Update: Nintendo Wii U & 3DS eShops Will Be Closing on March 27th, 2023
Posted on July 19 2022 by Sean Gadus
Update: Nintendo has officially announced that Wii U and 3DS eShop purchases will no longer be available after March 27th, 2023, which will effectively bring an end to the service on those platforms. The company previously announced, as reported below, that eShop purchases would no longer be available after March 2023 but did not provide a specific date.
As previously announced, users will no longer be able to add funds to their eShop accounts after August 29th, 2022. Nintendo has confirmed that users will still be able to redownload games and DLC, receive software updates, and take advantage of Wii U and 3DS online play after the March 27th, 2023 date.
Updates on the discontinuation of #eShop for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS family systems:
– As of 8/29/2022, it will no longer be possible to add funds.
– As of 3/27/2023, purchases will no longer be available.More details:https://t.co/T1GJfjxYMF
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 19, 2022
Original: One of the consequences of transitioning from one video game generation to another is the inevitable end of support for older hardware. While this has been going on for decades, the addition of the internet has added more wrinkles to this process. Whereas gamers dealing with generation changes in the 1980s and 1990s mainly had to worry about physical products disappearing or games moving to new systems, fans now have to think about the closures of digital storefronts and online ecosystems.
Nintendo recently announced that Nintendo Wii U & 3DS eShop purchases will no longer be available after March 2023. This process will happen in several steps. First, as of May 23, 2022, users will not be able to use credit cards to add funds to an account for the Nintendo eShop on Wii U or Nintendo 3DS. Second, as of August 29, 2022, users will not be able to use Nintendo eShop cards to add funds to an account on Wii U and 3DS. Finally, by March 2023, users will no longer be able to make purchases on the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and 3DS. Additionally, in March 2023, users will not be able to download content like game demos.
Overall, it should be noted that it appears that Wii U and 3DS owners will still have access to all of the digital content that they have already purchased from the eShop. According to a Nintendo’s support page, it will still be possible to “redownload games and DLC, receive software updates and enjoy online play on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems”. This statement strongly suggests that users will have access to the content they already have purchased or may want to redownload.
If you have questions about this process or want to read more about it, please refer to this support page on Nintendo’s website.
We thank you for supporting Nintendo eShop on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
Additionally, you may also look back on your time with them via various play statistics: https://t.co/YCkkVFaQ7i
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 16, 2022
What do you think about no longer being to make purchases on the Wii U and 3DS eShop after March 2023? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Nintendo
Sean Gadus is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. His first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time, and he loves all of the 3D Zelda games from 1998-2011. The final battle of Tears of the Kingdom is one of his favorite final battles in the entire series. He wants to help build a kinder, more compassionate world. You can check out his other written work at The-Artifice.com.
