Online services shutting down in March: DSi Shop, Wii Karaoke U, Disney Infinity, more
In March, several online services on Nintendo platforms will (or already have) shut down. Here’s a quick post detailing which ones are shutting down, when, what you may have to do, and what’s next for them (if applicable).
Nintendo DSi Shop (Region: All)
Since September 30th, you cannot add Nintendo Points to your Nintendo DSi Shop account anymore, but after March 31st, you will no longer be able to buy anything: the online store will be closed for good. In other words, if you still have some Nintendo points left, now is the time to spend them before you lose them forever.
Unfortunately, Nintendo hasn’t announced any refund program, or a way to transfer the remaining points on the Nintendo DSi Shop to the Nintendo eShop.
After March 31st, you will still be available to download games you’ve already purchased from the Nintendo DSi Shop, but that service will also be shut down in the future (Nintendo hasn’t given a date yet). Therefore, it’s recommended to do a system transfer to the Nintendo 3DS, in order to make sure nothing happens to your games (though a small handful of titles cannot be transferred).
That way, you will never lose access to those games, as they will still be available for re-download from the Nintendo eShop of the Nintendo 3DS. If you don’t own them (yet), you can buy them from the Nintendo eShop via your Nintendo 3DS.
Naturally, all the games you downloaded on your Nintendo DSi (XL) but didn’t transfer will remain on the console and will not be magically deleted. You will be able to play them as many times as you want, just make sure to never, ever delete them, or you will lose them forever.
Wii Karaoke U (Region: Europe)
Bad news for karaoke fans: the Wii Karaoke U by Joysound service will be discontinued on March 31st (11.59PM BST). After that, the service will become completely inaccessible, and all the tickets purchased will become invalid: make sure you use them before that! What’s more, Nintendo specifies that even the Miiverse communities will be closed on the same day.
If you’re planning to go for one last round of karaoke, you should know that 1-hour, 2-hour, and 24h-hour tickets will no longer be available for purchase from March 31st (March 30th is the last day you will be able to purchase them. That includes the My Nintendo reward.). As for the 30-day ticket, they have already been discontinued, so you wouldn’t end up unable to use all the days on the ticket. Naturally, you need to validate the ticket before the service closes.
Unfortunately, we don’t know if Joysound is planning to release a karaoke service on the Nintendo Switch, and if Nintendo will also bring it to Europe.
Source: Mike from Nintendo (Miiverse)
Disney Infinity (Region: All)
Yesterday was the last day you could use the online features of the various Disney Infinity games, including downloading of Toyboxes, online play, and more. Naturally, you can still keep playing the game normally, including the Toyboxes you previously downloaded, as long as it does not involve any of the online features. As a matter of fact, you can still buy and download the games from the Nintendo eShop, if you want to.
Source: Disney
Daigasso! Band Brothers P (Region: Japan)
As announced a few days ago, a specific online service from Daigasso! Band Brothers P will be discontinued on March 21st. To be more precise, it’s the service that allows users to submit musical scores, to be distributed to other players via the internet (provided they pass through the screening process). You can click here for more details about it.
Naturally, you will be able to keep on playing the game normally even after March 21st, with the exception of the service mentioned above. That includes the other online features, that will keep working.
