Quote: TacoMakerSkysIt's due to the heavy traffic and server overload of all the new players updating their 3DS and trying to get on at the same time.
Which is still inexcusable. After all these years, Nintendo should anticipate this sort of thing and beef up their servers, especially with this not being the first time the eShop was rendered inaccessable due to high traffic. It doesn't really look good for Nintendo when the better part of the world can't access a core feature for multiple days.
I can't even begin to imagine the number of people who will be pissed over all the issues that have arisen from this. Not only can god knows how many not use cards or money they may have gotten for Christmas, but Pokemon Bank has been removed from the shop in Japan for the time being with outside releases post-poned to an unknown date.