Nintendo eShop closing down in Russia, limited to only re-download pre-owned titles

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Russian customers that have been using the Nintendo eShop for their gaming needs won't be able to make any new purchases or transactions using the service, beginning on May 31st, 2023.

Nintendo of Europe started sending emails to publishers, to which some websites like Game Developer caught upon. In said email, Nintendo mentions an overall halt in sales for Russia through their eShop service. This isn't the first time Nintendo does something like this on Russian territory, as last year Nintendo stopped product shipments to the country. With the current cease of sales in the eShop, Russian customers will only be able to redownload already owned titles from the eShop, but they won't be able to make any new purchases. Nintendo will also delete all kinds of payment information from Russian customers that have a Nintendo Account (like credit card and PayPal information) for privacy reasons.

Excerpt from Nintendo of Europe's email to publishers said:
As a result of the economic outlook, Nintendo of Europe has decided to wind down operations of its Russian subsidiary. As part of our efforts to honor preceding commitments to our customers in the Russian market, the Russian version of Nintendo eShop will be set to offer limited service.

As of May 31, 2023, and for the foreseeable future, Russian customers with an existing Nintendo Account will be able to redownload digital content that they have previously purchased. It will not be possible to make any new purchases or use download codes within Nintendo eShop in Russia.

While Nintendo cites the "economic outlook" as the reason for the closure of the eShop, it's almost certain it is tied or a consequence to the current on going conflict in which Russia is involved. It could also be related to the fact that Russia made piracy legal in the country since March, 2022, after several gaming (and other) companies started making sanctions effective for the region.

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ZeroT21

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I'm going to be honest and say I have a large PS4 games collection and never bought a single game or own any originals. I even got my PS4 for free from a freind when he got a PS5. For the Switch I bought crash bandicoot and that's my only original.
During the Xbox360 and PS3 era I bought quite a few originals, some from the Xbox and PS3 stores - but my consoles were banned due to being modded. When these games companies started banning me and not letting me get access to things I had paid for I just thought what's the point of buying anything from them, I'll just get it for free in future. I don't blame pirates at all, you do what you have to do.
As for DRM in games - I am not a fan of that and when I see a game that's had that DRM removed by a talented hacker I feel a warm glow all over.

Inevitably the Russians will still get their games from elsewhere, there will be people selling them and modding consoles all over Russia and a new generation of hackers will be born or be forced into hacking. The only ones that will lose out in this are the games companies, PSN, and a few innocent people that were buying the games being forced into piracy.
Being a loyal customer does not mean anything, when you can get screwed over whenever it suits them
 
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Delerious

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Look on the internet what these ordinary people are really like. 90% of them supports putin

Which basically means if any of us were born in Russia, there's a 90% that we would support Putin, too. Turns out propaganda in one's own nation can be a powerful tool. I more blame the ones in power for the state of the country and sentiment of Russian people, not so much the people themselves.
 

LightBeam

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Oh I'm perfectly fine with blaming individuals for their own support of the invasion/Putin, just not generalizing or stereotyping.
I get your point, but honestly I can't really blame these people for believing what the government tells them. It's like that almost everywhere. They believe it's for the sake of their people. A lot of people in north korea are probably brainwashed to think their situation is fine too. Obviously for russians it's not to that extent, but I don't think it's right to blame people because they are subjected to propaganda, breaking out of it is really fucking hard. We aren't imune to it either, and it does exist in the west despite what some would think. Now sure, the invasion can't be defended, at all. But it's not necessarily a much smarter position to think NATO is all white and had no involvement in the conflict escalating that far.
 

kuro0628neko

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”Playing Nintendo” is not a protected category. This is not a hate crime. :lol:
The west isn’t exactly on the best of terms with Russia. If what you say is true (it isn’t), wouldn’t doing the opposite put them in an even better position? Y’know, in support of Ukraine? Like half the brands out there?

Man, oh man - it’s an eShop conspiracy. :lol:
If only the US hadn't committed a coup in Ukraine, installed a puppet government, trained Nazis in the Donbas, and allowed the past few admin to bomb their own simply for being separatists. Learn your history instead of parroting MSM talking points — saying this as an American, btw, although I'm sure I'll be accused of being Russian, as if that's some sort of crime lmao.

Anyway I'm done with the political commentary, y'all. Enjoy your Nintendo products, those of you who can!
 

Bladexdsl

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If only the US hadn't committed a coup in Ukraine, installed a puppet government, trained Nazis in the Donbas, and allowed the past few admin to bomb their own simply for being separatists. Learn your history instead of parroting MSM talking points — saying this as an American, btw, although I'm sure I'll be accused of being Russian, as if that's some sort of crime lmao.
and you actually believe all that bs? you have been brainwashed by putin
 

BORODA

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If only the US hadn't committed a coup in Ukraine, installed a puppet government, trained Nazis in the Donbas, and allowed the past few admin to bomb their own simply for being separatists. Learn your history instead of parroting MSM talking points — saying this as an American, btw, although I'm sure I'll be accused of being Russian, as if that's some sort of crime lmao.

