Sales through the Nintendo eShop have been suspended in Russia, the company has announced, as the digital storefront unable to process payments in rubles thanks to the payment service that Nintendo has been using in the region.
Without an accompanying statement, it seems as though this is more of a technical issue for the eShop, a result of the actions taken by other companies suspending services within Russia, as opposed to the Japanese manufacturer taking a principled stand over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russians have taken to social networks, sharing photos of their Switch getting error code 2813-0999 when they try to access the Russian eShop.
Nintendo’s simple statement (translated by Google) reads:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Due to the fact that the payment service used in Nintendo eShop has suspended the processing of payments in rubles, Nintendo eShop in Russia is temporarily placed into maintenance mode.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused. We will share updates as the situation develops.
This stands in stark contrast to the decisions made by other game companies. CD Projekt Red and EA, for example, have made statements that they stand in solidarity with Ukraine and are actively pulling their products from Russia and Belarus. Microsoft has also suspended new sales in the two countries, saying they are “horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine”, and voluntarily removing themselves from the markets, in addition to taking actions to comply with the wide-reaching sanctions being imposed by the US and EU.
Source: Nintendo RU
