Nintendo eShop

The Nintendo eShop (Japanese: ニンテンドーeショップ, Hepburn: Nintendō īShoppu) is an online marketplace powered by the Nintendo Network for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Launched on June 6, 2011 in North America and June 7, 2011 in PAL regions and Japan, the eShop was enabled by the release of a system update that added the functionality to the Nintendo 3DS's HOME Menu. It is the successor to both the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop. Unlike on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was made available on the launch date of the Wii U, although a system update is required in order to access it. It is also a multitasking application, which means it is easily accessible even when a game is already running on background through the system's Home Menu, though this feature is exclusive to the Wii U. The Nintendo eShop features downloadable games, applications and information on upcoming film and game releases.

Features

The Nintendo eShop icon appears as part of the HOME Menu on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS and requires an Internet connection to access. Initially, the two versions of the Nintendo eShop between the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were independent of each other. Whilst this still remains largely true, after the implementation of Nintendo Network ID for the Nintendo 3DS, users that register the same ID account between both systems (currently at one time per console) could share certain data between both versions of the eShop, such as a combined funds balance, home address, saved credit and debit card information, wish list entries, and linked Club Nintendo accounts.

Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 任天堂株式会社, Hepburn: Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha) is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and software company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue. Founded on September 23, 1889, by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels.

Abandoning previous ventures in favor of toys in the 1960s, Nintendo then developed into a video game company in the 1970s, ultimately becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan's third most-valuable company with a market value of over $85 billion. Nintendo of America is also the majority owner of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners.

The word Nintendo can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven".As of March 31, 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company is known for creating some of the most iconic video game franchises, including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon.