If you’ve been signed into your Nintendo Wii or DSi over the past few days, you’ll know that something is amiss. The Nintendo Wii shop and DSi shop channels are offline. But why has this happened?
After all, Nintendo usually inform users in advance when closures are coming.
In this case, however, no announcement has been forthcoming, leading persistent Nintendo fans to dig deep for answers. In short, the answers are scant: Nintendo is saying nothing. However, we do know that since early March, the Russian Nintendo website announced that “Due to the fact that the payment service used in Nintendo eShop has suspended the processing of payments in rubles, Nintendo eShop in Russia is temporarily placed into maintenance mode”. This, of course, is related to international sanctions against Russia concerning its invasion of Ukraine.
So, has Nintendo closed all servers potentially capable of serving Russian users with eShop content? Have they closed too many, anbd is this an unforeseen consequence of sanctions? Until Nintendo takes action – or at least informs is retro platform users just what is going on – all we have is speculation.
In the meantime, if you were only planning to head into the Wii Shop channel for the music, there is now a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome that plays that funky retro muzak while you browse the web. Grab the Wii Shop Channel Music browser extension via the project’s GitHub.
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Christian Cawley is the founder and editor of GamingRetro.co.uk, a website dedicated to classic and retro gaming. With over 20 years of experience writing for technology and gaming publications, he brings considerable expertise and a lifelong passion for interactive entertainment, particularly games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
Christian has written for leading outlets including TechRadar, Computer Weekly, Linux Format, and MakeUseOf, where he also served as Deputy Editor.
When he’s not exploring vintage consoles or retro PCs, Christian enjoys building with LEGO, playing cigar box guitar, and experimenting in the kitchen.
