It's time to get your Nintendo Wii U and 3DS downloads squared away for good, as the eShop for those platforms will be going offline soon, in certain regions. On July 31st, users in 42 different countries across Latin America and the Caribbean will no longer be able to use the 3DS or Wii U eShop. It should be noted that these regions never had a typical Nintendo eShop, as they were referred to as "Limited Nintendo eShops", only offering game voucher redemptions as opposed to other regions where the eShop is a full digital storefront. This means that after the aforementioned date, redeeming download codes for Nintendo titles will no longer be an option, nor will downloading updates for games or system software, or even redownloading games you already own.

Nintendo recommends that you download all software and updates that you wish to keep prior to the deactivation date on July 31, and that you redeem your leftover game codes before it's too late. The following countries are the ones affected by this announcement: Anguilla, Antigua/Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Cost Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Those in Mexico or Brazil will not be affected and are an exception, as they offer their own regular Nintendo eShop service and not a "limited" version.

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.

What to do
We recommend that you take the following action on your Nintendo 3DS or Wii U before the closure date of July 31, 2020:

• Redownload any previously-downloaded software from the Nintendo eShop
  • Nintendo 3DS
  • Wii U
• Check the Nintendo eShop for any available updates to software you own
  • Nintendo 3DS
  • Wii U
• Redeem any download codes you have that have not yet been redeemed
  • Nintendo 3DS
  • Wii U

FAQ

• What do I do with any codes I haven't yet redeemed?
• Why are the limited Nintendo eShops closing?
• Which regions are affected by this?
• Why aren’t Mexico and Brazil affected?
• Will you also be closing any limited Nintendo eShops for the Nintendo Switch system?
• Do you plan to open full Nintendo eShops for any Nintendo systems in the affected regions?

What do I do with any codes I haven't yet redeemed?
We encourage anyone with unredeemed codes to redeem them before the limited Nintendo eShops close on July 31, 2020. After that, it will not be possible to redeem any codes.

Why are the limited Nintendo eShops closing?
We constantly re-evaluate our business and make decisions based on a variety of factors.

Which regions are affected by this?
The following regions will be affected by this: Anguilla, Antigua/Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Cost Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Why aren’t Mexico and Brazil affected?
Mexico has a full Nintendo eShop, and those are not affected by the closure of limited Nintendo eShops. Brazil has a full Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems and has neither a full nor limited Nintendo eShop for the Wii U system.

Will you also be closing any limited Nintendo eShops for the Nintendo Switch system?
The closures only affect limited Nintendo eShops for the Wii U system and Nintendo 3DS family of systems in the affected regions. No limited or full Nintendo eShops for the Nintendo Switch system will be affected.

Do you plan to open full Nintendo eShops for any Nintendo systems in the affected regions?
We have nothing to announce on this topic.

Source

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

preety sure microsoft closed the original xbox shop so no more dlc can be bought for original xbox games from afew years ago, since sony never had a ps2 psn they obviously didnt close what they never had, i can see sony closing ps3 store soonish becuase they want you to pay for psnow for ps3 games and so on, and when ps3 digital revenue starts being way less than what they pay for serves they will close it for sure.

microsoft and the x360 store i dont know, becuase they want backwards compatibility thing so no idea, but yeah i predict sony to pull the plug on ps3 store in 1 or 2 years and maybe the vita one too.

I highly doubt it, seeing how the servers they use for PS3 and Vita content are all the same as they use for PS4, and will use for PS5 content. They might close the storefront down, like they did on the PSP, but they're 100% guaranteed never going to completely remove those games as being downloadable on their consoles like ass backwards Nintendo here.

 

[ChaosEternal]

They might close the storefront down, like they did on the PSP, but they're 100% guaranteed never going to completely remove those games as being downloadable on their consoles like ass backwards Nintendo here.

I have trouble imagining that they'll still be supporting their old consoles 30+ years in the future, but stranger things have happened. I agree with you in the shorter term though.

 

[chrisrlink]

thank god for the not public yet Pretendo network for online gaming so when it does happen i can still play pokemon UM on that network without much effort

 

[JavaScribe]

Maybe they can just keep fewer servers up for the 3DS and Wii U eShops, but still have at least some in each region.
I'm just kinda worried because I don't have enough storage on my 3DS to go ahead and redownload a few titles that I own digitally. Might have to dump a few games and keep them on PC storage so I can reinstall them if the servers end up going offline...

I wouldn't have this problem if the N3DS supported 64GB microSD cards... might have to go looking for a 32GB card. Or maybe they'll keep the US servers up for a while longer.

