Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 1 on Wii U have servers taken down for maintenance indefinitely due to security vulnerability

Devastating news for the small handful of folks still playing online on their Wii U – the servers for both Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon are down, and it’s unclear when they’ll be back up. This “emergency temporary maintenance” is due to a security vulnerability, and an extended duration is expected with no clear time set for return.

[Splatoon 1 / Mario Kart 8]

Nintendo has taken down the servers for these games and begun “emergency temporary maintenance” due to a security vulnerability.

They state that an “extended maintenance duration” is expected, and that they do not know when the servers will return. https://t.co/pE7x8laOU6

— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) March 3, 2023

The vulnerability is likely ENLBufferPwn, which would allow a hacker to take over your console simply by connecting to it online. Last year Nintendo released patches for Switch games that had the vulnerability, along with Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, but didn’t do so for these two Wii U titles despite them known to have the same issue. And now servers are down.

Hopefully the issue gets resolved sooner rather than later so Wii U players can jump back into the action. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Splatoon 3 servers on Nintendo Switch continue to operate as normal.

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