The Sunset, Episode 6
Hello, and welcome to The Sunset. My name is Nathan and I’ll be going over a feature story I find interesting and give my thoughts on it.
Last Tuesday, Nintendo announced they would be discontinuing the Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles in March 2023, and that adding funds to purchase games on those systems would cease on May 23, 2022. After the service is discontinued, users will no longer be able to purchase digital software or downloadable content on those systems. Online play and redownloading previously purchased software will still be possible after the March 2023 date, and the Nintendo Switch will be unaffected.
The Nintendo 3DS was released in March 2011 in the United States, while the Wii U was released in November 2012. The 3DS hardware was discontinued in 2020, while the Wii U was discontinued in 2017; the successor to both consoles, the Nintendo Switch, was launched nearly 5 years ago on March 3, 2017.
As both consoles are over a decade old, have been discontinued, and have already been succeeded, it comes as no surprise the storefronts are closing. The Wii Shop Channel was discontinued in 2019, and the DSi Shop was closed in 2017. Sony had similarly discontinued the PlayStation Store on PlayStation Portable in 2021, though delayed similar plans for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 after backlash against the announcement.
That said, these store closures are upsetting. There are many digital games that could be lost forever once these stores close, which is terrible for preservation. Due to the age of the consoles, it can be hard to get working hardware. The consoles have long since stopped being updated, however, so modding them is rather easy, and both consoles have rather good emulators.
I’ll let you decide what to do with that information.
Thank you for listening to 92.1 The Frog.