Across the country, folks everywhere are unwrapping their new Nintendo portable hardware, booting up their accounts, and trying to buy new digital games. But over the last few hours, per social media, the Nintendo Switch storefront known as the eShop has been in and out of commission. Sometimes it loads, albeit slowly. Other times, you can’t access the strangely laggy orange menus to rebuy Mario Kart 8 for the third time, alas.
Under error code 2811-7429, the message that stares back at you after some loading struggle simply says that the console is unable to connect to server and says that you should try again later. Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for more information on when users can expect the service to come back. The official online server website says, “We are currently experiencing difficulties with our network services.”
For the most part, this shouldn’t be too disruptive when it comes to enjoying the console. You can still boot up whatever games you already own, you just can’t buy new stuff or download DLC and the like. Granted, you also can’t redeem gift cards, which is likely a bummer for anyone who received them as presents this morning. That’s likely a ton of people, huh? A lot of people who are surely loading and re-loading hoping that something has changed this time…oh, this will probably be a while.
But for the folks who had the prescience to gift or buy physical games, if not download stuff in advance of wrapping—well, you’re probably fine. Everyone else: honestly, stuff like this happens nearly every year, for at least one of the consoles or one of the major games. I know it’s annoying now and likely will be for a chunk of the day. The servers are definitely getting hammered. I guess go spend time with your family or something?
Or, if you’d like some good reading: our suggestion for the very best games the Nintendo Switch has to offer, and the cream of the crop sales that the console has going on right now. You know, for when the shop comes back.