Anyway I'm done with the political commentary, y'all. Enjoy your Nintendo products, those of you who can!
It's really unfortunate that being stupid is not a crime either.
 

Foxi4

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If only the US hadn't committed a coup in Ukraine, installed a puppet government, trained Nazis in the Donbas, and allowed the past few admin to bomb their own simply for being separatists. Learn your history instead of parroting MSM talking points — saying this as an American, btw, although I'm sure I'll be accused of being Russian, as if that's some sort of crime lmao.

Anyway I'm done with the political commentary, y'all. Enjoy your Nintendo products, those of you who can!
Ukraine has existed as a geopolitical entity long before the U.S. did, Russia has no claim on it other than through conquest. If anything, Poland has a bigger historical claim on the land, but since Poland (rightfully) recognises it as a sovereign nation with its own borders, there’s no conflict there. The Russian Federation has breached those borders and is in the wrong as the aggressor, both in this war and in 2014.

Russians buying from eshop is not a minority? You have to define minority then. I am pretty sure what is call minority in USA has a very much larger number. Millions and millions more.
Russians buying from the Russian eShop are not a minority, no. This was a separate branch, how is this difficult to comprehend? It was ran by a Russian subsidiary which is now ceasing operations, it’s in the OP. The branch served Russia exclusively.
 

Foxi4

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a little late to the banning russia party eh nintendo? by like a year anyways how bout GBATemp start banning russia accounts and blacklist russian IP's (I think iirc you already ban various vpn ip's perhaps even tor)
For what reason? So that… Putin can’t get his gaming news?

You do realise that economic sanctions are aimed against the Russian government, not Russian citizens, right?
 

chrisrlink

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Look on the internet what these ordinary people are really like. 90% of them supports putin
well also (I'm no sypathiser just throwing this out there) russia is a communist country (again) gorbachov had the right idea but putin did a 180 as like most dictatorships it's either like it or die/prison
 
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Xzi

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I get your point, but honestly I can't really blame these people for believing what the government tells them. It's like that almost everywhere.
Sure you can, propaganda and those who believe it are meant to be mocked. We're meant to be critical of our leaders and hold them to account when they aren't serving the people, because the second we stop doing that we get another Putin. Russia has just as much historical experience as anybody with genocidal dictators, and so the smart ones either fled the country, protested, or are starting to mount a militarized resistance. It's pretty much only the older generations stuck in their ways and holding Russia back from revolution/becoming something better, but unfortunately they aren't the ones being sent to the front lines. The country is sacrificing its entire future for nothing, at the whims of one megalomaniac.
 

linuxares

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a little late to the banning russia party eh nintendo? by like a year anyways how bout GBATemp start banning russia accounts and blacklist russian IP's (I think iirc you already ban various vpn ip's perhaps even tor)
As far as I know, we don't ban any IPs. Not more than those that the spamlist flags probably.
 

mrdude

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a little late to the banning russia party eh nintendo? by like a year anyways how bout GBATemp start banning russia accounts and blacklist russian IP's (I think iirc you already ban various vpn ip's perhaps even tor)
You have read the forum rules right = https://gbatemp.net/help/terms/

Let me remind you:
Please show respect for all members at GBAtemp; new or old. Disparaging remarks towards others about race, gender, origin, handicap, age, sexual orientation, personal politics and religion will NOT be tolerated and will most likely be removed by staff. The poster will then be warned, suspended or banned (see the Warnings section below for more information on warnings).

To me is seems like you want to break those rules and are being blatantly racist and want to pick on many innocent people just because of where they come from.
 

chrisrlink

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You have read the forum rules right = https://gbatemp.net/help/terms/

Let me remind you:


To me is seems like you want to break those rules and are being blatantly racist and want to pick on many innocent people just because of where they come from.
we had a problem with political propaganda from russian bots (delt with but still) lets look on the flip sides of things so should i absollutly just mind myself if some other person is a neo nazi or terrorism supporter? (which this war technicly is that) people haven't also respected my ideals about #45 in the politics forum i call them out based on facts anyways ill remain quiet on that fact but as for me their are lines i have where id rip into anybody (even foxi4 or linuxaires heck even costelo if he crossed it (ex about my disability, not that it happened yet or attack the Social security system which i depend on)
 

mrdude

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we had a problem with political propaganda from russian bots (delt with but still) lets look on the flip sides of things so should i absollutly just mind myself if some other person is a neo nazi or terrorism supporter? (which this war technicly is that) people haven't also respected my ideals about #45 in the politics forum i call them out based on facts anyways ill remain quiet on that fact but as for me their are lines i have where id rip into anybody (even foxi4 or linuxaires heck even costelo if he crossed it (ex about my disability, not that it happened yet or attack the Social security system which i depend on)
There's lots of neo nazi's in Ukraine and then there's some that would class those that blew up the nord stream 2 pipeline and the kursk bridge as "terrorists". There's plenty people living in the Donbas for the last 8 years that were targetted by the Ukrainian forces who would see those as terrorists. It's all about perspective and where you come from. There's millions in the middle east that see the USA and the west as terrorists that have invaded their countries. One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.

