Nintendo has recently restored Wii U Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon online after five months of being offline.
Wii U Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon Online Play Back on Track
After restoring the online play for both Wii U Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon, Nintendo apologized to fans for taking the servers offline for five months. The company revealed that it needed to take the servers offline 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,” said the post on the official website of Nintendo. “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.”
Dangerous Exploit Discovered
On March 3, 2023, Nintendo took the servers offline for important and urgent maintenance to fix a vulnerability related to online play. It did not mention when the games’ online play will be restored. Dataminer OatmealDome speculated that both games could have rendered players open to a netcode vulnerability called “ENLBufferPwn”. This vulnerability lets hackers execute code and take control of another user’s console remotely.
Could Be Taken Down Without Notice
The post did note that if more issues appear later on, Nintendo will have to discontinue the online play service for the two games affected as soon as possible.
“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. Should this occur, please note that offline play would continue to function normally.”