Storefront shutdown

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Digital storefront shutdowns, or the practice of discontinuing online storefronts for consoles and other devices, has become increasingly common. This often results in the removal of games exclusive to these platforms, such as Pokémon Picross for the Nintendo 3DS, Battlezone for the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) remasters of classic Final Fantasy titles. These shutdowns leave many games inaccessible to new users, raising concerns over digital preservation and the long-term viable usage of digital-only content. Especially as more recent closures mean that access to games that are reliant on servers end up being affected by these storefront closures.

Digital storefront shutdowns

Wii Shop Channel (2006–2019)

The Wii Shop Channel, launched in 2006, allowed Nintendo Wii users to purchase and download a variety of content, including Virtual Console games, WiiWare titles, and other downloadable content. Users could load their accounts with Wii Points, a virtual currency, to make purchases. This system offered access to a diverse library of classic games and indie releases, however the service was officially shut down in 2019, and with it, many of the games and content became inaccessible.

Wii U/3DS eShops (2012–2023)

Launched in November 2012, the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and 3DS was Nintendo's 2nd major digital storefront. The shutdown of this storefront in April 2023 was directly connected to online gameplay services also getting shut down for titles such as Super Mario Maker and Splatoon. Roughly 1.5TB worth of games were delisted from the storefronts, and preservation efforts were hampered through Nintendo's restrictions, such as the $250 limit for account balance at any given time, no matter if it is via gift card or physical funds being transferred to the balance. The Completionist's video covering the event had also documented a limit for how many games can be downloaded at once, and account lockdowns if you redeem $1000 in eShop cards within a 24hr period, among several other anti-consumer problems that hampered the efforts of preservation. Additionally, the VirtualConsole (VC) series, what was the only legitimate way to purchase new copies of vintage games for multiple Nintendo platforms, was among the litany of titles erased from servers, forcing consumers that missed out on purchasing these titles to only be capable of paying for a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) subscription to play retro Nintendo games, which they wouldn't own, and various VC releases have remained to not be re-released on NSO.

PlayStation Portable Storefront (2008–2021)

Started in October 2008, the PSP storefront was the first digital storefront established for portable consoles. Despite fan backlash against Sony's attempts to shut down the PS3 and PSVita storefronts alongside this shutdown, it was unfortunately still discontinued. Regardless if the storefront shut down, accessibility was dubious at best, since users' only methods to connect PSPs to the internet required either running a mobile hotspot without security enabled, or jury rigging older routers just to function, and regardless, it was extremely risky for consumers to safely use their consoles while connected online due to the vulnerabilities caused by the PSP's lack of support for most network security. Additionally, a lack of development for the web browser of the console made accessing the internet progressively more difficult and slow since its final update with version 2.70 in 2006, having 15 years of zero support and requiring hacked consoles to reliably surf the internet.

Xbox 360 Marketplace (2005–2024)

In November 2005, the Xbox 360 Marketplace was Microsoft's first digital storefront for their consoles. Nearly 20 years later, it was shut down, although unlike most other storefront closures, users could still reinstall games they purchased as long as publishers did not have their games delisted prior to the shutdown or later, so titles such as World Gone Sour published by Capcom or Assassin's Creed 3 published by Ubisoft are entirely unplayable unless consumers were lucky to still have had the game installed to their consoles, or bought a disc if the title received a physical release.

Stadia (2019–2023)

Launched in November 2019, Stadia was the first cloud gaming service with a storefront. Its storefront was abruptly shut down for users in September 2022 without notice, and the entire service shuttered in 2023. Thankfully, Google refunded purchases of both hardware and software for the platform, however many platform-exclusive titles were never re-released, so users couldn't reliably replace the software that they paid for.

Attempted storefront shutdowns

PlayStation 3 storefront

[Placeholder] Sony attempted to shut it down, massive user backlash has made the storefront remain open, for now.

Psvita storefront

[Placeholder] Additionally attempted to shut down at same time as PS3/PSP storefronts, failed due to same backlash.