While it really did seem like the end of an era, it apparently was not, and was just like last year's eShop incident! Today between 2:00PM and 3:00PM CEST, the Wii Shop Channel & DSi Shop came back online after almost 4 months of maintenance, allowing once again to download handselected titles and redownload titles you've previously purchased. You can also update your Wii to v4.3 if you've held onto an older version long enough. You might encounter some hickups reopening the DSi Shop, where it's possible you'll have to reaccept the store's EULA or the store thinks the console's country settings was changed. Besides that, it should work just fine.

Be sure to redownload some titles you weren't able to redownload during the maintenance before Nintendo really pulls the plug on their servers. Some free titles remain to be downloadable regardless if you've downloaded them before if you desire filling up your consoles with free software.

Wii:
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Save Data Update Channel
Wii (U) Transfer Tool

DSi:
3DS Transfer Tool (exclusive to Europe and Japan)
Nintendo DSi Browser (exclusive to Japan)

Source

 

[Maximumbeans]

Wow, they've actually brought them back up. I thought they were just de facto dead!

 

[Jayro]

Guess they decided they still want money.

 

[seseiSeki]

Neat
My Wii is still on 4.1, since I homebrewed it a looong time ago, I completely forgot how everything besides executing and updating homebrew applications works ^^'

 

[CoolMe]

Wow! Wonder how long they'll last..

 

[MikaDubbz]

My guess is that they were doing a massive server migration to get all this content on the same server that hosts Switch downloads today.

 

[Cyan]

My guess is that they were doing a massive server migration to get all this content on the same server that hosts Switch downloads today.

Technically, they could have done it without shutting down the old server, just put all games on the new one, and change the DNS target (which they probably did, or else they would need a new Wii update to change the URL).
So, no idea what they did.

It's good to see the eshop back, for users who wanted to get the games they bought but couldn't anymore.
possibility to update the console without homebrew is also nice. But now homebrew updated their URLs to use alternate repositories for IOS.
All Nintendo did is force the hand of homebrew developers to use non official repositories

 

[SaulFabre]

It's very nice to hear this that Nintendo still love to us users of Nintendo DSi and the Nintendo Wii.

 

[Maximumbeans]

It's very nice to hear this that Nintendo still love to us users of Nintendo DSi and the Nintendo Wii.

I'd really like to believe that, I honestly would.

 

[Digital_Cheese]

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO
This is an absolute win

 

[ChaoticPumpkin]

Wow, that’s great! I was sure they were just waiting for everyone to forget about the servers lol

 

[DuoForce]

Guess they decided they still want money.

They aren’t making any money off of this

 

[MaxiBash]

For some reason, on several DSi setups I tried, the Shop was begging me to reaccept the EULA, thinking I changed regions? On one it thought I went from Germany to the Netherlands, and on another one thought I went from Brazil to the UK. Added it to the post just to be sure lol.

Edit: If enough people send in their reports on this I can generate a decent list of swapped regions.

Spoiler: List of DSi Shop region "swaps"

Germany -> Netherlands
Brazil -> United Kingdom
United Kingdom -> Germany

 

[pedro702]

Guess they decided they still want money.

you cant buy anything, this is just to redownload stuff you already bought, so this gains zero money, store is closed for new purchases just redownloads now.

 

[Glyptofane]

I never bought a single Wii game and even sold my copy of Wii Sports at the time to put toward a HDD for the Wii, but in retrospect there are some titles I wish I had supported such as The Last Story.

 

[Alexander1970]

Strange,tried the Wii System Update a Moment ago (PAL Wii) still Error Code 32007.....

EDIT: same on 2 other Wii´s (PAL)

 

[raxadian]

Wow, they've actually brought them back up. I thought they were just de facto dead!

Honesty I have no clue why they keep maintaining them, is not like the Wii and DSi are still being sold. It coulf be for compatibility with 3DS and Wii U but even then it makes no sense.

 

[Deleted member 546149]

Guess they decided they still want money.

Nothing is buyable though

 

[HarveyHouston]

Huh. Well that's pretty cool.

 

[Plazorn]

Does it really take 1/3 of a year for one of the richest video game companies on earth to just to get a bunch of old servers running again? Is it just me or is something sketchy?