Nintendo will allow Japanese 3DS and Wii U eShop users who still have credit in the stores to ask for refunds. Gamers from Japan can already apply to get reimbursed in case they do not want to trade their current credits from the now-defunct eShop platforms to Switch credits.Last month, the eShops for Wii U and 3DS were shut down, preventing gamers from purchasing new titles from the stores in the future. Not only were sales stopped, but players also lost the ability to play demos or download 3DS themes on the platforms. The situation caused quite a stir among people concerned with game preservation and history, as several excellent Wii U and 3DS games are not currently ported to Switch, and now new players won’t have any legal means to access these titles unless they bought them previously.Now, the Japanese branch of Nintendo is giving local players a chance to get refunds on 3DS and Wii U credits after the end of the eShop for these two platforms. As spotted and translated by OatmealDome, Japanese gamers who still own credits can reach out to Nintendo and ask for refunds. This refund service will continue until March 2025, giving gamers plenty of time to get in touch with Nintendo. Alternatively, gamers could simply trade their current credits for unavailable platforms to Switch credits, keeping their investment intact.
To apply for a refund, the owner of the eShop account needs to go to the official Japanese Nintendo website and fill out the details asked on the page. If granted, they will get the refund within a few days. At the moment, however, it’s still unclear whether Nintendo will let gamers outside of Japan apply for refunds or not. The company has not disclosed any information regarding other areas, so gamers in the rest of the world may not get the same treatment.
Recently, the Nintendo eShop took another step to completely close down all of the functionalities in the stores regarding 3DS and Wii U. The platforms stopped accepting 3DS and Wii U codes after a short while when they still let players redeem them. Now, only a few limited functions are still working on the website. Gamers can still play online in all games that still maintained online features, and also download whatever games they purchased previously, but won’t be able to acquire new ones.