Nintendo Japan will stop repairing 3DS and 3DS XL ‘due to lack of parts’

The discontinued handhelds will no longer be supported at the end of March

Nintendo Japan has announced that it will no longer repair broken 3DS and 3DS XL units from March 31, because they’re running low on the parts they need.

In a statement on its official site, Nintendo explained: “Due to the difficulty in securing the necessary parts for repair, we will no longer be able to accept repair requests for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL as of March 31, 2021.”

The company has told its customers that any units that arrive after this deadline will not be repaired, and it may not even be able to repair some of the units that arrive on time.

“Please note that even before the above date, we may not be able to repair your product if the necessary parts are no longer in stock. Please be aware of this in advance,” it stated.

This news applies to all colours of the 3DS and 3DS XL hardware. Nintendo will continue to repair New 3DS, New 3DS XL and 2DS models for now.

Nintendo officially discontinued all models of the 3DS in September last year, confirming that production had ended earlier in the year as all attention was being placed on the Switch.

According to Nintendo’s financial reports, the 3DS had sold 75.08 million units worldwide as of the end of March 2019, but that number had only reached 75.77 million by the end of March 2020.

Meanwhile, Nintendo reported earlier this month that 80 million Switch units had already shipped worldwide, and that it was now aiming to overtake the Wii’s total sales of 101.63 million units.