Nintendo Europe has confirmed its plans to close off the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShop in 2023. From 27th March, 2023 you will no longer be able to purchase any games on either systems. The company also said that from 29th August. 2022 you will no longer be able to add funds to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShop. If you’ve made purchases on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U you will still be able to re-download software you’ve purchased on the systems after 27th March, 2023 and access online play. It’s real shame, as there are no legal alternatives to purchase some of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games which are no longer readily available physically at their recommended retail price
Nintendo: You won’t be able to purchase games on Wii U and 3DS eShop from 27th March, 2023
These going down will hurt the gaming community. The 3DS was a great handheld and without the ability to buy these games at MSRP digitally, the prices for these games will be unaffordable to the average consumer. And the Wii U had the best digital catalog of classic games. The virtual console is far superior to the garbage they offer via their Switch Online service. Gaming preservation is not something Nintendo cares about as they’ve gone on record saying they have no plans on making their classic games available beyond what they offer with the Online service. Truly unfortunate that the 3DS digital library and Wii U virtual console will be lost to us soon.
The 3DS library was wonderful and it’s gonna suck when prices shoot through the roof of all the physical 3DS games, but it’s really hard to care about the Wii U. I’m sure Steve the Wozniak or whatever that weird Nintendo fetish guy’s name is must be having a panic attack right now.
I thought this already had happened and pumped like 200 dollars into account. Wiiu has GBA games so I bought all the good ones I missed out on. Right now I’m playing Crystal on 3ds for first time, first pokemon game since blue and am enjoying it.
I had a lot of memories with the 3DS and it’s game. Good time. It will be a bit sad to see these go.
what’s a Wii U? Is that the controller thing for Wii? Did that have its own games or something?
DSiWare and other digital exclusive games are now on the cusp of becoming an endangered species.
Another problem; the ability to redownload will only last as long as your current Nintendo Network ID after the store fronts close. This is just the beginning of every consumer’s point of no return.
This is sad and selfish of Nintendo. Why hasn’t Nintendo thought up merging the 3Ds amd Wii U eshope to the Switch’s eshope? Can’t they just do that?