The Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS will bid farewell to their digital storefront. However, both platforms have more than a year left, which means the Japanese company was reasonably fair about revealing the digital guillotine.

The big N’s announcement follows: “As of late March 2023, it will no longer be possible to make purchases in Nintendo eShop for the Wii U system and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. It will also no longer be possible to download free content, including game demos. Furthermore, as this date draws closer, related services will cease to function: as of May 23, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a credit card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems; as of August 29, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a Nintendo eShop Card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. However, it will still be possible to redeem download codes until late March 2023.

Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023. After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems. No changes are planned for Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo Switch family of systems.

The changes to Nintendo eShop on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems will simultaneously take effect in software on these platforms where it is possible to make purchases, such as StreetPass Mii Plaza, Theme Shop and Nintendo Badge Arcade on 3DS, or buying passes in Wii Sports Club. Even after late March 2023, and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to redownload games and downloadable content, receive software updates, and enjoy online play on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.

Thank you for supporting Nintendo eShop on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. While we hope that you will continue to enjoy using these systems, we have taken this opportunity to prepare a website where you can look back on your time with them via various play statistics. Please visit this page.”

And now, the FAQ portion: “This [shutdown] is part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time. We are providing this notice more than a year before the end of purchases so users will have plenty of time to prepare. Are any other services or functions of Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems going to be discontinued, such as online play? There are no plans to make any further changes at this time. There are still Nintendo eShop Cards at retailers that show the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS logos. What will happen to them? These cards will continue to be at retail while supplies last. All Nintendo eShop Cards can be used to add funds to a Nintendo Account balance for use on the Nintendo Switch. This can be done via Nintendo eShop on the system itself.”

This next question and answer are intriguing and, frankly, disappointing: “Once it is no longer possible to purchase software in Nintendo eShop on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, many classic games for past platforms will cease to be available for purchase anywhere. Will you make classic games available to own some other way? If not, then why? Doesn’t Nintendo have an obligation to preserve its classic games by continually making them available for purchase? Across our Nintendo Switch Online membership plans, over 130 classic games are currently available in growing libraries for various legacy systems. The games are often enhanced with new features such as online play. We think this is an effective way to make classic content easily available to many players. Within these libraries, new and longtime players can not only find games they remember or have heard about, but other fun games they might not have thought to seek out otherwise. We currently have no plans to offer classic content in other ways.”

So even though the announcement is fair, the big N doesn’t seem to care about classic games that much either.

Source: Gematsu