The Nintendo Wii and DSi eShops have been down for over a week now, and Nintendo has finally issued a statement explaining why they are unavailable. Both of the stores are currently “undergoing maintenance,” leaving players unable to redownload their games through those channels while the stores are closed.
When will the Wii and DSi eShops be available again?
Nintendo issued a statement to Eurogamer explaining that “the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop are currently undergoing maintenance.” It didn’t give any timeline for when the maintenance period will be over, only that it “will provide an update at a later date.” Both stores are thought to have been down since at least March 16, leaving players unable to re-download their purchased titles on either device.
The Wii Shop displays error code 209601 while the DSi shop shows error code 290502. According to GBATemp, the download server that stores all of the update and shop data for both stores is currently active. This means players can still redownload their titles through third-party tools like NUSDownloader and it’s just the stores’ frontends that are not functional.
Players have been unable to purchase new Wii and DSi digital games through the stores since they were both closed down in 2019 and 2017 respectively. At the time, Nintendo did say the “ability to re-download software will also be removed at a later date,” but they did promise to let players know when that would be “as that time approaches.” As such, the maintenance does seem to be unscheduled due to the lack of notice for players. At least Nintendo’s statement seemingly dispels fears the stores had been closed for good.
In other news, the latest Elden Ring update has fixed a game-griefing bug that allowed players to send others across the map to incorrect coordinates. Elsewhere, the director of the brand new The Witcher game has promised there will not be crunch at CD Projekt RED during the game’s development.
