Here's the English version for Nihon Wire:
BODY: If you've been sitting on the fence about a Switch or Switch 2 purchase, the clock is now measured in hours, not days. Nintendo's eShop Summer Sale reaches its finish line tonight, August 17, at 11:59 PM Japan time.
Running across both the Nintendo eShop and the Nintendo Store, the promotion covers a broad slate of first- and third-party titles spanning the original Switch and its successor, the Switch 2. It's a rare moment where Nintendo—famously stingy with its own franchise discounts—puts marquee names on the table.
Headlining the sale is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the pandemic-era phenomenon that still moves units years after launch. Also featured is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, the newest entry in the Zelda-flavored musou spin-off line, which ties into the lore of Tears of the Kingdom and gives fans a reason to revisit Hyrule between mainline releases.
For buyers weighing the ecosystem jump, the inclusion of Switch 2 software is the more telling signal. Nintendo rarely discounts hardware-adjacent launch titles this early, so a summer markdown on newer releases is worth acting on before the window shuts.
The insider take
From Tokyo, the timing here is no accident. Nintendo's summer sales are calibrated to Japan's Obon holiday period, when families return home and gaming spikes—but this year the real story is the Switch 2 transition. By folding new-generation titles into a legacy Switch promotion, Nintendo is quietly nudging its enormous installed base toward the upgrade without a hard sell. Domestic retailers here have noticed the same pattern: the company would rather season its catalog with occasional deals than run the aggressive, year-round discounting common on rival platforms. That scarcity is exactly why Japanese players treat these end-of-sale deadlines seriously—miss it, and the next chance may be months out.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).