Nintendo is expecting a massive surge of use for its servers come this holiday weekend. Considering many gamers will be gifted Nintendo Switches, not to mention games and eShop gift cards, this kind of overload is to be expected not just for Nintendo, but even for Xbox and PlayStation. A similar sort of overload crashed the Nintendo eShop last Christmas, so this time Nintendo is putting a warning out.
Spotted on Nintendo's Japanese customer service account, the company warns that access to the service will be "concentrated" and that some gamers' Nintendo Accounts may not be able to be created immediately. It goes on to say that anyone planning on using a new Nintendo Switch this upcoming weekend should try to create a Nintendo Account in advance of usage. The brief snippet seems to only address account creation but it is good to assume that the entire eShop may crash like it did last year, which disallowed the purchase or download of games.
While it can be a bit awkward trying to create a Nintendo Account for someone who doesn't know they're being gifted a Switch yet, the process can be done on Nintendo's site and doesn't ask for too much information on the Switch owner. If one is going to be gifting a Switch this holiday season it would be wise to get ahead of the game and attempt to create an account for that user. Similarly, physical game purchases would be a good idea as well in case of problems with the Nintendo eShop.
In other Nintendo news, the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console of November and especially during Thanksgiving week. Along with the release of the new OLED model, the base Switch and Switch Lite models went on to sell a combined 1.13 million units that month, with 550,000 of those units being sold during the Thanksgiving week. This continues an incredible streak for the company, the Switch being the top console sold 35 out of the past 36 months. It stands to reason the holiday season will once again be big for Nintendo.
Server crashing can be disheartening, especially during the holidays and when holding a shiny new gaming system. Millions of more Switch consoles have been sold since Holiday 2020 so the demand to get on Nintendo's servers this holiday will be massive. Hopefully, everyone will be able to enjoy their Switch consoles to the fullest extent come Christmas Day.
Source: IGN