Nintendo‘s servers globally are experiencing an outage, causing a delay in people trying to access their eShop and online games in at least North America, Europe, and Japan. The issue could stem from plenty of assorted reasons, especially since many countries are under lockdown due to COVID-19, but the causes are uncertain at this time. Through a Twitter post, Nintendo of Europe made the network issue public and shared they are trying to rectify the problem. Nintendo is usually quick with solving server issues, but when this issue may be resolved is unknown.
Unfortunately, we're having some issues with our network services. We're looking to rectify the situation as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. https://t.co/O9u3MXDZG6
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) March 17, 2020
The issues seemed to have started around 4 a.m. CT. Players who visit the Nintendo Network Maintenance Information / Operational Status page may see this message:
All network services
Unable to connect to the network service.
Please try again later.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Playing the waiting game
Most comments on the Twitter post share the same experience, with players being frustrated or impatient over the maintenance issue. Many payers have been staying at home, as countries such as Italy, France, and Germany have locked down due to the ongoing pandemic. In the United States, 37 states have closed their public schools, meaning students are at home with an opportunity to play video games.
Of course, their online servers being down does not affect their offline games. Single-player games and those with offline features are still available. In the meantime, players who choose to play online will have to continue to wait until Nintendo comes up with a fix. Unfortunately, the outage brings plenty of inconvenience to players during times like these. Some figured the server might have crashed possibly due to over-capacity, but again, a root cause has not yet been ascertained.
Hopefully the issue resolves soon and customers can regain their access to Nintendo Switch Online and the eShop.
