Nintendo Gives The WiiU And 3DS eShops Their Death Date

We’re getting more details about the nearing discontinuation of the Nintendo WiiU and 3DS eShops.

In February, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops will be ceasing operations indefinitely in March 2023. It was all very sad and many pictures of Mario crying in the rain were seen.

This meant that we would be saying our final goodbyes to digital exclusives on these consoles, as well as the last remaining memory of the Virtual Console.

Now in yet another announcement, Nintendo has made further clarifications to the discontinuation, highlighting the exact date of when the WiiU and 3DS eShops will cease to function.

According to Nintendo’s July update:

As of 27 March 2023, it will no longer be possible to make purchases on Nintendo eShop for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. It will also no longer be possible to download free content, including game demos.

So we’ve got a solid date, folks. On the 27th of March next year, a very sad trumpet will play outside of every WiiU and 3DS owners home, signifying the end of their console’s eShop.

However, prior to this date, after this date and ‘for the foreseeable future’, you will still be able to re-download  games you have already bought on the eShops, similarly to what they’re doing with the Nintendo Wii eShop.

It’s important to note that users will still be able to use Nintendo eShop Cards up until August 29th 2022. So while you can no longer use a credit card to add funds to your WiiU and 3DS eShop, you can still go to your local JB Hi-Fi or the like and get a card to use. In saying that, there are plenty of great titles that are exclusive to these consoles that you should check out before you can’t anymore.

The March 27th 2023 date signals when you can no longer purchase games from the WiiU and 3DS eShops, which means that as long as you have added funds via Nintendo eShop Cards before August 29th 2022, you will still be able to make purchases up until next March.

Another weird note for this one is that Fire Emblem Fates on the 3DS specifically will be unavailable to purchase from a month earlier, on February 28th 2023. Not sure why this one’s getting an early mark, perhaps it finished all of its work before the rest of the class.

So if you’d like to fill up your Nintendo WiiU and 3DS consoles with games that won’t be available ever again post-2023, now’s the time to do so.