Nintendo has announced that Miiverse, its quirky social network launched alongside the Wii U, is shutting down this year. The Wii U’s chat app and TVii television service are also set to end alongside it on November 8th, though the announcement has only been made in Japan so far; the TVii service in the US was entirely separate and closed down over two years ago.
Miiverse was most notable for the extraordinary hand-drawn posts that would filter into Wii U and 3DS games that supported the service. This explanatory image from Nintendo shows how empty these games will feel once Miiverse is gone:
Nintendo says it'll provide a way for users to download their own posts through the web version of Miiverse.
Nintendo’s new console, the Switch, has no support for Miiverse or pretty much anything else beside games, although Splatoon 2 replicates similar functionality. The Switch is off to a far better start than its predecessor, of course, but the death of Miiverse highlights just how different a system it really is.
Comments
By EddieRiggs on 08.29.17 1:43am
But I want 30 My Nintendo Platinum Points every week!
By Pentagen on 08.29.17 2:03am
It’s telling when Nintendo opted not to port over the best part of the 3DS: StreetPass.
It’s such a great way to encourage continued engagement; I’ve always wanted Apple to steal the idea and drop it in to GameCenter. Imagine if apps plugged into that functionality; they could dramatically increase the stickiness of their games.
By dyslexictom on 08.29.17 2:10am
That sucks. I didn’t use it much but it was nice to see the bubbles pop up in supported games. Some of the artwork on there is incredible. Shame they didn’t create something similar for the switch.
By blimeylimey on 08.29.17 4:20am
Good that they let people download their own posts for achiving purposes.
By H Y P E on 08.29.17 5:00am
this post just reminded me that I wasted money on my Wii U that sits in the TV cabinet collecting dust.
By graha.me on 08.29.17 6:51am
Miiverse was a mistake
By Eric Berggren on 08.29.17 10:20am
Yep, that’s nice. But, I didn’t use it much..
By lope01 on 08.29.17 11:30am
I hacked together my own scraper to create an RSS feed from my Miiverse page, just so I could post to Twitter and Facebook with IFTTT from Miiverse.
The biggest mistake of Miiverse was not enabling sharing to other platforms. You basically had to be on the console to see any of the posts. With the Switch, you can share your screenshots on Twitter, and they have the game hashtag, so you can also see others’ posts, but it’s not nearly the cohesive community that Miiverse was, or could be when the hype was there.
I will miss the Tingle Bottles in Wind Waker HD, and the level-related drawings in the Mario and Yoshi games. It was fun to see other users’ takes on certain levels, and often their comedic expressions of frustration with a level encouraged me to try again.
By burndive on 08.29.17 1:00pm