In a continuing series of disappointing business decisions, Nintendo has announced that Super Mario Maker for the Wii U will be removed from the Nintendo eShop in January 2021, followed by the discontinuation of all-important course uploads at the end of March. While Nintendo has stated that this will have no effect on Super Mario Maker 2 for the Nintendo Switch, it is effectively pulling the plug on the Wii U’s Super Mario Maker for no stated reason.
This is only one of a flurry of backward-thinking antics Nintendo has pulled recently. One similar incident saw Nintendo remove the Pikmin 3 from the Wii U eShop shortly after the announcement of Pikmin 3 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, but the title was luckily placed back onto the eShop once players started to notice its disappearance. Other bizarre decisions Nintendo has made include the limited sales window for Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the imminent removal of Super Mario 35, and the ongoing controversies surrounding Super Smash Bros.’ competitive scene.
However, the decision to discontinue support for one of its best-selling titles on the Wii U is one of the most dumfounding moves Nintendo has made in recent memory. Today, Nintendo announced via Twitter that players would no longer be able to upload courses for others to play that were made on Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. This will take effect on March 31, 2021, and players can continue to upload courses until then. Courses uploaded before April 1, 2021 will remain available for players to download and play. However, the kicker is that Nintendo Support also announced that Super Mario Maker will be removed from the Wii U’s eShop entirely after January 12th, 2021, making it impossible for new players to access the title at all well before the course upload cutoff.
Super Mario Maker has been around since 2015 and was one of the most successful titles for the Wii U. While Super Mario Maker 2 was released for the Nintendo Switch, it’s hard to replace the charm of the original. Nintendo’s decision to stop supporting this title is simply confusing; if the courses that are already uploaded will still be available, that means there will still be servers dedicated to maintaining those levels. This more or less eliminates the assumption that this is a purely cost-cutting move on the company’s part and begs the question as to why Nintendo is not allowing new courses to be uploaded, let alone why it would remove a first-party title from the Wii U store.
It’s hard to imagine that a game released in 2015 that has an improved sequel on a largely popular system would still have a massive player base, but this stinks of attempting to force players still holding onto their Wii Us to jump ship to the Nintendo Switch. Super Mario Maker is a beloved piece of Nintendo’s history, so it’s confusing as to why it would make the disappointing decision to pull the plug on it so unceremoniously (and, frankly, somewhat sneakily) like this. It also raises questions about Nintendo giving its darling sequel similar cold treatment years down the line, as it’s not clear which games are safe from Nintendo on its own platforms anymore.
