The Nintendo eShop has been temporarily suspended in Russia. Over the past weekend, online users began to notice that the Russian version of the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch had stopped accepting payments. A few hours later, Nintendo’s official Russian website confirmed that the eShop had been “temporarily put into maintenance mode” due to the suspension of payments.
Nintendo eShop has suspended payments for Russia
Ultimately, it’s unclear why the suspension of payments. Nintendo has not commented on the matter in any way, nor has it outlined how long the suspension will last, or how to maintain it on the official website. If it is therefore a due measure to the invasion of Ukraine so Nintendo did nothing to make it clear.
If that were the case, however, Nintendo would be far from the first game company to close accounts in the region. Earlier this month, the Polish studio CD Project announced that it would temporarily close GOG’s showcase for Russian and Belarusian customers, as well as disable purchases for CD Projekt Red-developed games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in both regions.
Other major publishers, including Microsoft, EA, Epic Games and Activision Blizzard, they have suspended services in Russia. Sony, on the other hand, has removed Gran Turismo 7 from the nation’s store, without however taking a clear position on the issue, a policy that seems to be also adopting Nintendo, with the suspension of the eShop.
Even so, in any case, the spearhead of the gaming industries against the Russia the process of economic sabotage implemented also with sanctions is very sharp and continues. The hope is that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible through the joint action of the industry giants.