The end of an era, these would soon become “retro”. How time flies!
Two mobile consoles from Nintendo would be discontinued. These are the 3DS and the Wii U. In Japan, the 3DS and its variants have been discontinued (although still listed, but with an “out of production” label) while both it and the Wii U would have their E-shops pulled as announced in their recent blog post. Meanwhile, the US website erased the 3DS’ entire existence.
The console was first announced back in 2010 as an improvement over the original DS. The console initially failed to impress but soon gained momentum when Nintendo slashed its original price, with over as 5 million units sold in Japan back in 2012.
The console then got several variations, including the 3DS XL, new 3DS, the 2DS, and the 2DS XL. Overall, the company has shipped over 75 million 3DS units over the course of its lifetime. The best-selling game is Mario Kart 7 with over 19 million copies sold.
Starting 23 May 2022, it would no longer be possible to add credit cards to the Nintendo E-shop on both the Wii U and the 3DS, and later this August, users can no longer use gift cards on the E-shop. However it is still possible to redeem download codes through it up until next year.
It has been fun and a rocky start, especially for the Wii U.