If you're still using your Nintendo Wii U, a major title is about to be removed from the console's online storefront. Nintendo has announced that it will be delisting the original Super Mario Maker early next year, on January 13th, 2021. The game will be permanently removed from the Wii U eShop, and will no longer be available for purchase. That's not all, either--the game's online functionality will also be shut down a couple of months later on March 31st, 2021. After this date, you will no longer be able to upload courses to the game, look up your bookmarked courses, or rank others' courses.

Super Mario Maker originally released in 2015 for the Nintendo Wii U, and received a port to the Nintendo 3DS, with the latter lacking certain features from the console release. The game was suceeded by its sequel, Super Mario Maker 2, which released for the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

Discontinuation of certain services

From March 31st 2021, it will no longer be possible to upload courses in Super Mario Maker for Wii U. On the same day, the Super Mario Maker Bookmark website will also close.

It will still be possible to play courses uploaded before the service discontinuation.

In preparation for the discontinuation of these online services, Super Mario Maker for Wii U will be removed from sale on Nintendo eShop on January 13th 2021. It will still be possible to redownload the game after this date.

There is no impact on Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch.

We would like to thank all players for supporting Super Mario Maker for Wii U over the past five years.

Planned service end date: March 31st 2021

Please note that depending on the circumstances, these services may be discontinued earlier than the above-mentioned date.

Services that will end

• The ability to upload courses in Super Mario Maker for Wii U
• The Super Mario Maker Bookmark website
  Due to this, the following features within the software’s Course World will also become unavailable:
  
  • Updating the ranking of liked courses
  • Looking up your bookmarked courses

An error message will be displayed when trying to access these discontinued services after their end date.

Source

 

[MichaelShawJr]

I can understand why people are upset, but from a business point of view it makes sense. Wii U has free online, and Mario Maker is an expensive game to run online because they need server storage to store all the custom levels. For those of you saying Mario Maker 2 will also be killed in 5 years, it's not as likely because they are receiving money for online memberships, so it's not a complete loss of money for Nintendo. Nintendo is not making any money anymore on Mario Maker 1, so the servers would have to shut down at some point.

 

[leon315]

Don’t buy digital from Nintendo...I broke this rule with a few switch games hoping it will be different

THE GAME might be delisted, but u can always re-downloaded the game from purchase/history lists.

 

[JFizDaWiz]

[redacted]

 

[MochaMilk]

This feels like it could be the start of Nintendo trying to close off alternatives to sequels so that you have to pay for a subscription to have full functionality for certain games. I dearly hope that I'm wrong. It just feels like a Nintendo thing to do lol

 

[MikaDubbz]

Don’t buy digital from Nintendo...I broke this rule with a few switch games hoping it will be different

Why not? I bought the original years ago digitally and it still works like a charm. When these online services go down, it will affect both the digital and physical versions of this game, so why is this a cautionary tale against buying digitally exactly?

 

[raxadian]

Is the 3ds ver. still alive? Or will it die with that?

It needs a new hack, the one we have doesn't work with the latest version.

 

[the_randomizer]

They just keep giving me more reasons to pirate their games. A real shame, I know

I'll get third party games, but I'm not buying first party games so yeah, Nintendo's not getting squat

 

[Bladexdsl]

like no one saw this coming

 

[godreborn]

I bought the game a long time ago, but I have yet to play it. lol I have the sequel on the switch, and I've yet to play that either. I wanted the game, but I don't know how I feel about all the kaizo levels. sometimes those are simply unfun, more frustrating than anything else.

 

[TehCupcakes]

Don’t buy digital from Nintendo...I broke this rule with a few switch games hoping it will be different

Why not? I bought the original years ago digitally and it still works like a charm. When these online services go down, it will affect both the digital and physical versions of this game, so why is this a cautionary tale against buying digitally exactly?

Came to say the same. Being delisted doesn't prevent you from downloading it if you purchased it; it's comparable to stopping physical distribution.

The reason they are delisting it is undoubtedly because they realize that once the online servers are shutdown, the game loses the majority of its value (which is downloading courses.) Thus, consumers would feel cheated if they bought the game only to find out it is crippled.

It's more like don't buy a game that depends on online and expect it to last forever. And this isn't unique to Nintendo. Every online game reaches a point where it no longer has enough of a userbase to justify continuing to support it from a business perspective.

 

[Clydefrosch]

the servers were never going to be around forever and i think its better they delist the game instead of people buying it only to find out the servers are gone

 

[SuperDan]

Ah that's cool I've done downloaded everything already still. It's a shame for those who hasn't yet...

 

[jt_1258]

So what is the course of action for my WiiU? Should I try to download as much as community created levels?

You can either try that or create more of your own.

you two do realise that the courses that are already online will continue to stay online right? the courses that are on the service now will essentially be frozen in time from that point on, not outright deleted.

on a side note, I do find it interesting how they are opting to delist the wii u version entirely but leave the 3ds version...they very well could have just added a disclaimer to the eshop page

 

[limpbiz411]

i like mm1 more than mm2, the costumes where awesome. It's the only game i digitally purchased on my wii u. Thanks Nintendo, all good things have to end eventually right? I'm starting to not like Nintendo more and more as the years go on. I'm starting to realize they really don't care about their customers at all.

 

[jt_1258]

misreading and irony aside
I do find it interesting how they aren't removing the 3ds version...they don't even mention it? you would think they would mention it given the fact that it pulls stages from it for the 100 mario challenge...

 

[JiggleWinks56]

First there trying to kill Melee, now there killing Mario Maker. Why Nintendo.

 

[spotanjo3]

That's why I hate online. When game had online become worthless then it is useless. Not worth.

 

[MarkDarkness]

I wonder how much actual overhead there is in keeping these things online... as in, not some suit saying "but we are wasting 10k dollars a month (out of our billions) in supporting older systems!". Must be negligible.

 

[AmandaRose]

@Chary surprised you didn't point out the importance of how March the 31st is a terrible day for Mario fans.

On that day, Super Mario 3D All-Stars will no longer be sold physically or digitally; Super Mario Bros. 35's getting booted off the Switch eShop; the new Super Mario Game & Watch system will no longer be available to buy; and now poor old Super Mario Maker's having its online services shut down.

 

[Kwyjor]

Should I try to download as much as community created levels?

Games that rely on online functionality are kind of dead if the servers are shut down.

I found it pleasant that I could at least play something similar to the new titles out there, as well as functional.

Ayoye...

you two do realise that the courses that are already online will continue to stay online right? the courses that are on the service now will essentially be frozen in time from that point on, not outright deleted.

Thank goodness someone bothered to read the freakin' post.

It will still be possible to play courses uploaded before the service discontinuation.

The headline is kind of misleading.

Mario Maker is an expensive game to run online because they need server storage to store all the custom levels.

The amount of storage space required is probably insignificant. I expect the bigger issue is that someone needs to keep moderating new content.

Really, the majority of users probably weren't interested in uploading their own levels anyway, and most people working on quality new content have probably already moved over to SMM2.

It's probably more fun to watch Ryukahr play than it is to actually play the levels anyway.