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News Wii U and 3DS eShops to close March 2023 (UPDATE: new additional details, see threadmarks)

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SuperFakerBros said:
Shit, this is way too early for the 3DS. It hasn't been that long since it stopped getting games. Like why? Just keep it up so the library can be accessible for a while
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I honestly don't fully get why closing down purchasing games while keeping redownloading them active.

Like, I'm guessing keeping the redownload servers online is gonna be a cost anyway. Why not at least try to make a bit of money out of it?

We do know they removed adding funds with credit card on some EU eShops because of new credit card laws, that would require extra dev time to keep the option open; but I can't believe they can't work around those. I don't know, feels like literal money left on the table. Who knows if you're gonna get someone to buy all the VC games in 5 years.
 
Seems way too soon for this kind of thing... Surely the cost of keeping the 3ds/Wii U shops up and running are worth it. I hope they get heat for this and end up reversing their decision.

I understand the removing of credit card purchases, as there are vulnerabilities that are hard to mitigate without updating the actual systems, but it's a terrible decision to remove eShop credit purchases...
 
xghost777 said:
We need to get an essential pick up thread going asap.
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I'd be interested in this as well, I've been curious for a bit about what's good from the DSiWare days as well.

Also what's really sucky about this is that while physical prices on stuff are still reasonable in most cases, the store going down means goodbye to DLC.
 
Sucks to hear. There are a ton of games that you can only really buy on those two consoles right now, at least at a reasonable price.
 
grumpybat said:
It's only a matter of time until you can no longer download purchased games either, right?
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Yes eventually, though you can still download purchased Wii games to this day still I believe
 
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I’m honestly a little surprised about them closing it down so soon after the 3DS being discontinued too.
 
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Horrific news and a massive loss for game preservation. And maybe the biggest ever when you consider the amount of exclusives, games never released anywhere else, and even if they were the experience isn’t something you can replicate given all the unique features of the hardware

and this is made all the much worse given nintendos company position sure as shit isn’t “hey sorry we aren’t supporting this anymore but hey modding and emulation is still an option k bye 👋“

its “you fuck with our shit and try to play our games on our hardware without our explicit permission we are shipping your ass to Azkaban, bitch.”

If Nintendo as a company wants to be as protective of their software as they are they should you know.. actually protect it.

Like my god only 11 years for an online store? Imagine if the Switch store shut down in 6 years. That’s basically the same timeline.
 
If they're doing this, they'd better make Pokémon Bank free.

Fake Edit: oh, that just came up as I was typing this. good.

More generally, though, this feels way too early. Hopefully these games eventually become purchasable again on future Switch hardware.

Real edit: Annual PSA that you're probably going to need to renew your Bank subscription soon if you've had one active since it launched. I really am not going to miss the way that that works. The Switch eShop having explicit subscription support is a godsend.
 
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There's not that many remaining Wii U games but it's still sad that stuff like Xenoblade Chronicles X, Splatoon 1 or Affordable Space Adventures won't be available anymore.

The 3DS eShop being shut down is an absolute disaster. There's like ~200 games if not more exclusive to that system.
 
Pokemon Bank becoming free is a godsend but yeah, it would be a nice Famiboards project to accumulate a recommended list for 3DS/Wii U games.
 
I was waiting on a Xenoblade Chronicles X remaster; but I think I need to grab a copy asap.

I don't want to chance a remaster never materializing and pay some crazy price for a used copy later.
 
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Fami. Buy all the Megaman Battle Network games. Since a collection hasn’t happen.

Wii U has them.

Also Fire Emblem Revelation is only on 3DS and digitally. I got the cart but that’s super rare.
 
Soul Skater said:
Horrific news and a massive loss for game preservation. And maybe the biggest ever when you consider the amount of exclusives, games never released anywhere else, and even if they were the experience isn’t something you can replicate given all the unique features of the hardware

and this is made all the much worse given nintendos company position sure as shit isn’t “hey sorry we aren’t supporting this anymore but hey modding and emulation is still an option k bye 👋“

its “you fuck with our shit and try to play our games on our hardware without our explicit permission we are shipping your ass to Azkaban, bitch.”

