Splatoon and Mario Kart 8’s Wii U servers abruptly went offlineback in March of this year due to a security breach. SinceNintendohas been winding down support for its last-gen console, it may have been assumed the servers for those games might remain offline forever, but thankfully, that will not be the case. However, if they encounter this issue again, Nintendo has warned the servers might be shut down for good.
The servers will be back online by tomorrow (June 04, 2025). Inan update from Nintendo, it confirmed the servers for both games were swiftly taken offline due to a vulnerability issue when playing online. Either it was so serious that it has taken five months to fix, or Nintendo has had what it considers to be more pressing matters to tend to since then. Considering that five-month period has included the launch ofTears of the Kingdomand a Super Mario Wonder announcement, I’m assuming the latter.
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If you do still playSplatoonandMario Kart 8onWii U, you will need to download updates for each game from August 3 should you want to return to playing either of them online. It’s the note after that update clarification that should worry anyone who plans on returning to those games this week, though.
“If further issues occur which make it difficult to continue supporting online play, we may have to discontinue the online play service for the Wii U games Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 at short notice,” Nintendo’s update reads. Further evidence that the five-month wait was likely due to Nintendo feeling as if fixing these servers was an annoyance it could do without. Should this happen again, the servers for both Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 will abruptly go offline again, and next time, Nintendo probably won’t do anything to make them safe enough to bring them back online again.
Frustrating for those still using the Wii U and its game’s servers, but unfortunately, not all that surprising. Around the same time that a vulnerability led to the Splatoon and Mario Kart servers shutting down, Nintendo ceased support for the Wii U and3DSeShops. The closures led to75 percent of all Pokemon games becoming unavailable, and with none of theGame BoyorGame Boy Advancetitles added toNintendo Switch Online, that number still hasn’t changed.
Another reason Nintendo probably isn’t all that concerned with people still playing the Wii U is it is currently marching on with final preparations for whatever’s coming next after theSwitch, or at least that’s how it seems. Rumors that its announcement is imminentstretch back as far as March thanks to a Nvidia leak.
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