Nintendo announced that the limited eShop services for the 3DS and Wii U in select Latin America and Caribbean countries will be shutting down come July 31.
Though it isn’t the full-fledged eShop service as many know it, this does put a timer on players in these respective countries to redeem download codes or re-download and update games to their systems.
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.
The closure will affect the following regions: 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.
As Nintendo stated, the incoming closures do not affect Mexico or Brazil, 1) because Mexico has full access to the eShop, and 2) because Brazil has the same for the 3DS, but doesn’t have an online service at all for the Wii U.
Also of note is that the closures will have no impact on the Switch in these regions.
As for why Nintendo is making this move, the company stated on its site that “We constantly re-evaluate our business and make decisions based on a variety of factors.”
On if it had plans to open up the full 3DS and Wii U eShops in the affected regions, Nintendo wrote “We have nothing to announce on this topic.”
Since its launch in 2011, the 3DS has sold more than 75 million units and maintained steady support even into the first couple years of the Switch’s life cycle. The Wii U, however, hasn’t been anywhere near as fortunate, selling shy of 14 million units since its 2012 launch and being generally viewed as a misstep by Nintendo.
The 3DS and Wii U eShops across the rest of the world don’t look to be shutting down anytime soon, but the closures of the limited online stores might be another sign of an era coming to an end.
For comparison’s sake, the Wii Shop Channel closed for good on Jan. 30, 2019, a full 13 years after the console launched.
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