Nintendo eShop Down, Seemingly Due to Monster Hunter Rise Demo Demand [Updated]

Nintendo has confirmed the outage is now over, and IGN has been able to access the Nintendo eShop (and download the Monster Hunter demo).The Nintendo eShop is currently down for unscheduled “emergency maintenance”, which may be due to demand for the recently released Monster Hunter Rise demo.

The eShop has been down for at least 4 hours at time of writing, with Nintendo’s Japanese customer support Twitter account repeatedly apologising for the issues, but offering no timescale for a fix.

While neither Nintendo or Capcom has specifically commented on the connection, the outage coincides with the release of the demo for Monster Hunter Rise, which includes two quests and two tutorials for the upcoming Switch exclusive.

Yesterday’s Monster Hunter live broadcast revealed a number of new monsters and details about the game, including the fact that a new ability will let you ride monsters (an ability you can test in the demo).

The demo weighs in at 1.6GB, and quests can be played a maximum of 30 times before its February 1 closure date. If you can’t download, we’ve got videos of the Great Izuchi quest, and the Mizutsune quest for you to check out.

If you’re interested in buying the game before it arrives on March 26, here’s what comes in each edition of Monster Hunter Rise.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.