Pretendo Network fan group hoping to restore Wii U/3DS online services
Could the Miiverse rise again?
As of yesterday, all online services for the Wii U and 3DS are officially nonfunctional. Nintendo has decided that it’s not worth the effort to maintain their servers for outdated consoles, but this might not be the end. A group of fans has decided to take matters into their own hands.
Pretendo Network is the name of a new effort being spearheaded by a team of fans and software developers to allow players to experience Wii U and 3DS games online once more. When it’s ready, this will be an open source platform of custom servers, able to utilized within older games that could contact the Nintendo Network. Theoretically, it should work just like it used to, even allowing for services such as the Miiverse. Right now however, nothing is available, as the project is still in development.
Unfortunately, there’s no real timeline for when Pretendo Network will be online. They do have a full progress report to show you just how far along they are for various games and services. You can also donate some money to help further the cause. Nintendo may have shut down their servers, but as long as the fans are dedicated, there’s always another way!
Click here to learn more.
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gamefreak613
20d agoI just want to be clear, the Pretendo network IS accessible. It's just not fully supporting every game.
Miiverse works, and several games like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, and Mario Maker work as well. Not everything is perfect, but it's quite further along than this article suggests! I suggest checking the discord for the most up to date info. They also have a Mastodon account for people to follow as well.
The Wii U even has a method of connecting without requiring any hacking of the software/hardware! Just a DNS change!
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