 

[Bladexdsl]

The question is what will happen to online gaming on Wii U. :/

who cares

 

[Kwyjor]

I wouldn't have this problem if the N3DS supported 64GB microSD cards...

64 GB cards work perfectly fine on all 3DS models as long as they are properly formatted. Windows will not format them correctly unless you download a third-party tool, but people do that all the time with no problems. 128 GB cards require only a little more caution.

 

[pedro702]

I highly doubt it, seeing how the servers they use for PS3 and Vita content are all the same as they use for PS4, and will use for PS5 content. They might close the storefront down, like they did on the PSP, but they're 100% guaranteed never going to completely remove those games as being downloadable on their consoles like ass backwards Nintendo here.

yeah expect that in 20 more years they will still keep server data for every game that hasnt been download in a decade or more, plus patches just for the heck of it, for some reason microsoft closed the original xbox live service and so on. no company will keep gamedata from developers that went bankrupt long ago indefinitely just for the sake of the fans.

 

[Alexander1970]

who cares

I will remember you,when the Wii U Forum Section is overflowing with "Why is the Wii U USB Helper not working.....".

 

[BaamAlex]

I will remember you,when the Wii U Forum Section is overflowing with "Why is the Wii U USB Helper not working.....".

You know that you can change the region on the cdn downloader. Means, this will work forever. Except nintendo fix it. Like on the 3ds and switch.

 

[Alexander1970]

You know that you can change the region on the cdn downloader. Means, this will work forever. Except nintendo fix it. Like on the 3ds and switch.

Except Nintendo also "discontinue/limit" it for Europe too.

 

[Pacheko17]

At least the 3DS eShop is still up for Brazil, the Wii U eShop was never up here.
The Switch eShop is limited here, it doesn't work on the console itself, you have to buy the games from a web browser and redeem them on the Switch, selection is also rather limited but it works and the games are cheaper.

I use a USA region account on my Switch because there's more games, but if I ever need to buy a AAA game digitally I'll do it from the Brazilian eShop.

 

[BaamAlex]

Except Nintendo also "discontinue/limit" it for Europe too.

I think that will not happen in the next time. But who cares. My wii u is more powered off in the whole time. The only bad thing is (for the case they discontinue it worldwide) the people can't install haxchi anymore.

 

[Alexander1970]

I think that will not happen in the next time. But who cares. My wii u is more powered off in the whole time. The only bad thing is (for the case they discontinue it worldwide) the people can't install haxchi anymore.

Maybe Time for a new "Method".
Like actual for the 3DS,so someone would say it "One more Time" please: The Wii U is not Dead.

 

[pedro702]

Maybe Time for a new "Method".
Like actual for the 3DS,so someone would say it "One more Time" please: The Wii U is not Dead.

except the 3ds userbase is like 80 millions and the wiiu userbase is under 14 millions, most of wihch already shut it off becuase most of the exclusives are being released on switch so the reason to care for the wiiu keeps diminishing every day and it was already preety poor.

 

[BaamAlex]

Maybe Time for a new "Method".
Like actual for the 3DS,so someone would say it "One more Time" please: The Wii U is not Dead.

There is a boot1 exploit from hexkyz. But here is the catch, it is not so useful because the wii u isn't the fastest console.

 

[nachuz]

It's a good thing both these consoles are cracked wide open

Stupid on Nintendo's part to remove any legitimate means of purchasing these games digitally

latin america never had one, most of people just changed their countries (and still do because for some reason the switch doesn't have a eShop in latin america either) to the US to buy games, the eShop being discontinued is one that actually no one used because it's useless and have absolutely nothing aside from the option to redeem download codes

 

[DuoForce]

The rest of the world is sure to follow suit.

No it isn't. This is only for Latin America which barely even had an "e-shop"

 

[JavaScribe]

64 GB cards work perfectly fine on all 3DS models as long as they are properly formatted. Windows will not format them correctly unless you download a third-party tool, but people do that all the time with no problems. 128 GB cards require only a little more caution.

Interesting. Thank you for letting me know.
Nintendo states that the max is 32GB, but a quick search reveals that it indeed just needs to be FAT32 formatted. That's simple enough.

 

[Stealphie]

who cares

many people do

 

[Ryccardo]

(off topic)

I still wish they would keep the DS and Wii wi-fi networks up

Spoiler, the """Nintendo""" Wi-Fi Connection was owned and operated by GameSpy, who folded a few years after selling out to IGN