Nintendo 3DS and Wii U E-shop closing

[tonberrian]

Well, it's that time again where a company decides it can't afford to keep the lights on on an old system. Nintendo's closing down getting anything new for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U over the internet on March 27 this year. Myself I want to pick up the last Mario and Luigi games I missed the first go around, and I can't find my copies of Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Persona Q (which, apparently had faults in the first run, so its even odds if my physical copy would even still work). This is the end for picking up new DLC too, and since every 3DS game has its own bespoke dlc shop you can't buy through nintendo.com you gotta check every single one for DLC. For the record, this isn't the end of redownloading things, though - that's going to continue for the foreseeable future. But anything you want to buy, you gotta do it now.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

This sort of thing is why I stopped bothering with handhelds and stick to PC gaming.

[Zevox]

This sort of thing is (part of) why I still buy physical copies of my games whenever possible.

[Winthur]

This sort of thing is why I obtain games in a way that I am not allowed to talk about.

[tonberrian]

Now hold on, I don't begrudge them doing this. It's sound business strategy. Holding the shops open costs them money and they're not getting a lot from it. Having a set end date forces most the sales that could have happened to happen, plus a few more from FOMO.

What I begrudge is them not making these games available on the Switch.

[Zevox]

Oh, I don't begrudge them doing it either, makes sense. But knowing these online shops will one day get shut down as they become obsolete is still a good reason to prefer physical media to digital, in my opinion.

[MinimanMidget]

It's the "you bought it for 3DS? Great, now buy it again for Switch!" that bothers me. Imagine if Steam made you buy all your games again every time you got a new computer.

[Razade]

It's the "you bought it for 3DS? Great, now buy it again for Switch!" that bothers me. Imagine if Steam made you buy all your games again every time you got a new computer.

It's not really the same, given that 3DS games have to be upscaled and reworked for the hardware on a new platform unlike your computer.

[tonberrian]

I'd rather have games having to buy again than having games I can't buy at all. Like Etrian Odyssey III on the DS is on Amazon for over $300. So it's important that EO3 is getting a rerelease, even if it is still $40 to purchase. I'm tempted to buy EO1 and 2 again even though I have the Untold versions just to see the new artwork and have a better resolution to play them on.

Though I am going to be sad if I buy EO3 HD Rerelease and then a year later they come out with Etrian Untold 3. Sad, but i'd still buy it even if I already bought 3 HD.

[Rodin]

It's not really the same, given that 3DS games have to be upscaled and reworked for the hardware on a new platform unlike your computer.

There's also the part where they're telling everyone the shop is closing soon, but are still keeping the servers up for re-downloading the games.

Outside of a handful of shovelware, the most recent 3DS release I can see on Metacritic is Shovelknight: King of Cards. That was in 2019, and it released simultaneously on Switch as well as a half dozen other platforms.

Nintendo's stance here makes plenty of sense to me. The vast majority of people who were going to buy these games have done so. And if they still want to, well, now's the time. That's why Nintendo announced in advance instead of just shutting the shop down.

Even knowing its closing down I can't think of anything I would want. My 3DS got supplanted by my Switch 5 years ago. I had already mostly stopped using my 3DS because I'd played everything I wanted to.

[MinimanMidget]

It's not really the same, given that 3DS games have to be upscaled and reworked for the hardware on a new platform unlike your computer.

I'm not talking about rereleases, that's a completely different thing. Emulating GBA games is just not different enough on the Wii/3DS/Switch to justify Nintendo not carrying your purchases across.