Nintendo Wii Shop offline: what’s going on?

The Nintendo Wii and DSi shops have been offline for several days, according to Eurogamer. Both stores may have been inactive throughout March 16 without any explanation from Nintendo. The reason behind this down is unclear, as Nintendo hasn’t provided any explanation on the matter.

The Nintendo Wii and DSi shops are offline

A GameXplain video shows exactly what happens when the Wii Shop is selected – all you will see is a blank white screen, followed by a error code 209601 indicating network problems. The channel is inactive on both the Wii itself and on the Wii U. Meanwhile, the DSi store emits the error code 290502also reporting the inability to connect to the store due to internet issues.

Nintendo blocked purchases on the DSi and Wii Shop channels in 2017 and 2019 respectively. However, the company still allows players to download previously purchased titles from both stores (at least while they were still online).

When Nintendo first announced the closure of the Wii Shop, it warned that in the future players would be prevented from retrieving or transferring games purchased with the Wii Transfer Tool, but never set a specific date.

This has led some players to wonder if the time has finally come. It is currently unclear whether both stores are closed for maintenance or whether they have been closed permanently.