Many people may have forgotten by now, but Nintendo is shutting down the Wii U and 3DS eShops next week. On Monday, April 8, 2024, at 7:00 pm EST/4:00 pm PST, all online functionality of the two systems will be shuttered, and gone with them will be the legacies of many classic games. As you may have guessed from the headline, this closure will directly impact some Monster Hunter titles across both devices.
❗Important Nintendo Information❗
As previously announced by Nintendo, online services and functionality for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U will cease on Monday, April 8th at 4:00pm PDT.
Further information on impacted Monster Hunter titles can be found below:
(1/4)— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) April 4, 2024
Just yesterday, Capcom posted on the official Monster Hunter Twitter account that anyone interested in gathering all of the DLC for its past MH games will need to do so before Nintendo pulls the plug on Wii U and 3DS’ online services. Once the servers are gone, it will no longer be possible to redownload any DLC, though if you grab it beforehand, it will remain on your consoles. You can even play them via ad-hoc/offline play.
The affected games are listed below:
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS)
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U)
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
- Monster Hunter Generations
- Monster Hunter Stories
While Monster Hunter Stories is soon being ported to other platforms with all of its DLC, previous generations of Monster Hunter games have remained locked to the past. To my knowledge, there have never been widespread ports of older MH games with Capcom only remaking some of them on PSP and doing the cross-platform ports such as with 3 Ultimate. Monster Hunter World may have been when the series truly took off in the west, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t fans of the older titles that would love to play them on newer hardware.
For the time being, there is nothing we can really do. Capcom was gracious enough to give us a warning, but use this post as a way to doublecheck if you’ve backed up everything you’ve wanted across your 3DS and Wii U systems. Once the eShops are gone, even legitimately purchased software will be inaccessible.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
