As kids and adults alike flocked to the Nintendo eShop, eager to spend the gift cards they found in their stockings, that excitement was quickly spoiled by an eShop error screen. The annual holiday surge has brought down the Nintendo Switch eShop for some yet again, according to a report from Kotaku.
We are aware that players are experiencing errors accessing Nintendo eShop, and are working to address the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding, and please see our Network Status page for the latest updates.https://t.co/KnM0g7z7jn
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 25, 2021
Nintendo sent out a tweet, noting that the company is “working to address the issue as soon as possible.” It also includes a link to Nintendo’s online service status page, where you can check for any updates about the outage.
As noted on the status page, problems started to arise around 4AM ET. The company doesn’t offer any additional information on the outage, vaguely stating: “We are currently experiencing difficulties with our network services. Please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
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In a timeline of the outages shown on DownDetector, it appears that issues peaked at around 9AM ET on Christmas morning, but have since been on a decline. I was able to successfully open the Nintendo Switch eShop, as well as download a couple of updates at around 4:30PM ET, so that could be a sign that things are starting to come back online.
If you are still having issues with the eShop, however, keep in mind that the outage doesn’t affect any other online activity. You can still play games online, but you just won’t be able to buy or download any content from the eShop — which may be a bummer if you were looking to fill your new Switch with digital games.
The Nintendo eShop went down last year during Christmas, and the company didn’t fully restore service until the next day. Nintendo even warned players that the eShop might become overloaded this holiday weekend, and advised them to create a Nintendo account before the holidays, which isn’t really ideal if you wanted to gift the Switch to someone on Christmas Day.
The Verge reached out to Nintendo with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
wazup.