Still Down: Nintendo Wii and DSi Shop Channels Return Looks Bleak

Nintendo Wii and DSi have experienced a sudden outage in both of their service shop channels. After six days, players are now left wondering if Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DSi will still be available.

Nintendo Wii and DSi: An Outage or a Sitewide Shutdown?

Nintendo Wii Shop Services and DSi Shop Channel have been inaccessible to players for several days now. Surprisingly, Nintendo has yet to address its customers about their internal network problem. The Nintendo Wii and DSi websites have been unreachable since March 16.

As a result, players are unsure if the inaccessible website is down for good or just undergoing maintenance or experiencing an outage. The frustrations of the players can be observed as noticeable since Nintendo Wii and DSi sites were taken down without prior notice.

As reported by The Verge, when users go to the Nintendo Wii Shop website, users will see themselves staring at a white screen with an error code 209601. According to the customer support of Nintendo, error codes are from 209600 to 209614.

According to Nintendo, "Error codes within this range usually indicate the Wii console was unable to communicate with the Wii Shop service." In addition, "Errors in this range are often the result of the Internet connection timing out, a poor wireless network environment, or a general error from the Internet service being used."

Assuming that this is a permanent closure and that these stores will never reopen, Nintendo appears to have closed them without providing any prior notice.

This also means that players who previously purchased content will not be able to be redownloaded onto their Nintendo consoles. Multiple players would probably appreciate a few more months, a dedicated timeline given to download and install some of their favorite or difficult-to-find DSi and Wii exclusives before the servers are permanently shut down and no longer accessible.

Nintendo Downloads

Kotaku reported on Nintendo DSi's statement:

"The ability to re-download purchased content or transfer content to a Nintendo 3DS family system will continue after the Nintendo DSi Shop closure for an as-yet-unspecified amount of time. If you are thinking of transferring your DSiWare content to a Nintendo 3DS family system, we encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience while the service is still available."

Furthermore, the Wii shop states that:

"However, for the time being you may continue to re-download content you have purchased or transfer that content from a Wii system to a Wii U system. Be aware that these features will eventually end at a future date."

Interestingly, it is important to note that some players have reported their individual experiences of still being able to download the games they purchased from Wii and DSi using third-party tools such as NUSDownloader despite the restrictions. In this case, it appears that the servers are still operational in some capacity, but that the storefronts have gone dark for an unknown reason.

Last month, it has been reported by The Gamer that Nintendo has been entertaining the idea of shutting down Wii from Feb. 2022 until next year. Until now, Nintendo has yet to put out a public statement addressing the concern of their customers and the reason behind the sudden errors.