Nintendo has consistently maintained that it would explore options to make the eShop easily accessible in web browsers, a policy that's brought us Miiverse and Mario Kart TV on PC, Mac and mobile devices. With the eShop platforms on Wii U and 3DS becoming increasingly important to Nintendo, it's unsurprising that calls for the long promised web implementation of the eShop continue to be heard.

The convenience of browsing the eShop on your phone or computer, buying them and finding the game installed on your system when you next fire it up is obvious, and it's a feature already available on Sony and Microsoft systems. It seems that Nintendo's work in this area is progressing, however, as curious gamers trying relevant web addresses have stumbled across what seems to be a basic early build of this functionality.

At the time of writing a visit to eshop.nintendo.net brings up the following basic webpage, with a Redeem Download button.

NNwebshop

In our case clicking that button brings us an error yet, intriguingly, it's automatically logged in to our Nintendo Network ID — this suggests it's using the same setup as the browser based Miiverse, for example, in detecting our user credentials.

NNwebstorelogin

Some users over on NeoGaf, meanwhile, are having some joy on the second screen; it seems to be varying per region. There are claims that inputting a code for a download game is, after a relatively short amount of time, triggering that title to download and install on a Nintendo Network ID-linked Wii U, with suggestions this will also work on 3DS.

The fact that this functionality is on the way isn't new, though it's been a long time coming. Nintendo's due to present its Q2 financial results on 31st October, however, and features like this are ideal for revealing to shareholders ahead of release. The presence of a functional — albeit limited — web page along these lines certainly gives hope that this will arrive soon.

Are you excited about this functionality, and do you feel a web store and related features will help boost eShop sales? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

[source neogaf.com]