Nintendo’s online services are temporarily down, according to official statements from the company. That means accessing services such as the Nintendo Switch eShop and online multiplayer games are impacted. In Polygon’s own testing, we were unable to access the eShop and play games such as Tetris 99 online. However, we were able to enter online games of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Nintendo of America’s online network status page indicates that online services are down across multiple platforms. The most recent update to that page, as of March 17 at 1:56 a.m. PT, reads “Unable to connect to the network service. Please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
According to Nintendo’s Japanese-language Twitter account, network services can not be used on Switch. The company apologized via Twitter and said it’s working on the issue.
Nintendo’s online service outage follows a similar service interruption from Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform earlier this week, and comes just days before the launch of a major Switch release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Polygon has reached out to Nintendo for comment and will update this story with additional information when it becomes available.
Update: Nintendo of America released the following update on Twitter:
We are aware that players are experiencing errors accessing Nintendo eShop and are working to address the issue. Thank you for your understanding and we hope to share an update when available.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 17, 2020
Update 2 (6 p.m. ET): Nintendo said on Twitter that access to the Nintendo eShop has been restored, but that customers may still experience errors.
Access to the Nintendo eShop has been resolved. However, some may still experience intermittent errors. We appreciate your continued patience.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 17, 2020