After 14 years, Call of Duty servers on Wii and 3DS are dead

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We can't imagine too many people were still actively playing on the systems

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
(Image credit: Activision)

The Call of Duty servers for Nintendo Wii and 3DS players have been permanently "discontinued."

As Charlie Intel first reported on August 2, it appeared Call of Duty games on both the Wii and 3DS could no longer be played online. We don't know who was playing games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and World at War on the Wii, but if anyone was, they'll now receive a message saying servers for all Call of Duty games on the Wii and 3DS have been "discontinued" effectively immediately.

There was no warning from Activision or Nintendo that this would be the case, so we can only hope that there weren't too many people playing Call of Duty on the two Nintendo systems that were taken by surprise. We'll hedge our bets here and say that there were probably very few people playing Call of Duty games on the Wii and 3DS in 2023.

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"The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, which provides certain online functionality for many Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo DSi software titles, was discontinued," an Activision spokesperson told GamesRadar+. According to Activision's statement, then, it's a decision from Nintendo that's caused the servers for the Call of Duty games to be taken down for good. 

There's more people than you think playing classic Call of Duty games at the moment. Last month in July, the Xbox 360 servers for games like Black Ops and Modern Warfare were suddenly turned back on out of nowhere, which saw a mini revival of sorts for some of the older Call of Duty games on the Xbox console, with players flocking in to relive old memories.

It never was clear why the Call of Duty servers had suddenly come back online. One theory tied it to the Federal Trade Commission losing its bid to block Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, but there was never any confirmation from either party. If today's news proves one thing, it's that you should revisit older online games while you still can.

Elsewhere, a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 reveal is imminent for a launch later this year, at least according to what developer Sledgehammer has been teasing.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.