Youth protection regulations mean 18+ rated games can only be sold between 11pm and 3am
Nintendo has blamed German laws for restricting mature-rated game downloads on the Wii U eShop in Europe to between 11pm and 3am.
The news came to light when an Italian Wii U owner received a customer support e-mail detailing the regulations in place, designed to help protect young users.
“We would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries,” read the e-mail.
"We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors to the 11pm - 3am time window."
The restrictions mean that titles like Ubisoft Montpellier’s shooter ZombiU cannot be downloaded during the day.