Nintendo announces plans to stop card payments on 3DS & Wii U eShops

Other payment methods will still be available

Nintendo has announced it will no longer accept card payments on the Wii U and 3DS eShop from January 2022.

Nintendo quietly announced the change in policy on its Japanese customer service account. The tweet states: “notice of ‘termination of use of credit cards and electronic money for transportation at Nintendo 3DS series and Nintendo eShop in Wii U’ has been posted.”

Support will officially end on January 22, 2022. However, players still have several options for purchasing items on either eShops.

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A blog post further details the payments still offered, including prepaid cards, debit or credit cards through the Nintendo website, and adding balance to Nintendo accounts through the Switch eShop. Players can summarise the balance provided they link a Nintendo account across two or more consoles.

Nintendo 3DS Console
Credit: Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Several functions will also be terminated on January 22, including the ability to cancel the internet browser’s filtering function and the automatic credit and debit card renewal for time tickets in Wii U Karaoke.

This move is just one of Nintendo’s steps in its efforts to slow down support for the 3DS and Wii U consoles. It dropped support for Netflix on both consoles only a few weeks ago.

The Wii U and 3DS are currently only a few ways players can access many retro titles without needing to purchase legacy hardware.

The Wii U’s Virtual Console is currently the most modern platform through which players can access Nintendo 64, DS, Game Boy Colour and Super NES titles. The Nintendo Switch features some retro titles but is missing support for the newer consoles.

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Nintendo also stopped repairs for 3DS and 3DS XL consoles earlier this year after announcing it would no longer accept faulty consoles as part of its repairs program.

Elsewhere, Ubisoft has announced a new competitive multiplayer game titled Tom Clancy’s XDefiant.

Launching in a closed beta this August, XDefiant will feature a range of factions from titles like Splinter Cell, The Division and Ghost Recon.

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