This is a gaming forum though, so banning innocent people based on where they come from is no any better than being a racist. How would you like it if the same thing happened to you, even though you had never harmed anyone in your life and all you did was help people?

Let's face it, there's plenty nurses, doctors and nice people that live in Russia that have never harmed a single soul in their entire life, yet some would tar them as "terrorists" just because of where they were born.
 

Xzi

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There's plenty people living in the Donbas for the last 8 years that were targetted by the Ukrainian forces who would see those as terrorists. It's all about perspective and where you come from.
Yeah, won't somebody please think of the innocent Kremlin-funded saboteurs living in Ukraine? /s

Putin already took the mask off man, you can't put it back on for him. Every country has individuals who are fascist dickheads living in it, but those are the people running the government in Russia.

Let's face it, there's plenty nurses, doctors and nice people that live in Russia that have never harmed a single soul in their entire life, yet some would tar them as "terrorists" just because of where they were born.
On that we can agree, but I'll reiterate that all the smart ones are getting the fuck out while they still can. Putin is only gonna grow even more unhinged and will eventually turn his wrath on the Russian people directly.
 

LightBeam

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Sure you can, propaganda and those who believe it are meant to be mocked. We're meant to be critical of our leaders and hold them to account when they aren't serving the people, because the second we stop doing that we get another Putin. Russia has just as much historical experience as anybody with genocidal dictators, and so the smart ones either fled the country, protested, or are starting to mount a militarized resistance. It's pretty much only the older generations stuck in their ways and holding Russia back from revolution/becoming something better, but unfortunately they aren't the ones being sent to the front lines. The country is sacrificing its entire future for nothing, at the whims of one megalomaniac.
Nah that's just too easy.
That's the issue, WE are meant to be critical of our leaders but that's how WE learned things in our countries and honestly I'm glad we did. It's not like that everywhere else tho because other countries' stories aren't the same at all. Expecting every people in every country to do the same as us is literally ethnocentrism. You're saying that people subjected to propaganda should be mocked but that's the thing, by definition you don't know what's propaganda or not. If it was THAT easy to tell then it would be effective in any country of the world, yet it is even in the west.

Putin is still genuinely popular among russians. Do you understand why ? Because I don't, I'm not russian. And before blaming them, I would like to understand why they do like him that much. From what I've heard just reading some articles, Russia was such in a shitty state especially after the USSR collapse, and the country grew in almost all aspects with Putin in power. So idk, I feel like that if I were russian, maybe I would trust the guy, maybe I would think he's doing all that for the sake of the people. If you think that they shouldn't, mocking them is just going to prove you are an enemy and not somebody who's trying to have things better for everyone involved. And honestly, I prefer peace over war (and that's the goal of neither NATO or Russia)
It's a good thing that more people are trying to organize, obviously russians have the means to do even better but that takes time and it's hard, but I don't feel like treating them as enemies and stuff because they were molded to think one way the same manner we were molded to think another way is going to help.
 

Xzi

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That's the issue, WE are meant to be critical of our leaders but that's how WE learned things in our countries and honestly I'm glad we did. It's not like that everywhere else tho because other countries' stories aren't the same at all.
Good parents all around the world teach their children the same thing, but it's not a universal belief even here in the US. We have no shortage of our own political and religious cults to deal with.

Putin is still genuinely popular among russians. Do you understand why ? Because I don't, I'm not russian. And before blaming them, I would like to understand why they do like him that much.
He's ex-KGB, very good at manipulating public opinion. First came to power when he bombed his own people and then took credit for bringing those supposedly responsible to "justice." That's pretty much been his MO ever since, solve problems that he himself created and then throw himself a parade. OIder generations just love it when narcissists project the "strongman" image.
 

TomSwitch

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Good parents all around the world teach their children the same thing, but it's not a universal belief even here in the US. We have no shortage of our own political and religious cults to deal with.


He's ex-KGB, very good at manipulating public opinion. First came to power when he bombed his own people and then took credit for bringing those supposedly responsible to "justice." That's pretty much been his MO ever since, solve problems that he himself created and then throw himself a parade.
Jensens‘s skynet2 is coming. Skynet2 is able to craft message better than any human and will become the master mind of earth

No human can win argument against it. Not humanly possible. All politician will serve it as disobedient means getting impeached
 
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