Nintendo probably didn’t expect as many sales this Christmas as it got. That can be the only reasonable explanation for why their eShop has been down for three days now.
At first, the entire Nintendo Network went down, but since then, most of the services have resumed. The eShop, however, remains inaccessible, meaning people who bought one of Nintendo’s 3DS or Wii U bundles can’t actually play the games they got, since Nintendo insists on the bundled game being an eShop redemption voucher; it also means people can’t take advantage of the great eShop sales and deals right now.
Nintendo is now looking into the issue. It apologized for the delay, and said that to fix it and reduce the server load to a manageable level, it would be taking down the eShop for a period of twelve hours in each major territory.
“We apologise for the eShop connection problems. We know this is taking longer than expected, but finding a solution is our top priority,” tweeted Nintendo of Europe. “To improve your experience, we are temporarily taking the Nintendo eShop services offline between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. CET.”
Nintendo of Japan tweeted, “For the time being, the #3DS #eShop will only be available to Japan between 6 am and 6 pm in order to alleviate the server load.”
Finally, Nintendo of America issued a press statement: “We sincerely apologize for the connection problems in the Nintendo eShop. We understand this is taking longer than expected, but we can assure you that providing a solution is our top priority. We are determined to make sure everyone can enjoy all that Wii U and Nintendo 3DS have to offer. In an effort to manage the high volume of traffic and ultimately improve your experience, we are temporarily taking the Nintendo eShop services offline between the hours of 4 p.m. – 4 a.m. ET. Thank you so much for your continued patience. We will keep you updated.”
So if you got a new Nintendo system for Christmas- hold tight, cause you really can’t do much of anything else with it right now anyway.