Nintendo seems intent on sunsetting both of its previous-generation consoles, and the Wii U and 3Ds are set to lose another aspect of online connectivity in roughly a month. According to Nintendo’s North American customer support site, the image share service for its eighth-generation console and handheld will be discontinued on October 25, 2022, meaning that users will no longer have the option of posting in-game screenshots to Facebook and Twitter directly from their systems.
Ultimately, this probably won’t affect very many players; the Nintendo Switch has already outsold the PlayStation 4 just five years after launch, and the system has mostly supplanted Nintendo’s older systems. Plus, mobile technology is much more advanced than it was in the early 2010s when the Wii U and 3DS launched, meaning that most players would probably opt to take a picture of their system’s screen instead of fumbling through the less-that-intuitive image-sharing interface.
Still, it’s likely disappointing for some fans to see Nintendo do away with the facets that make its consoles unique, out-of-date though they may be. Image sharing became a not-insignificant part of the previous console generation, and the at-the-time all-new PS4 share button was a huge part of the marketing push ahead of the console’s 2013 launch. Of course, the image-sharing services available on the Wii U and 3DS weren’t as robust or ubiquitous, but they did represent a first for Nintendo that will now be almost completely forgotten.
This comes just a few months ahead of the scheduled shutdown of the Nintendo eShop on both the Wii U and 3DS, a controversial move on Nintendo’s behalf that was officially announced in February 2022. Preparation for the eShop’s closure on these consoles began in August, and, though those who’ve made purchases on the software will retain access to their digital titles, new purchases will no longer be possible come late March 2023.
Nintendo pulled a similarly-controversial move when it opted to shutter access to the Wii Shop Channel in 2019, effectively ending the availability of hundreds of titles that were only released digitally for the platform. What some see as the publisher’s continued disregard for legacy content inspired an increased interest in video game preservation among fans, and, while the discontinuation of an infrequently-used image-sharing service on older consoles may not bring about the same kind of ire, it’s nonetheless a small aspect of a trend some see as disappointing.
Source: Nintendo