Nintendo Switch online services are down just before “Animal Crossing”, Eshop unavailable

As I’ve noted before, we can expect to see a lot more stories like this over the coming week, but hopefully not after that. Nintendo Switch Online services are currently experiencing an outage ahead of what appears to be regular maintenance for tonight. The current status page lists “all network services” issues on all connected devices. I was unable to access the Eshop.

For the foreseeable future, we have to assume that all of these outages are due to a massive increase in usage through widespread lockdowns and quarantines across the world, with millions upon millions of people forced inside with little. things to do besides gaming. We’ve seen similar outages on Xbox Live and Discord, although PSN and Steam seem to be holding up for now.

Hopefully it won’t last too long, but Nintendo has never had a great reputation with online services. Fortunately, the Switch has even more games than most that work well without an internet connection, and I will likely join some of them. Super Mario Odyssey later today. Still, the kind of virtual socialization you can do with the internet is of critical importance right now, and so we encourage all network engineers.

The good news is that we still have three days until the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the pleasant little life simulator that we all need so much right now. You can do most of this game offline, but the multiplayer elements are a crucial part of the experience for a lot of people, and hopefully that will be sorted out before that.

Until then, remember that games are a great way to pass the time and do something that doesn’t involve going outside. It’s rare that you can help save the world by sitting inside and playing video games, but today you can do your part.