In a dramatic move,the Nintendo Switch eShop is being shut down in China, along with all other online services.There’s plenty of time before the closure, with the eShop shutting down on July 29, 2025, and the online services coming to an end on July 20, 2025. After March, you won’t be able to purchase any new games from the store, and after May, nothing can be downloaded, including DLC. Impacted Nintendo Switch owners with an active WeChat account can choose four free games from the provided list until July 08, 2025.
Though this will only impact China for now, itmight not have anything to do with the impending Nintendo Switch 2 console release, and simply represents the end of their current contract with Tencent. China is an unusual market, as all consoles sold have to include a special region lock that only allows government-approved games to be played. Outside companies also can’t sell their products directly, which is why Nintendo partnered with Tencent, a Chinese media conglomerate that also has controlling stakes in Riot Games and Epic, to get the Switch into China. For years, the partnership worked, as the Switch has been the number one console in the country with the largest population on the planet.
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The most popular way to play games in China is on phones, which is why the Nintendo Switch, with its unparalleled portability, has had the advantage in the market over the PlayStation and Xbox. From 2000 to 2015, video game consoles were banned in the country, and while both Sony and Microsoft made immediate moves to get into the market, Nintendo waited until 2019 to partner with Tencent. Despite the late start, over a million Nintendo Switches were sold by 2021.
The End Is In Sight For The Nintendo Switch
The 2026 Nintendo Switch eShop shutdown might have nothing to do with the Switch 2, which hasyet to be officially announced, butthe company has been clear that it’s coming, and sooner, rather than later. The Nintendo Switch was first released in 2017, but even then, it sacrificed processing and graphical power for portability. By 2022, third-party ports on the console were starting to suffer and some were being canceled outright. That hasn’t stopped recent releases, from Yakuza Kiwami toDragon Quest III HD-2D Remakefrom becoming sales successes on the console, which, despite the limitations, remains incredibly popular to this day.
While the upcoming Nintendo Switch eShop shutdown is limited to China, there will come a day when the eShop is closed worldwide, similar to what happened with the 3DS eShop.
While the upcoming Nintendo Switch eShop shutdown is limited to China,there will come a day when the eShop is closed worldwide, similar to what happened with the 3DS eShop. In the last two console generations, digital games have become more common, with the majority of releases not even receiving a physical release anymore, and as a result, you have to get used to not actually owning what you’ve purchased. This is why California passed a law requiring online storefronts to include a disclaimer that a digital purchase is only for the license to access the game, and does not mean you own it outright, which iswhy backwards compatibility is becoming more importantfor each new generation. Physical cartridges are still the most popular way to play games on the Nintendo Switch due to its limited storage space, which means, ideally, there will be less disruption with this closure than there was because of Sony’s shuttering of PlayStation 3 storefront.
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