Nintendo’s plans to shutter the Wii U and 3DS eShops are going through as scheduled later today.
UPDATE 2: Nintendo has revealed that they have extended the ability to redeem codes for games.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Nintendo is allowing gamers who still have unredeeemed game codes to redeem them until April 4. You can see the times below for the cutoff times in your time zone.
- PDT – April 3 at 9.30pm
- EDT – April 4 at 12.30am
- BST – April 4 at 5.30am
As for the reasons for the extension, Nintendo noted that some gamers did not get a proper opportunity to redeem the codes because of downtime at the day of the shutdown, and because the system locked it out of that functionality early.
To be clear, it is no longer possible to use credit on the Wii U and 3DS eShops to buy games. This is only for codes for specific games for those eShops. You can read more about this in the original article below.
UPDATE 1: Some 3DS owners have shared some interesting tidbits since the eShop closed down for purchases.
Nintendo Badge Arcade is a 3DS game that offered daily free plays. Nintendo stopped developing on the game years ago, because, as they found out, they had made so many badges than they could no longer all fit in a Nintendo 3DS!
Anyway, as Twitter user comeoutpunching has documented, the game’s host Badge Arcade Bunny will simply think that you’re online and tell you to check your connection instead of telling you the game has closed. Unfortunately, Nintendo did not include a proper ending to this game.
On the other hand, Draconic Blade Wing checked the 3DS Theme Shop, and confirmed that it has also closed. All but two themes are now left available to download on it.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, you can expect them to close the stores at these timezones on these times:
- PDT – March 27 at 5pm
- EDT – March 27 at 8pm
- GMT – March 28 at 1am
To be clear, it will no longer be possible to buy new games and content on either the 3DS and Wii U eShops after this. You will also no longer be able to redeem codes for such content. You will still be able to redownload any games or content you have already purchased or claimed, in Nintendo’s words, “for the foreseeable future.”
If players still have balances left on their 3DS and Wii U eShop accounts, they have until March 2024 to merge their accounts to a Switch account, to ensure that they can still use the money on Nintendo Switch’s store.
If you are in a position where you actually need to do this, you can follow Nintendo’s official instructions on how to go about this process here, or if you have a UK account, here.
While many fans and advocates have used this closure as an opportunity to advocate for video game preservation, platform holders like Nintendo, Sony, Steam and others are not able to keep stores and games online indefinitely, for a variety of reasons.
Part of it, of course, is the fact that older storefronts are no longer profitable, with zero or few sales occurring in them as the years go by. Another factor that goes into them is that licenses for these games expire, and the IP holders are uninterested in relicensing them, at least in the same store.
Some games, like Hatred on Steam, or the original Meme Run on Wii U, can be removed from stores because of outrage or controversy. Getting back to Wii U, multiplayer online game Lost Reavers, the odd and possibly only live service game on the platform, was simply delisted by its studio, Bandai Namco, after a four year existence. By its very nature as a live service game, it couldn’t be preserved, at least outside of Bandai Namco.
However, another factor that goes into these decisions is government regulation. Regulators like the EU mandate certain periods for when consumers can enjoy their products, and those rules actually determined how long online servers and other services for games stayed online.
Ultimately, with all these different external pressures, platform holders like Nintendo, Valve, Sony, etc, have a timetable already set for them on how long they can sell games and other content. And yes, even if many games have stayed on Steam for decades, they get games delisted on their platform too.
