Three Months Later, Nintendo Ends Wii and DSi Fans’ Pain With a Major eShop Move

Back in March this year, Nintendo had taken down the classic Wii and DSi eShops suddenly without any profound explanation as to why. However, the situation appears to be fixed, now that users are able to access those eShops after a long wait of three months.

According to reports, Nintendo has finally managed to reinstate the Wii and DSi eShops for public use. Until now, users were unable to access them due to an unexplained error code. The Japanese giant only had one word for confused fans, “maintenance”. However, it is also not normal for websites to take such unusually long maintenance periods.

Nintendo has been facing a lot of criticism due to its delayed service. In fact, the Switch eShop also faced a major breakdown last month when the special edition of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 went live. The team had to take down the product from the website and postpone sales until they fixed it.

What are the Wii and DSi eShops?

As the names suggest, these eShops cater to users of the respective classic consoles. While the Wii’s first variation was released in 2006, the first Nintendo DSi was released in 2008. However, Nintendo discontinued these consoles a long time back.

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In fact, the Wii and DSi eShops don’t allow fans to buy games anymore. They can only re-download software that they had purchased before the eShops stopped supporting purchases.

After Nintendo Switch’s release, fans got a chance to own a popular and promising video game console with high portability. With video game companies creating intriguing exclusive experiences for Switch, fans were drawn to the newer console. Moreover, the console giant may also be planning to release a new system soon, making classic systems like Wii, DSi, 3DS, and WiiU somewhat obsolete.

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The company had no reason to keep producing older consoles like Wii and DSi, as they turned obsolete. However, Nintendo fans would always love to keep their love for classics alive. Hence, Nintendo discontinued the consoles’ production while keeping the eShops up for fans to be able to re-download software as and when required.

What’s next for other Nintendo eShops?

Now that the Wii and DSi eShops are live, fans can get back to playing their favorite classic games. Nintendo will keep these eShops up and running, but there’s no saying as to when they decide otherwise. However, the Japanese giant will probably take the popularity into consideration before deciding to take down any eShop entirely.

The Wii and DSi eShops were discontinued back on January 31, 2019, and March 31, 2017, respectively, rendering transactions on the website disabled. Similarly, Nintendo has also announced the discontinuation of purchases for Wii U and 3DS eShops to take effect from March 2023. However, re-downloading of purchased games and DLC will be possible beyond March 2023.