Maybe you just unwrapped a brand-new Nintendo Wii U or 3DS console from Santa, and you want to head online to download some games. Well, that’s probably not going to happen right now.
Wii U owners that try to access the system’s eShop online store are finding an error message instead of library of digital games. The 3DS eShop is having similar issues, but some customers are reporting occasional success in logging in on the handheld. In fact, all of Nintendo’s online services are currently experiencing “technical difficulties” and have since yesterday, according to the Nintendo Network Status site. This includes the Wii and the original DS as well as the company’s newer systems.
These outages are primarily affecting Nintendo’s eShop digital-distribution services. For now, online play and other Internet-related services are working as intended, although these features also saw intermittent connection problems throughout Christmas day.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo to ask what it is doing to fix the issue and when it expects to restore full functionality to its services. We’ll update this story with any new information.
While Nintendo’s issues persist through Boxing Day, it wasn’t the only company to have issues yesterday. Sony’s PlayStation Network, Microsoft’s Xbox Live, and Valve’s Steam service were all overloaded and failed to keep up with demand at certain points. Today, those networks are (for the most part) up and running as usual.