After many months of waiting, Nintendo has made the brain death of its 3DS and Wii U consoles official. This was scheduled by the company several months ago. Players were waiting for this deadline to know what to do with their money, but also with the games they own. Today, they had to say goodbye to the online services of these two platforms. But some subtleties remain.
If you had money in your eShop account on 3DS or Wii U, you only had a few weeks left to decide what to do with it. If you wanted to keep it active, hopefully you had time to link your Nintendo account in order to transfer it to your newer machines (like the Nintendo Switch). This step had to be done before March 12 at 7am at the latest.
It is worth noting that even if you do not own the Switch, the money is saved in your account while waiting to be used. Nintendo has never mentioned the possibility of obtaining a refund of the sums. Since the deadline has passed, any money you had left in your account before 1am today has been lost if you have not linked your Nintendo account.
A multi-stage closure
We remind you that access to online games has already been impossible for several months. During the end-of-year holidays, some players learned this the hard way. Nintendo has not communicated to this subject, but it was an inevitable consequence of the manufacturer's decision. A year ago, we also learned that it was impossible to buy new games or to fund your account with money. Nintendo has therefore more or less given its players a full year to take the necessary steps for the definitive closure of online services.
Both in terms of maintenance and server space, the online services of the two consoles have surely become too expensive and too little used for keeping them alive to be profitable. Nintendo is not the only company to use this type of method. However, it is highly criticized by a large portion of gamers. At a time when retrogaming is making a comeback, many are afraid of no longer having access to titles that they have the misfortune of paying for in their dematerialized version. Some say they feel betrayed by the manufacturers and others lament the pure and simple disappearance of an important cultural asset.
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