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GRTV News - Nintendo Switch Online and eShop services to close in China in 2026
The reason behind the change hasn't been outlined by Nintendo or Tencent.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV news. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about Nintendo, not because there's a Switch 2 announcement yet, we're still waiting for that. Hopefully it'll be here by the end of the year but I'm still not convinced that will be the case. But what we do know is that in 2026 the Nintendo online services will look a little different in China. Tencent, which manages Nintendo sales in the country, has made the announcement that it will be closing down the Nintendo eShop and it will be closing down a bunch of other Switch Online services as well in 2026. Now the interesting thing is that there hasn't actually been an announcement revealed for this. Perhaps Nintendo is looking to take control of the country for themselves and manage their own department in China. Perhaps that's why that they have to move away from Tencent so that they can open up their own sort of things there. I don't know. Potentially it has something to do with the way that Switch Online is set to be structured with the Switch successor. Again, unsure. The actual explanation for this has not been revealed but the key thing to take from it is that various different Nintendo Switch Online services will be shutting down in China in 2026. So, with that being the case, let's dive on it."
"Nintendo to shut down eShop and other Switch Online services in China in 2026.
Tencent, which manages Nintendo sales in the country, has confirmed this.
So Nintendo will close Nintendo eShop as well as other online services for its titles in China in a move that will conclude in approximately one and a half years on 15th of May 2026. A few weeks earlier, on 31st of March 2026, the digital shop will stop offering new games, DLC and digital content to users in the Asian country. Tencent, which handles Nintendo sales in the country, made the announcement earlier today while also announcing a compensation plan for WeChat users with four free games to choose from the following list. So you can pick up, or users in China can pick up, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Party, Mario U Tennis Aces, Yoshi's Crafted World, Flexible Brain School, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Exercises, Kirby Star Allies, New Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Go Pikachu, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee as well. So, Tencent also states that despite this decision, for which the reasons have not been disclosed, we will continue to work hard to bring Chinese Nintendo Switch customers the fun of Nintendo games. Thank you for your continued support. So yeah, it's definitely a strange development this because you would think that especially with a new Nintendo console coming out probably what we're expecting next year, the Nintendo online store and Nintendo eShop and Switch online features and whatnot would be a very important thing for them to sort of get right and make available everywhere. But this won't be the case in China, and China will no doubt be one of the bigger regions for Nintendo as well, you know, with it being basically a sister country to Japan in many ways. So we'll have to see what the future holds for this. No doubt there will be some sort of replacement coming. It happened, again, it could be to do with some sort of legal issue. We saw that in the past with, well I think it was again, Tencent and Blizzard, and because of the fact that the deal they had in place came to an end, various battle.net titles, including Overwatch, had to be removed from the country. And that also meant that various other parts of Blizzard's portfolio, including the Overwatch League teams that were based in China, basically had to relocate or be closed down. So maybe it's something to do with that. I wouldn't be surprised though if it's Nintendo looking to sort of again, take care of their own business in China and set something up there. But no doubt we'll find out soon. If the Switch Online services are shutting down in sort of the first half of 2026, then you'd think that by the end of 2025, at the very latest, we'd know the reason why. But again, as we know more about this, we'll be sure to keep you posted and updated. And otherwise, yeah, I'll be back now for the next year TV news, which should be tomorrow. So thank you for watching. I'll see you all then. Take care everyone."
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