Time’s Running Out To Buy Animal Crossing: New Leaf On 3DS From Nintendo eShop

3 years ago Justin 4 Comments

If you’ve not experienced Animal Crossing: New Leaf, one of the best games in the Animal Crossing series, time is running out to easily pick up a digital copy from the Nintendo eShop!

That’s because Nintendo is moving forward with plans to discontinue the ability to make new digital purchases on the Nintendo eShop for both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U early next year.

We’ve already known about these plans for some time, but further details were announced this week with firm dates highlighting the limited time remaining to purchase Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer in digital form.

Although Nintendo says that players will have until March 27th, 2023 to make purchases on the Nintendo eShop, the important deadline for the vast majority of fans will be much earlier in reality.

Updates on the discontinuation of #eShop for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS family systems:

– As of 8/29/2022, it will no longer be possible to add funds.
– As of 3/27/2023, purchases will no longer be available.

More details:https://t.co/T1GJfjxYMF

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 19, 2022

Specifically, Nintendo has announced they will cut off the ability to add funds to your Nintendo eShop account on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U much sooner as of August 29th, 2022. That’s just over 30 days away!

Sure, it’s great that you have until early 2023 to purchase the games, but that’s not much use if you don’t have the actual funds to afford anything and it’s impossible to add any further funds into your account after August 29th, 2022.

In fact, the ability to load funds onto your Nintendo eShop account using a credit card has already been discontinued as of earlier this year during May, so you’ll need to buy an eShop card somewhere else like Amazon and add that to your account on Nintendo 3DS.

So the message is clear — if you’ve got any digital purchases you want to make on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, get moving right now before it’s too late!

We highly recommend that any newer Animal Crossing fans who began with Animal Crossing: New Horizons consider giving New Leaf a try. While the game is sorely missing many modern quality-of-life features, it features just as much exclusive content you won’t find on Nintendo Switch!

Online Play & Updates Survive For Now

On the brighter side of matters, we’re pleased to report that Nintendo has announced alongside today’s news that downloads, software updates, and most importantly online play will remain available for the ‘foreseeable future’ beyond March 23rd, 2023.

Even after 3/27/2023 and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to redownload games and DLC, receive software updates and enjoy online play on Wii U consoles and Nintendo 3DS systems.

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 19, 2022

That being said, we all know that nothing is forever and these services certainly won’t be around until the end of time, especially when revenue is no longer being generated after the shut down of purchases on the Nintendo eShop next year.

So while online play isn’t being impacted quite yet, we highly recommend you take the time to enjoy playing with friends on Animal Crossing: New Leaf while it lasts, and especially on Tortimer Island! It’s only a matter of time until that privilege is taken from us, just like the fate of Animal Crossing: Wild World and Animal Crossing: City Folk.

What About Physical Copies?

Of course, we’re primarily discussing the state of digital purchases on the Nintendo eShop in this article, but it should be mentioned that physical copies for Animal Crossing: New Leaf will only become rarer as well as time goes on — we’re almost at the 10 year mark since release!

While there appears to still be plenty of copies available for sale from third party sellers on sites like Amazon or eBay, official retailers seem to have dried up their stock some time ago, signalling that production has likely ended on most or all Nintendo 3DS carts at this point.

A physical cart copy is obviously best for archivists who want the best chance of playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf for as long as possible, but the absence of an easily accessible digital purchase option will be notable and create an additional barrier for new players to enjoy the game.

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including our extensive Guides section here. Our most popular pages include Redd Art, Bug-Off Event, Bush Types & Colors, Villager Houses, Summer Shells DIY, Sea Creatures, K.K. Slider Songs, New Items In 2.0, Series 5 Amiibo Cards.

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