Nintendo has restored online play for Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U, and apologised to fans after taking the servers offline for five months to fix a security exploit.
“In March 2023, Nintendo paused network services for the Wii U games Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 to address a vulnerability related to online play,” reads a post on the Nintendo website. “The issue has now been fixed, and so we will resume online play for these games based on the schedule below. Please accept our sincere apologies for the extended waiting period.”
Nintendo hauled the servers offline for urgent maintenance on March 3, citing “a vulnerability related to online play” without mentioning when the games would be restored.
At the time, dataminer OatmealDome suggested both games could have rendered players open to a netcode vulnerability called “ENLBufferPwn”, which lets malicious actors execute code and take control of another user's console remotely.
Nintendo has yet to confirm whether this exploit was indeed the cause of the scare. Regardless, it took the company a full five months to address the problem, and it seems any further issues with keeping the titles online could see Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon’s Wii U servers permanently shut down.
“If further issues occur which make it difficult to continue supporting online play, we may have to discontinue the online play service for the Wii U games Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 at short notice,” Nintendo warned. “Should this occur, please note that offline play would continue to function normally.”
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer