RIP Virtual Console: Nintendo will shut off Wii U, 3DS game downloads

The Wii U eShop as it looked just after launch in 2013.

Nintendo has announced plans to sunset the sale of downloadable games and paid DLC on the Wii U and 3DS platforms early next year.

Players will have until "late March 2023" to purchase any of the hundreds of games available on those eShops. But customers will have to add funds to their shop accounts well before that full shutdown-by May 23 for credit card funding and August 29 for redeeming physical eShop cards. A shared balance with a Nintendo Account wallet (as used on the Switch) will also work on the older platforms up through the March 2023 shutdown.

While new purchases will be cut off, Nintendo writes that players will be able to redownload previous purchases on these platforms "for the foreseeable future." Online services and software updates will still be supported as well, but free demos and "free-to-start" games will no longer be downloadable on either platform. Switch services will not be affected.

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