Nintendo is really putting the hurt on Wii U owners. First, they announced that Miiverse was closing down. Now they’ve announced that SplatNet is going offline. The service that runs the online portion of Splatoon, SplatNet, is closing down on that date. Once this happens, you won’t be able to go online with the service, but online battles will continue.
This was reported via Nintendo’s Tumblr page.
[Notice] The SplatNet service for the Splatoon game on the Wii U system will be permanently closed on September 30th, 2017. Online multiplayer battles will still be available, as this update only affects the SplatNet service. We sincerely thank all players for using this companion site for the original Splatoon game.
More than likely, this is being closed down thanks to the inclusion of SplatNet 2, which is available for Splatoon 2. In addition to tracking stats, it will also let players connect via voice chat.
So while online battles will work, stat tracking and that fun stuff are going away. Sadly, this is the way our industry is going and previously online game services tend to be shut down after they’ve served their purpose. Gamers who play sports titles online know this pain all too well.
Splatoon 2 is available now on the Nintendo Switch and we loved it.
