Nintendo has announced its plans to halt the functionality of its eShop on several of its older consoles. Starting in March of 2023, gamers will no longer be able to access the eShop for digital game downloads on the Wii U or any of the various 3DS systems.
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Nintendo announced its plans to abandon the eShop on these older consoles in a blog post on its website earlier this week. Leading up to the removal, some eShop functions will begin to phase out over the next year.
The first function to go will be the ability to add credit card funds to a Nintendo account using a Wii U or 3DS device. Users won’t be able to add money this way starting May 23, 2022.
Soon after that, users won’t be able to add Nintendo eShop gift card funds on the older consoles. That function will be phased out on August 29, 2022. Fortunately, you will still be able to redeem download codes on those consoles up until the eShop leaves for good in March of 2023.
Gamers will still be able to use their Wii U or 3DS console to play games online. They’ll also still get software updates after these changes. They’ll even be able to redownload games that they already own. They just won’t be able to make any new purchases.
This has been a long time coming. Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS consoles were pretty popular in their time. But the company’s main squeeze has been the Nintendo Switch for a few years now.
Though most of the eShop’s functionality will be leaving in March of 2023, it’s nice to see that Nintendo will continue to support other online services for the Wii U and 3DS consoles.