The Nintendo Network Has Lost Its Final Player

November 5, 2024

Key Takeaways

Last player on 3DS Nintendo Network finally loses connection after months of being online alone.
Fans praise the dedication of the final player, the only one left on the closed servers.
Closure of Nintendo Network marks the end of an era in online gaming, leaving some gamers upset.

It’s the end of an era, as the 3DS Nintendo Network has finally lost its final player. Months after the majority of players had to say goodbye to the Wii U and 3DS online networks, one Nintendo fan kept at it, and they’re only just now being forced to admit defeat.

Back in October 2023, Nintendo announced that the Wii U and 3DS Nintendo Network services would be taken down and no longer be available beginning in April 2024. While many gamers have moved on from these systems, some were understandably still upset, as the discontinuation of the Nintendo Network would completely remove the ability to play online with anyone on the web. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn’t flinch, and moved forward with its plan and shuttered access to the network in April, but a few fans were committed to remaining online on the servers long after that. Now, the last person has finally had to give up due to a technical issue.

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On Twitter, the last remaining player on the closed Nintendo Network servers revealed that they had finally lost their connection to the Nintendo Network after having remained committed to staying online back in April. For seven months, Fishguy6564 had been playing Mario Kart 7 on the game’s online servers, completely alone. Shutting down their device would mean losing access to it. Unfortunately, after all this time, it seems that their 2DS experienced an error and the device crashed, taking them offline and thereby taking the very last person off of Nintendo’s online network from this era of gaming.

Many players have come out of the woodwork to share their thoughts, including how impressed they are that Fishguy6564 held out for as long as they did. Many seem to be still upset that the Nintendo Network was taken down at all. Lcd101, one of the players who made sure to stay online in Splatoon after the Wii U servers were closed, praised Fishguy6564 for their incredible months of effort, having themselves lost their connection 68 days in, due to a router problem.

Whether taken on as a personal challenge, an attempt at showing game studios the error of their ways, or just for fun, gamers have made attempts to remain online after a server closure in the past. One of the most famous instances is one fan who managed to stay online in Halo 2 a whole month after the servers closed.