The end is in sight

Update 2:

Nintendo of America appears to be making some progress in returning to a full service in the region, having all services up and running with the exception of the 3DS eShop, which is closed from 4pm Eastern until 4am Eastern on 29th December.

Update:

As of 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific on 28th December, Nintendo of America is yet to update its North American Nintendo Network status, and hasn't done so since 17:56 Pacific Time on 27th December. As it stands the region will still be limited to eShop access between 4pm-4am Eastern Time (1pm-1am Pacific). Despite the network status update on the European website, it's now been confirmed that the eShop platforms will once again close in the region at 9pm UK / 10pm CET today, and will remain down until 9am UK / 10am CET tomorrow.

Original Article:

Due to factors such as increased festive traffic and the launch of Pokémon Bank on 25th December in Japan, the Nintendo Network had extensive downtime from Christmas Day until 27th December. A return to service on 27th December was on the condition that the eShop was only available for limited hours, as the volume of those logging in with Nintendo Network IDs continued to cause Nintendo problems — you can see a summary of events in our original article.

Nintendo of America has recently clarified that each region was given different access times on 27th December (relative to time zones) to ease the traffic load, but there's now a suggestion that normal service will resume to unlimited access. The European network status page is now giving the online services the all clear, with every category now "Operating Normally". The limited hours access — 9am UK / 10am CET to 9pm / 10pm CET — was said to be temporary, and the status page suggests that all platforms will return to normality.

The equivalent status page for the Americas is still indicating the same issues — and eShop availability window — as on 27th December, but at the time of publication may not have been updated as yet (time zones, once again). We'll update this article should that status be improved during the course of today, bringing North America back to full service.

This has been rather damaging for Nintendo, as the persistent downtime for two full days and limited access on the third day does not reflect well on its online infrastructure, and compares poorly to the single-day festive turnaround on fixing similar issues on other online platforms such as Steam and PlayStation Network. It has also cost download publishers and developers, who lost vital days of sales.

Have you been frustrated or disappointed by this issue, or do you feel Nintendo dealt with it as well as it could have? Share your thoughts in the comments below.