The Wii U versions of Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 are coming back online

Nintendo will resume network services for the Wii U versions of Splatoon and Mario Kart 8  on August 3 after an extended service period that lasted five months.

The company apologized to players for the outage, and noted that anybody wishing to resume online play will be required to download a new update for both titles.

The console maker took both games offline in March to "address a vulnerability related to online play" but didn't discuss specifics.

Wii U maintenance

At the time, Nintendo neglected to state how long the maintenance period would last, but it seems the company didn't anticipate both titles would be offline for this long.

Notably, Nintendo has warned players that it may have to discontinue online play again should further issues occur.

"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," it added.

It's a concerning footnote given the original Splatoon is currently only playable on the Wii U, meaning if another vulnerability is discovered the title could be taken offline for good.