The Wii shop channel has been offline for days with no explanation
Nintendo's Wii and DSi shop channels are offline, meaning those who want to redownload old DSi or Wii games are currently unable to do so.
As spotted by Eurogamer, both shop channels appear to have been down since March 16, with Nintendo giving no prior warning that either shop would be taken offline. Those trying to access the DSi shop are getting the error code 290502, while those trying to access the Wii shop channel are getting error code 209601 – both of which indicate an (in this case non-existent) network error.
Nintendo stopped allowing you to purchase games from the DSi and Wii stores years ago, but the shop channels still allow you to redownload previously purchased games. With the shop channels down, those still playing DSi and Wii games are unable to do so.
According to Trash_Bandatcoot on gbatemp, Nintendo's CDN – the download server that houses the shop data – is still active and allows for downloads from tools like NUSDownloader. That revelation suggests only the frontend of the stores is offline.
It's entirely possible that Nintendo has taken the shop channels offline for unscheduled maintenance, or maybe an error has occurred. But the lack of communication from the company has left some questioning whether the DSi and Wii shops will ever come online again.
Earlier this year, the House of Mario announced it will officially close the Wii U and 3DS stores in March 2023. The move means that those Wii U and 3DS owners will no longer be possible to buy new titles, download demos, redeem download codes, or add funds. But they can still access and redownload the digital goods they previously bought.
The DSi and Wii shops underwent a similar closure back in 2017 and 2019 respectively. But, if these channels went
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