3DS and Wii U Nintendo eShop Purchases to End in Late March 2023 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 March 2022 / 2,749 Views
Nintendo announced starting in late March 2023, it will no longer be possible to make Wii U and Nintendo 3DS Nintendo eShop purchases. It will still be possible for the foreseeable future to redownload games and DLC on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS after late March 2023.
"As of late March 2023, it will no longer be possible to make purchases in Nintendo eShop for the Wii U system and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems," reads the Nintendo post. "It will also no longer be possible to download free content, including game demos."
Starting May 23, 2022 it will no longer be possible to use a credit card to add funds to a Nintendo eShop account on Wii U or Nintendo 3DS.
Staring August 29, 2022 it will no longer be possible to use a Nintendo eShop Card to add funds to a Nintendo eShop account on Wii U or Nintendo 3DS. It will be possible to redeem download codes until late March 2023.
"Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023," reads the post from Nintendo. "After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems."
There are no planned changed on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
We thank you for supporting Nintendo eShop on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 16, 2022
Additionally, you may also look back on your time with them via various play statistics: https://t.co/YCkkVFaQ7i
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I hope Nintendo fans freak out on internet like Sony fans did when Sony teased to close their older stores, but unfortunately Nintendo fans are more docile and I'm sure Nintendo will indeed close theirs
You will get downvotes for telling the truth.
Paradox: you got downvotes for telling the truth, not him
Which in turn means he didn't tell the truth :-P
I honestly don't really care. I got everything I was interested in already. It's been years. Personally I think they should keep the 3DS eshop up for a year longer but the Wii U can die.
Why? Because the store is closing? You had years to buy WiiU digital games, besides who honestly buys games on the WiiU these days?
Honestly, people who complained about the PSP shop getting shut down were seriously unreasonable.
People spent years crapping on the Wii U every chance they got. Nobody talked about the Wii U eShop until now when it's about to leave...in a year. I guess it's just something to talk about but some people are acting like there was a death in their family or something.
3DS support ended only in 2019, I was still buying 3DS games until 2020 when I gave my 3DS to a friend. 2022 is just too early to close it
Good thing it's NOT closing in 2022 then. But rather in March 2023. The end of NEXT fiscal year.
Still to soon.
I think a reasonable expectation is for at-least 10 years after they retire a platform's hardware production to close the digital store fronts.
People don't rush out and buy the latest and greatest console on day 0. Many people wait until towards the end of a consoles life cycle before upgrading due to financial reasons or other.
Back when it was still in production, the cheapest models were going for $80 with Mario Kart 7 bundled inside. And most games, even some 1st party games like the Nintendo Selects, were going for $15-20.
Financial reasons? Yeah, right.
People weren't buying them because of financial reasons. The "other" was they either already had it or they didn't care.
By the time it was discontinued, the Switch had nearly outsold it.
Everyone had long since moved on from the 3DS by that point.
And up until this news broke, nobody was even talking the system.
It's dead. It's been dead for a while. This last year of eShop sales is basically its funeral.
You have plenty of notice to buy the games you like before they close it.
Still this is shit. I purchased the platforms and they get devalued because of decisions out of my hand. It would all be solvable with a good unified store-front coding, but Nintendo had to set up the shop new each time. Hope they keep the Switch shop going for the next gens.
Thats the issues with console generations. Either way, nothing is stopping you from buying the games now. Its not like they are adding new games to the platform.
I don't deny that and I will not go on a internet rampage because of that decision. I will purchase the games that I feel I cannot miss out on in this year. Still I can dislike the decision to close the stores.
Its not like i want them to close the stores either, but gamers want generations, this is the side effects.
Do gamers really want generations? I
I guess that depends on the gamer. I do play older games, I would be very content with longer gens.
I think most don't care. I'd say early adopters cares for generations, I personally would be fine if companies no longer made hard resets and instead upgrade their hardware every 3 to 4 years and then let the market decide which games release to each iteration. Basically working like PCs, but with dedicated hardware
that is what Nintendo says they are going to do!
