Nintendo Closing Wii U & 3DS eShops

I expect this to go down like a very large boat hitting an even larger bit of frozen water. It was almost two years ago now that PlayStation announced they would be culling the PS3, Vita (the what?), and PSP digital storefronts following some rumors. Afterward, the collective internet (Twitter) went off its single-minded head. The reason I remember that so well is because I wrote a lengthy piece about games preservation and the console manufacturers/digital storefront holders’ responsibilities to keep games on the digital shelves. To sum it up a bit: It is a messy business talking about copyright.

Once again the Hindenburg is going down in the collective minds of very strange people who enjoyed gimmicked hardware, as Nintendo has now officially announced the closure of two storefronts. The Wii U and the 3DS digital storefronts will now be closing in March of 2023, with the use of credit cards to add additional funds to the eShop ceasing to operate on the 23rd of May, 2022. Following that, eShop cards that you can buy at the likes of Walmart or wherever will stop working and will no longer be able to add additional funds from the 29th of August.

Though, as noted in the post from Nintendo Support and again by Nintendo UK over on Twitter, you will still be able to redownload and play games and DLC that you own on the systems. Also, according to Eurogamer, there was once a piece of the post from Nintendo stating that it would: “make classic games available to own some other way.” With the question posed by Nintendo itself, “Doesn’t Nintendo have an obligation to preserve its classic games by continually making them available for purchase?” Clearly whoever wrote that didn’t see my article, which is probably for the best, as I most likely said something nasty about Nintendo/Mario.

It goes without saying, but the reaction from this was, of course, a bit vitriolic right down to a tepid resignation of what to do next in the face of the announcement. As I’ve said before, Nintendo doesn’t have a responsibility to third-party digital-only titles, but I do agree that the likes of Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles X and other first-party titles should be preserved by the company itself. It is a horrible situation, based around the narrow-minded idea that we once had for the digital storefronts being unlimited. Now pushing it more than ever, we still don’t have a solution, and as Nintendo once stated itself: “We currently have no plans to offer classic content in other ways.“