Nintendo has announced the end of an era as the online shop functionality of the Wii U and 3DS consoles will close next year in March 2023.

As of March 2023 no purchases will be able to made for the two families of devices, and even free content like demos will also become unavailable.

While that’s still a while away some functionality will also be curbed later in 2022, as per the announcement:

• As of May 23, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a credit card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
• As of August 29, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a Nintendo eShop Card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. However, it will still be possible to redeem download codes until late March 2023.

Attached to the announcement is an FAQ which covers some basic questions like “why is this happening?” (part of the natural cycle of consoles) and “why announce this now?” (to give people ample time).

What’s infuriating about this section is something picked up by a user on Twitter. They found out that the FAQ used to state that Nintendo has “no plans to offer classic content” that will become unavailable because of this change.

That has since been removed which we have to laugh at. Nintendo must be the worst company out there when it comes to properly preserving their older software and making it legally available. But hey, you can still pay unreasonable amounts of money for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack that offers a tiny selection of games that are poorly emulated.

THEY REMOVED THAT FROM THE SITE LOL (thanks for the a+ detective work) https://t.co/pABFqJR4tc

— Riley @ hisui (@NijiMarii) February 16, 2022

All Nintendo offers us with this news is the ability to suck in some nostalgia with users recommended to visit the memories page, a website available here that will show you statistics from playing on the Wii U and 3DS in the past. Yippee.

Finally the eShop will remain unchanged for the current generation Nintendo Switch. Any funds left in accounts for the older consoles will still be able to use this money for Switch content, however.

“Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023. After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems,” the announcement adds.