Last night, Nintendo dropped shocking news about its last generation consoles and their digital shops.
Nintendo has announced that the eShops for its eighth generation console eShops will be shut down next year. The ability to add funds with a credit card will be unavailable May 2022, and unavailable with eShop cards August 2022.
The discontinuation will also affect the Theme Shop, games with DLC & add-on content, Nintendo Badge Arcade, and StreetPass Mii Plaza. Consumers can still download a few select themes from the Theme Shop that are free.
The discontinuation will not affect online play, the ability to redownload games & DLC, and to get software updates "for the foreseeable future," according to Nintendo.
"This is part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time," Nintendo said on why the discontinuation is happening.
This news has been met with criticism from some fans for multiple reasons, including some titles being lost to time unless consumers pirate them, some DLC never being available to buy again after the shut down, and more.
Another criticism includes a deleted question regarding Gameboy Advance titles, Nintendo 64 titles that haven't been announced for the "Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch" service, and more.
Nintendo of America announced the discontinuation on Twitter at around 8 p.m. EST.
The Nintendo 3DS launched in 2011, with the Wii U launching in late 2012. The Nintendo 3DS was a success, selling over 65 million units from 2011 to 2019. However, the Wii U flopped, only selling over 13 million units from 2012 to 2017.
Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consumers can see their playtime, total amount of titles they've played on both systems, and more through the "My Nintendo 3DS & Wii U Memories" Website.
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