Even though the Switch has been Nintendo’s primary console for several years now, the company has maintained the Wii U and 3DS eShop for people who still wanted to buy games on those platforms. Now, they’ve announced in March 2023, customers will no longer be able to buy products on the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS eShop.
Nintendo isn’t shutting things down entirely for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. “Even after late March 2023, and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to re-download games and DLC, receive software updates and enjoy online play on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems,” Nintendo said. However, demos and free-to-start software won’t be available after late March 2023.
Nintendo will be slowly making changes to eShop purchases up until that deadline:
- On May 23rd, 2022, you won’t be able to use a credit card to add funds to your eShop accounts.
- On August 29th, 2022, you won’t be able to use eShop gift cards to add funds to your accounts.
- If you have any download codes, you won’t be able to redeem those after late March 2023.
- You won’t be able to use money in your Nintendo Wallet account (assuming you’ve linked that Nintendo Switch accounts with the older Nintendo Network ID account) to buy Wii U and 3DS content after late March 2023.
Nintendo said that the wind-down is “part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time.” That said, you should know these changes mean you have a limited time to buy virtual console games on both platforms. While Nintendo offers many of its classics as part of its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, that library is smaller than what’s available to buy individually on the virtual console shops.
(All information was provided by The Verge)