If you had plans on downloading any games from the Nintendo eShop or wanted to play a game on the 3DS or Wii U right proper, you’d best do it now if you live in Latin America or any of the Caribbean islands because Nintendo will be shutting down the limited eShops for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS starting July 31st, 2020.
Nintendo Life is reporting that downloads, purchases, patches, DLC, and the ability to re-download software you already purchased or acquired will be brought to cessation on July 31st.
They link to the official statement from Nintendo that was made over on the Nintendo Support page, where it reads…
“In certain Latin American and Caribbean countries, limited Nintendo eShops for the Wii U system and Nintendo 3DS family of systems have provided a few basic functions, such as game code redemption. Those limited Nintendo eShops will close on July 31, 2020 and users in the affected regions will no longer be able to access them to redeem a download code, redownload software or update software, so we encourage users to take any such actions before the closure date. Also, any software that requires the limited Nintendo eShops to operate may cease to function. (Note that Mexico and Brazil will not be affected.) We thank everyone for using the limited Nintendo eShops and for being such great fans of Nintendo.”
This comes after Nintendo Network accounts were hacked, making current Nintendo Switch accounts vulnerable if users had connected the two together. As a counter-measure to the account infiltrations, Nintendo decided to shut down the Nintendo Network accounts.
Now it looks like they’re going a step further and axing the eShop services in certain regions as well.
If you haven’t already, it’s probably best to download and backup all of your software right now. I imagine most pirates are chuckling as this isn’t a problem that’s affecting them at all.
(Thanks for the news tip Tim at Where)