3DS and Wii U players are no longer able to redeem codes on the Nintendo eShop. This means that gamers who did not redeem their codes on the eShop have lost their chance forever, although they can still download older games that were previously bought.Back on March 27, the eShop for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U closed down after serving gamers who had these consoles for over 10 years. The event marked the end of an era, as Nintendo will only continue to allow eShop purchases for its current platform, the Switch. Unfortunately, this means that hundreds of exclusive games are now unavailable for most players forever. During the announcement of the shutdown, the company at least vowed to allow gamers to keep playing online on these old platforms for the foreseeable future, which can help some of these titles to remain functional.Just as the stores closed down, however, Nintendo decided to allow gamers to redeem download codes for a few more days. Now, however, the time is up, and players can no longer redeem eShop codes for Wii U and 3DS games, which was the final step to fully remove all functionalities regarding purchasing in the stores. Gamers will still be able to re-download all titles they have already purchased in the past, though.
During this short timeframe, many eager Nintendo fans used all of their codes to download games from the online stores. Part of that is because soon after the initial announcement that the eShops were closing down, some developers gave out free codes for their games. Ultra Dolphin Revolution, for instance, shared a few codes to celebrate its past games on Nintendo platforms, as well as its upcoming Switch game.
While most gamers just accepted the tragedy of losing access to the marketplace, one player went a step further to ensure the preservation of many 3DS and Wii U titles. A few days ago, Jirard Khalil, an internet game influencer also known as The Completionist, spent over $20,000 buying every single game from the 3DS and Wii U eShops. He and his team were able to buy 1,547 3DS games and 866 Wii U games in an effort to prevent these games from disappearing forever. According to the influencer, the whole ordeal was a race against time, as they had to face issues such as the eShops' wallet limits, slow downloads, and even buying an external drive to store all of these games.