Miiverse: The odd social platform lets users take screenshots in most Wii U and 3DS games (a feature otherwise missing from many of Nintendo’s consoles, yet common on other platforms), chat about games with other users and draw fan art. But it wasn’t long for this world. Late last year, Nintendo shuttered Miiverse — but a group called Team Archive has backed up a whopping 17 terabytes of the Miiverse.
Nintendo has announced that Miiverse, its quirky social network launched alongside the Wii U, is shutting down this year. The Wii U’s chat app and TVii television service are also set to end alongside it on November 8th, though the announcement has only been made in Japan so far; the TVii service in the US was entirely separate and closed down over two years ago.
Introducing Archiverse — a huge, searchable cache of Nintendo’s now-defunct social network. It seems like an odd thing to want to back up, but Miiverse was actually a pretty big part of the Nintendo community during the past generation.
Nintendo made announcements on Miiverse and following each Nintendo Direct game reveal, the community would be flush with fan art and speculation. The social network even became a key part of some multiplayer experiences, embedding posts and drawings in the background of Super Smash Bros. levels or in the lobby of Splatoon (in fact, a basic version of Miiverse’s art sharing feature lives on in the game’s Nintendo Switch sequel, Splatoon 2).
Miiverse Shutting Down
Unfortunately, neither of those memes are actually in the archive. Despite collecting a whopping 17 terabytes of data (including over 70 million drawings, 75 million screenshots and 133 million posts across 5,128 communities), some posts are missing, or presented without screenshots or images once stored on Nintendo servers.
On the other hand, the archive has managed to save some things we thought were lost — not just posts and memes, but whole communities, like temporary Miiverse pages created for special events like E3. It preserves the heartfelt farewell Miiverse users gave to former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, too.
Today, Nintendo openly embraces mainstream social networks, allowing Nintendo Switch owners to share screenshots and gameplay clips directly to Twitter and Facebook.
It’s an objectively better option for the majority of gamers — but if you’re feeling nostalgic, and want to relive that one time Nintendo tried to build its own social platform, Archivers is there. Go check it out!
Miiverse Archive
During the Pre-E3 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo clarified that Nintendo Network would be the basis for Nintendo’s new social network known as Miiverse. Nintendo Network will provide the network infrastructure for the Nintendo 3DS, for the Wii U, and was initially planned for future Nintendo platforms. Miiverse Ending
Why is miiverse closing?
We started the Miiverse service in 2012 along with the launch of the Wii U system because we wanted to provide a space where users could share their feelings about games with each other. … We decided to end the service at this time because, among other reasons, many users are shifting to social networking services.
What happened to the miiverse?
The Nintendo Miiverse has officially shut down, and the users of the social network are now mourning the loss of the family-friendly online community. The writing was on the wall for the social network when it was revealed that it will not be a part of the Nintendo Switch.
When did miiverse die?
Miiverse Splatoon
Press the HOME Button to access the HOME Menu and click the Miiverse icon to open Miiverse. You can then browse communities, post comments, and reply to others. You can also view the activity of registered friends or users that you follow on the Activity Feed.
If you enter Miiverse while using supported software, you will be taken directly to the software’s Miiverse communities, allowing you to see information about the game or post comments about your experience immediately. In many supported titles, you can also attach a screenshot of your gameplay to your posts.
Each user’s Miiverse profile displays their nickname, Nintendo Network ID, and country, and it is also possible to display the user’s birthday, used Nintendo devices, game experience level, and a user-created profile message. From a user’s profile, you can also view their posts, which users they follow, and which users are following them.
Splatoon 2 Miiverse
Miiverse users had profiles associated with their Nintendo Network account instead of friend codes which were used on the Wii and the Nintendo 3DS. Users could send friend requests, follow people, view a person’s posts, view a person’s friends, and view who was following a person who a person was following.
Communities
Communities were where users could post content on Miiverse. There were 4 types of communities.
- Game + Application Communities – Posts related to a certain game.
- Private Communities – Private Miiverse communities.
- News Communities – News posts.
- Developer’s Room Communities Announcement Communities Posts from official Nintendo staff or developers of a game.
Nintendo originally stated that user communities would be added, but this never happened before Miiverse’s shutdown in 2017.
Posts and Sharing
With Miiverse, you could post these to communities:
- Typed Comments – Comments typed using the Wii U GamePad, 3DS keyboard, or inputted from a web browser.
- Drawings + Artwork – Comments or artwork was drawn with the Wii U GamePad or Nintendo 3DS not available in the web version.
- YouTube Videos – YouTube videos could be shared with Miiverse through Mario Kart 8’s MKTV feature, and previously through the YouTube community.
- Screenshots If you pressed the Home button while in a game app, you could share a screenshot of that game app. You couldn’t share screenshots in an online lobby or game, as the Home menu cannot be accessed while playing multiplayer.
Users could Yeah or Unyeah (like/dislike) posts from other users and view other users that yea hed the post.
Instant messages or personal messages could be sent to users on your friend list on Miiverse by tapping Messages in the Wii U version.
Miiverse Smash
Nintendo Network previously provided legacy support for the Wii and Nintendo DS/DSi systems since Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection which had been absorbed into the service. This had ensured the uninterrupted online support and general backward compatibility of the legacy Wii and DS families of game libraries when played on the current Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS.
The free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service was globally discontinued on May 20, 2014, which ceased support for online multiplayer, matchmaking, and leaderboards for Wii and Nintendo DS games that supported those features, and this also applies to the legacy online support of these games when played on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, including downloadable versions. The Wii Shop Channel was officially shut down on January 30th, 2019, preventing any new games, channels, or WiiWare from being purchased and downloaded. Previous downloads can still be redownloaded if data from the Wii was transferred to the Wii U system.