Nintendo recently launched their paid online service for the Switch with Nintendo Switch Online, which is something they’ve been focusing on quite a bit, with everything from legacy content to planning for how to expand it in the future. Part of those plans might be to bring everything related to online content on Nintendo’s handheld-console hybrid under the Nintendo Switch Online umbrella- including the eShop.
As spotted by an eagle-eyed user on ResetEra, documents arising out of recent legal proceedings might be hinting at the change. The documents pertain to Nintendo suing a man for selling Switch modding tools and NES Classic Mini consoles with pirated games pre-loaded on them. The legal documents contain, as all legal documents do, descriptive text for some of the things related to the case- one of these things is the eShop. What’s interesting is that it is referred to as the “Nintendo Switch Online shop”, with words in parentheses making it very clear that it was “formerly” known as the Nintendo eShop. You can take a look at two such instances in the images below.
Since this doesn’t come in the form of an announcement or statement by Nintendo, it’s hard to figure out the validity of this- but it’s a legal document, binding in the court of law, so there’s that, too. Given Nintendo’s increased focus on pushing Nintendo Switch Online as a service, it makes sense that they would want to push the brand further, but it would also be a pretty significant change. The eShop has, of course, been their digital storefront for all their systems since it launched with the 3DS in 2011.
Either way, stay tuned to GamingBolt- we’ll keep you updated in case we hear anything new on this story.