Nintendo has announced that will be officially closing the WII U and 3DS eShops, with both services ceasing operation in March of 2023. This was made clear through a post made by Nintendo on the official customer support page of their website.
While this sounds like players still largely have years to use the service to get games on it that they might want, in actuality the service will begin the process a lot sooner than that. As part of the customer service post, the process to end the services will begin soon, stating:
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.
This means that the ability to purchase new items will be largely be diminished by the end of Summer 2022. If you already own games through the services, Nintendo made clear that will not be an issue, stating:
Even after late March 2023, and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to redownload games and DLC, receive software updates and enjoy online play on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
Of course, this is not such a shocking turn of events with the 3DS being 11 years old and the WII U being 10, both of which have been replaced by the Nintendo Switch console which acts as a hybrid playing on their handheld and home consoles. Unfortunately, while these closers could have been expected, Nintendo has many great games on both platforms that will now be inaccessible to gamers.
Nintendo saw this becoming an issue and posted a follow-up Q & A page to answer many questions including if these games would become accessible somewhere is. A question there read:
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?
This was followed by this predictable, but disheartening answer:
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 a broad range of 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.
The Nintendo Switch drew a far larger audience than its predecessor which ultimately saw many WII U games, such as Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, New Super Mario Bros. For WII U, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions get re-released on the new system. However, others like Xenoblade Chronicles X have still yet to do so.
If there were any previous generation games that you wanted to secure before there is no way to do so you might want to start thinking about that now, and maybe pick up a Nintendo eShop Card.
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