Nintendo Officially Ends Repair Services For The Last Member Of The 3DS Family—and Their Last Dedicated Handheld

The publisher made the announcement on its Japanese customer website. The statement explains how due to stock drying up of the necessary repair parts, the company will no longer be accepting repairs for the New Nintendo 2DS XL. It also goes on to state that repairs for all other Nintendo 3DS series systems will be discontinued. 

Nintendo’s repair center is where customers can submit their damaged consoles to the company for a fix with official parts. Importantly, as noted by VGC, the service continues repairing products for a time even after they are no longer on general sale. This comes with the caveat that because these consoles are no longer being manufactured, the amount of available replacement parts is finite, meaning that inevitably older consoles won’t have replacement parts available for them. 

The New Nintendo 2DS XL first came out in July 2017, a few months after the first Nintendo Switch came out. It was released alongside the games Hey! Pikmin and Fire Emblem Echoes. It was part of Nintendo’s 3DS line of products, although it did not have the 3D effect the other handheld consoles did. Regardless, the entire family is now on its own as Nintendo puts the last nail in the repair coffin. Add to this that Nintendo shut down the 3DS eShop in March 2023, and it seems like today marks the end of an era for Nintendo handhelds—in an official capacity, at least. 

While you won’t find Nintendo selling anything but Switch consoles and accompanying accessories hardware-wise on their online store, any number of online and brick-and-mortar stores specializing in old video game hardware will likely have some members of the 3DS family lying around. Just try not to damage or break them entirely if you end up buying one.