Nintendo Freezes Pokemon Bank US Launch As eShop Woes Continue

Nintendo has cancelled its Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter launch plans in North America amid ongoing service outages, that have left the eShop inaccessible to Wii U and 3DS gamers since Christmas Day. The decision, Nintendo says, will mean that today's expected launch of the 3DS Pokemon service will no longer go ahead, having been postponed to an unspecified point in the future as it attempts to wrangle its recalcitrant servers.

It's not the only tough launch news for the Pokemon Bank in recent days. Nintendo Japan had thrown open the doors to the online creature store on December 25th, but was forced to freeze the service yesterday because of the server load. The Bank, which requires a $4.99 per year subscription fee, allows gamers to store up to 3,000 Pokemon online for switching between select games, like Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

The delayed launch looks to be an accidental casualty of other issues, however, rather than a problem in and of itself. Nintendo blamed an unexpected surge in 3DS gamers trying to convert their existing digital store accounts into Nintendo Network ID (NNID) profiles, part of an update to the glasses-free 3D handheld earlier this month.

The 3DS update also added Miiverse support to the clamshell console.

That flood of users brought down the eShop and left the Nintendo Network as a whole sluggish, and gamers across the Wii U, Wii, 3DS, and DS may be encountering issues accessing it. The company is yet to suggest when a resolution might be found, with the most recent statement on the matter – at time of publication – being sixteen hours ago when Nintendo of America took to Twitter to apologize and say it was working on the issue.

Although a surge in users could be seen as just what struggling Nintendo needs, the fact that gamers trying to use their new holiday acquisitions can't get online is hardly painting the company in a good light.