Nintendo Switch network services were down due to AWS outage [Update: outage resolved]

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (publication date: 2021-12-08 11:09 JST)

[UPDATE 2021/12/08 14:15 JST]
Nintendo announced that the Nintendo Switch’s network service outage has been resolved.

[Original Text]
The Nintendo Switch’s network service currently appears to be down. The outage is impacting everything from the Nintendo eShop to online play.

On December 8, 12:35 a.m. (JST) Nintendo alerted users of a network outage that appears to affect the entire Nintendo Switch network service and predicts that it could take some time before the issue is resolved. The outage also includes the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops. As of this writing (December 8, 9:37 a.m. JST) service has still not been restored.

The outage appears to be related to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) issue taking place at an Amazon Cloud Directory in the Northern Virginia region. AWS is a cloud computing platform from Amazon that provides a number of services revolving around IT infrastructure.

Nintendo Switch Online’s network functionality is provided through AWS. Through the introduction of AWS, they say the service will be more easily scalable and flexible to meet increased demands (AWS Official website, Japanese). With AWS itself having issues starting on the morning of December 7 (PST), services that make us of that platform also began to have problems. Nintendo followed up their initial notification saying the outage is indeed related to AWS.

AWS is used by numerous games and platforms including the Epic Games Store, League of Legends, Valorant, Dead by Daylight, and PUBG, which are also experiencing issues. While it looks like the network issues with AWS have been resolved, it may take some time before Nintendo Switch Online and other impacted services are back online.