiverse, but the Nintendo Switch system includes features for connecting with Facebook and other social networking services.
In the meanwhile, make sure to log into Miiverse a few more times before it the service is pulled forever. Ironically, this reminds me of PlayStation Home and while it wasn’t successful as Miiverse, it was an interesting social experiment.
For more questions regarding the closure, Nintendo has set up a FAQ that you can read here.
