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

 

[Silent_Gunner]

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

Or buy it now, and be able to download it in the future. Isn't that how it works with de-listed games one's purchased before said de-listing occurs? Like, I can still install MK9 to my PC in spite of it being de-listed on Steam.

 

[CMDreamer]

Another good reason for me to don't like digital only games. (Yes, I know it was released as a physical game, actually I own a copy of it).

 

[console]

Wow! That's sad news. That's why I never trust digital from shop on any consoles like Nintendo, Sony, etc. Physical copies of games are solid and not to worry about future when company kill servers off that affect digital only. We learn that digital games are trash means we can't get our digital games back. Avoid digital now and in the future. Digital is true death means can't come back again anymore. RIP digital.

We can resell our physical copies of games to young people to make money when we finish beat all games before we get older (health problems come up later).

I'm old school game fans always stick with physical copies of games only. I glad with my non-digital games on my all Nintendo and PS4.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Wow! That's sad news. That's why I never trust digital from shop on any consoles like Nintendo, Sony, etc. Physical copies of games are solid and not to worry about future when company kill servers off that affect digital only. We learn that digital games are trash means we can't get our digital games back. Avoid digital now and in the future. Digital is true death means can't come back again anymore. RIP digital.

We can resell our physical copies of games to young people to make money when we finish beat all games before we get older (health problems come up later).

I'm old school game fans always stick with physical copies of games only. I glad with my non-digital games on my all Nintendo and PS4.

In a perfect world, physical copies would still be the standard. With the full, complete package. No Day 1 patch, adding in, like, 20+ characters/stages/optional story content via DLC, etc..

Unfortunately, the world you and I inhabit is imperfect.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Thank god there's the DB: https://smmdb.net/

Still I f*cking hate such things.
Not everyone has a hacked console. Games that rely on online functionality are kind of dead if the servers are shut down.
You're not getting "forever" what you bought for 50 bucks back then.
It's more like a paid subscription for 5 years that I paid for.
Don't tell me I can still create my own courses. These games are so great because of the community and their creative levels.
Yes, I can (and I do) play SMM2 instead which is superior in every aspect but that's dying in 5 years as well and I'm glad my Switch has Atmosphère but still the majority of level creators will be gone if the circle of users will be limited to owners of hacked consoles.

Publishers should release the server application if they decide to kill it and update the game to give users the ability to input an IP.
We will always be able to play Counter Strike because anyone can host a server. That's the way.


Since slots for downloading courses are limited your best bet is to hack your Wii U to be able to inject courses anytime from the DB I linked above.

This is the real issue with games as a service. I can go along with not owning what you have bought, only owning a license to access, but only if I can actually use that license.

There'll be differing opinions, but I feel if a product is sold with online as a big contributing factor to the experience, contingencies should be made to allow customers to continue using this.

 

[BlastedGuy9905]

March 31st is now officially the date the world ends.

 

[BaamAlex]

I do find it interesting how they aren't removing the 3ds version...they don't even mention it?

On the 3DS the course upload was never possible anyway and the bookmark website didn't exist there either.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Hmmm not your best move Nintendo ... not your best move.

"go fuck yourself and buy the switch version" - Nintendo

 

[Vila_]

I got a wii u recently, lets just hope someone manages to set up a private server...

 

[Kwyjor]

I got a wii u recently, lets just hope someone manages to set up a private server...

If I'm not mistaken, there are already homebrew tools that allow you to download courses independently of Nintendo's servers.

 

[PatrickD85]

"go fuck yourself and buy the switch version" - Nintendo

Well more less ... but I cant imagine this is really hurting them in keeping it available.They just dont seem to want to ... which is a damn right shame.

 

[MichaelShawJr]

Bought it digitally. This sucks. It reminds me of Mario vs DK Tipping Stars.
Many great (Nintendo made!) levels were gone and I hadn´t played them yet.
In order to unlock all items (for the map editor) the community rushed to make "automatic win" levels and I also did so. But after the shutdown I could no longer delete these pointless levels (and they take up slots)!

If you bought it digitally you can still redownload the game if you need to. They just aren't going to allow anyone new to purchase digitally

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

The 3DS version doesn't have online servers. All you can do is make levels and trade with people locally in the same room as you

 

[jt_1258]

If you bought it digitally you can still redownload the game if you need to. They just aren't going to allow anyone new to purchase digitally


The 3DS version doesn't have online servers. All you can do is make levels and trade with people locally in the same room as you

yes it does have online servers...the wii u's servers to be precise '_>' ya...kinda weird since you can only play them in 100 mario challenge...but I had no wii u and ended up buying mm3ds anyway at that time

 

[godreborn]

I wouldn't be too worried about it being delisted if you bought it digitally. tickets remain on the system, even if you format it. I checked with NUS with wii content. the content is still there to download, but downloading the ticket causes a 404 error, so as long as you bought it beforehand, you should be okay. I don't know what to do if your system dies or something though. then, it could be a problem unless Nintendo can transfer over content ownership.

 

[kumikochan]

Funny how servers for xbox live games are still up , way way older as compared to mario maker. I still don't get why everyone keeps defending Nintendo so much when they're basically the most anti consumer out of all 3

 

[Tony_93]

Remember that the WiiU is the same gen as PS4/XBOX1? Remember when Nintendo also shut down the whole Wii shop permanently? Remember that PS3/360 digital storefronts are still online to this day? Nintendo makes so much profit yet screw their customers on a daily basis so hard. I modded my 3ds but still bought games for it. I got no regrets going full pirate on switch!

 

[fvig2001]

Well on the bright side, it lasted longer than Mario 3D All Stars (assuming Nintendo was actually serious about it, which I doubt). I probably should play the game again on my Wii U but I am still trying to justify that I bought Mario Maker 2 a few days ago.

 

[raxadian]

As a gamer who struggles to afford the latest gaming consoles a lot of the time, I found it pleasant that I could at least play something similar to the new titles out there, as well as functional. Nice to see Nintendo taking away yet another nice thing from their fans...
What a bummer, are they going to discontinue the original Splatoon next? Or the original Mario Kart 8? This company has been a complete dumpster fire of a mess these last few months...

You may want to hack your Wii U then.

Retroarch can turn the Wii U into a machine that can run q whole lot of games from older machines.

 

[gregory-samba]

Same old song. This is the problem with games that rely on servers.

 

[Deleted User]

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

its delisted, not removed, meaning you'll still be able to download the game if previously purchased, buying physical makes no difference here as online is shut down no matter what