New users on Wii U and 3DS can no longer go online in games (update)
December 24: As the shutdown date of online services approaches for Wii U and 3DS, it’s been detected that new users can no longer go online any games for Wii U and 3DS. Pretendo shared its findings in a recent blog post.
It seems the change was made sometime this month. Since this is a server side issue, there are no workarounds.
Pretendo posted the following regarding why Wii U and 3DS online functionality for new users is no longer possible:
On the 3DS, the console registers a new NEX account on the Friends server once during the console’s setup process. Each 3DS, under normal circumstances, will only ever have a single account at a time (though this is not always true, but not relevant). This is why a NNID is not required to play most games online on the 3DS, as games use your NEX account to login to all game servers. Because of this, a new NEX account will never be created again unless the old one is removed using CFW or by factory resetting the console.
On the Wii U, a new NEX account is created automatically when the NNID is registered, and the NEX account is linked to this NNID. The console then alerts the Friends server of the new NEX account, much like 3DS. Despite using NNIDs, the Wii U also uses these NEX accounts to go online in all games.
Once a NEX account has been created, the Friends server synchronizes this account with all other game servers on Nintendo Network. This is due to the aforementioned account system provided by Rendez-Vous. Due to each game having their own server, and Rendez-Vous not having the concept of a unified account system, each game server has its own account system internally, which is synchronized with other games. It is actually possible to create accounts in other servers besides the Friends server if using a modified client, and those accounts will be usable in other games.
Essentially, the issue comes down to a synchronization process that is no longer active. Users will simply see error 106-0303 on Wii U and 006-0303 on 3DS.
Related to the above is that some Super Mario Maker players started to encounter error 106-0502 this month for online play. Pretendo believes Nintendo is “attempting to scale back how many servers are running for each game, to save on costs as the shutdown date approaches” but “most likely made an error in their presumed load balancer to not remove these now dead servers from the pool of available addresses.” However, there’s no sign of it being fixed.
Nintendo announced in October that it will be shutting down online support for all Wii U and 3DS users sometime in April 2024, though we’re waiting for an exact date. Meanwhile, both eShops for these systems closed earlier this year.
December 27: There’s good news to report, as Nintendo has addressed issues preventing new Wii U and 3DS owners from going online. Remember that the April 2024 shutdown still applies to everyone. More information is available on Pretendo’s latest post here.
