http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-21-nintendo-of-europe-removes-eshop-restrictions-on-18-rated-games

The company today issued a statement via the online storefront that informed users of the changes.

Previously users could only buy and browse 18+ rated content between the hours of 11pm and 3am.

Nintendo had blamed the restriction on strict German laws that govern the sale of online games. Nintendo of Europe's servers are based in Germany, meaning the law affected gamers continent-wide.

"Dear Customer," today's message reads.

"Nintendo has lifted the access restrictions content rated 18+. Adults can now browse and buy all games at any time of the day.

"Following analysis of the Parental Controls system on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in cooperation with USK, the German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body, it was deemed that Nintendo's Parental Control system is of very high quality and offers a remarkable level of protection for children. Nintendo's Parental Control system was found to have proved itself in practice.

"Nintendo always encourages parents to make use of Parental Controls to control access to content they deem inappropriate for their children."

Eurogamer has verifed that the changes have indeed been made. You can now browse ZombiU screenshots or download Assassin's Creed 3 to your heart's content.

"At Nintendo we always aim to provide a safe gaming experience for fans of all ages and ensure that we comply with applicable legal age restriction requirements across Europe," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer.

"The USK is the perfect partner for Nintendo to achieve this."

--------------------------------------

Common sense prevails. I wasn't expecting this issue to be fixed anytime soon, so it's good that it has been sorted.

Usually the Nintendo Ninjas are good about legal compliance. You'd figure they'd've had this squared away with the Bundesrepublik before this.

Fantastic. Glad to see this all ended up well.

Well, the point is that there is no such regulation in Germany. Nintendo's statement makes it sound like there was a problem with german law. There isn't. Two days ago I purchased Resident Evil 5 off PSN because of the Resident Evil promotion. It was 2pm, a bright day and I didn't even have to confirm my age. It was just *click* and download. I can also download Bioshock from the Mac App Store or go into any store and buy an 18+ rated game. It's not the dark age here, really Most game packages even explicitly say "uncut" on them and none of those publishers ever got into trouble. 

Edit: I guess the real reason is that some companies (Nintendo, Amazon,...) are simply afraid to get into trouble with the USK.

pretty good response time to the issue.

Many lives were lost during the Nintenja Assassination Black Ops to get this result.

yes, but it is always good for everybody that kids are proteted from this kind of products. good that nintendo has a good parental control

Good!

it's about the server location.. the PSN store doesn't have their servers in germany.. Nintendo did..