Nintendo Wii And DSi Shop Channels Reportedly Taken Offline Without Warning

Nintendo has reportedly taken the Wii and DSi shop channels offline without warning. According to Eurogamer, both channels have been shut down since March 16, leaving players unsure about whether this change was due to unscheduled maintenance or if Nintendo had planned to take them offline for good.

Players haven't been able to buy new content from either shop for years, starting with the DSi Shop in 2017 and the Wii Shop in 2019 (although Nintendo announced it would shutter the latter store two years prior). But because both shop channels were taken offline suddenly, their closure means those who have already bought games from those platforms but haven't gotten around to downloading them for whatever reason won't be able to download them to their consoles now. 

Customers who attempt to download or re-download their purchased games will see error codes 290502 and 209601 on both systems. However, Nintendo's main download server is allegedly still active, according to gbatemp, allowing players to continue downloading their games via third-party tools like NUSDownloader. This gives the impression that it was just the shop apps Nintendo took offline, not the overall service.

Nintendo hasn't commented on its decision to take the Wii and DSi shop channels offline nor its reason for doing so. As previously explained, both shops have been discontinued for a few years, but players had been able to re-download previously purchased games to their respective systems. But the shuttering of the digital storefronts for both of Nintendo's legacy systems is a sign of things to come — at least for their immediate successors.

On February 16, 2022, Nintendo announced that the Wii U and 3DS eShop will cease to function by March 2023, meaning owners of all models of the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and 2DS will lose the ability to purchase games and add-ons from the eShop. But before the eShop on both of those systems shutters completely, Nintendo said some services will be removed in stages. Starting on May 23, 2022, users will no longer be able to add funds to their eShop accounts using credit cards. On August 29, players won't be able to add funds from their Nintendo eShop cards, either, though they'll still be able to redeem download codes until the eShop for both legacy handheld systems is taken offline.