Sony is still going to close the PSP store on July 2nd. Everybody cries about these shops closing when nobody was buying anything from them to begin with. There's a reason why they choose to shut them down. If 5 people are shopping on the PSP store a year, why keep it open? Hell, most PSP software was pirated anyways, lol. People were emulating the 3DS and Wii U as new software was being produced.
Everybody hated the Wii U, but now all of a sudden it's a travesty that the Wii U eShop is closing? I haven't' touched either shop in years. Nor do I shop at the PS3 or PSVita stores. I'm not that clingy.
Then you have the emulation is moral crowd. And no, I'm not against emulation as I do it quite often with older software. They were emulating these games before Nintendo decided to close anything. And now they're in a fake rage about shops that they stopped buying from. Man, the internet is wild. If you want to emulate, then emulate. Nobody is stopping you.
Why are you pretending to not see 3DS in the title of the articule?
I did mention the 3DS... but my point still remains. I personally don't care about the closure of any of these shops. Like I said, I'm not clingy like that. I've played what I wanted to play on Wii U and 3DS. No new games are being made for either console and since everyone loves talking about emulation, 3DS and Wii U emulation are at a great point.
I just don't like the double standards of people who complain about this stuff. The second these shops close, "Oh, that's why emulating Nintendo games is moral" okay, then do it. If you're not going to spend the year downloading software while it is available and turn to the emulation rhetoric...like what?
I just can't care about the closure of digital stores. One day I'll be gone and I'm not taking 3DS software with me to my grave. I try to move on and keep up with what I can.
To be fair, everything is a justification for emulating Nintendo games in a way it isn’t for anybody else. Shigeru Miyamoto farts, “see, this is why everyone should emulate Nintendo games.”
Well, Nintendo themself emulates Nintendo games with Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online or Super mario 3D Allstars.
I thought the PS3 shop couldn't be closed down because the digital software checked in with the playstation store to be used in case the clock was wrong or something like that
By the time they close theirs, it will have been 12 years since the 3DS came out and 10 years since the Wii U came out. It's not about being docile so much as it is not being a big deal. I thought the Sony freakout was ridiculous. It's unreasonable to expect them to expend resources on running these storefronts indefinitely. Hardly anybody is buying from them now.
Right, but then don't try to convince people that digital is just the same as physical. With physical, you will always be able to buy copies of games. But if THIS is going to be the practice going forward, where companies shut down their e-stores, then the illusion of digital being comparative to physical is rendered extinct.
I mean, people have been saying this since digital started being pushed, but it all fell on deaf ears.
I know. I guess that's what happens when evolution puts a premium on convenience and ease-of-use. It helped us back when we had to hunt and gather, but in this day and age... not so much lol.
What about redownloads mof games you already bought?
Switch on it's way to sell 160 millions. If you really wanted something on 3DS/Wii U you would have gotten it by now. It's not like people can blame em for killing the Wii U from how massive the flop was. And the 3DS with it's non-existant storage, i doubt closing eshop will really matter.
Doubt it. Nintendo is giving a lot of notice. Also, pretty sure more people were actively playing a PS3 in 2021-present than a Wii U. I wouldn't be surprised if more people were actively using a Vita than a Wii U. But obviously 3DS is getting more use than a Vita.
Yeah, I expected this move, but I am not happy about it. Have to see to get all the games and especially VC that is not on Switch before the shop closes. Microsoft does this indeed a lot better.
This is why you buy physical, people.
Hmm, 3DS games I'm still interested in include Metroid Samus Returns and Zelda Triforce Heroes. Maybe I will buy them physically...
I understand Wii U, but the lifetime of 3DS was 3 years longer and ended 2021. That's a bit fast imo. I guess Nintendo see the sales numbers and they close the eshops because of economic reasons.
Y'all complaining but haven't bought a single thing from Wii U and 3DS's eshop in years. You have a whole year to buy something you always wanted. The fact they make the announcement over a year in advance is respectable.
RIP
All we are is dust in the wind.
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