If Nintendo as a company wants to be as protective of their software as they are they should you know.. actually protect it.

Like my god only 11 years for an online store? Imagine if the Switch store shut down in 6 years. That’s basically the same timeline.
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This feels like a bit of an overreaction given they did confirm redownloads are gonna stay active.
 
Makes me wonder if this is the end of the road for first party NES/SNES game ownership. Sure would be great if you could choose to buy the titles available on NSO.
 
Time to take advantage of that excellent Wii U Virtual Console. Think there’s still some old Wii rereleases I need to buy. Might consider getting Robobot and SMT4 as well.
 
Tangerine_Cookie said:
This feels like a bit of an overreaction given they did confirm redownloads are gonna stay active.
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Not being able to purchase the games anymore is a pretty big hit to keeping these games accessible, especially given that most, if not all of these are probably out of print by now, if they even released physically at all. Once the closure happens, there will be many games that become impossible to legally acquire.
 
Nintendo and their yearly 'don't buy digital from us folks'
 
Toad King said:
Can I ask exactly what you mean by "preservation" here? I always see this line being touted here and it makes no sense to me. Every single Nintendo game ever made is easily pirated these days. Do you mean something like availability?
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I'm gonna be honest and say the weirdly toxic way "game preservation" is used nowadays makes me instantly scoff whenever anyone uses it.

Pokemaniac said:
Not being able to purchase the games anymore is a pretty big hit to keeping these games accessible, especially given that most, if not all of these are probably out of print by now, if they even released physically at all. Once the closure happens, there will be many games that become impossible to legally acquire.
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Availability and accessibility aren't required for "preservation". Or else we'd have a lot of problems with works of art being kept in private collections.

It's fine to be mad the games will be harder to actually play legally. (Not that there aren't other avenues nowadays to do so, anyway). That's understandable.

Throwing "preservation" in there though, bothers me on principle. These games are perfectly preserved already, both in Nintendo's vaults and in... Community dumps, let's call them.

All talking about preservation does in these instances is basically negatively paint actual game preservation for many. There is very little risk of misplacing and "losing" 3DS software forever. It's another word some people use until their meaning is run to the ground and back, in some cases to justify, well, illegal access to games, and it's tiring.

There is very little risk of "losing" 3DS software forever. Physical copies are in plentiful supply, and digital content is dumped. It's fine to be bothered by digital purchases ending, but preservation this ain't.
 
Tangerine_Cookie said:
I honestly don't fully get why closing down purchasing games while keeping redownloading them active.

Like, I'm guessing keeping the redownload servers online is gonna be a cost anyway. Why not at least try to make a bit of money out of it?

We do know they removed adding funds with credit card on some EU eShops because of new credit card laws, that would require extra dev time to keep the option open; but I can't believe they can't work around those. I don't know, feels like literal money left on the table. Who knows if you're gonna get someone to buy all the VC games in 5 years.
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Payment processing, accounting, and customer service are always the most expensive parts of operating a store and most likely outweigh whatever money they're bringing in. Keeping the servers running for downloads costs next to nothing. If they're already losing money keeping the store open then there's little point in keeping it open.
 
What a blow to games access and preservation. This sucks.

In truth, if we are being realistic, none of these games will truly be "lost," not any time soon. 3DS and Wii U hacking are trivially easy, allowing backs ups of games to be made and redownloaded (and play homebrew and hacks - great for more than just backups!), and while I am not here to advocate piracy, it would be silly to pretend that it isn't happening and that people don't have roms uploaded deep onto the internet somewhere. But official access to these games will be much more difficult, especially for games that were released exclusively as digital titles, and that's extremely unfortunate. Heck, pirates are the least affected by this - it's people who, years in the future, want to go and play these games without going through hoops.

This all applies extra for 3DS - Wii U emulation is making great strides, and backups of games run well on good hardware. And we got lots of Wii U to Switch ports as well. 3DS emulation is far from ideal for many titles, however - original hardware is still king.
 
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woof. soon the piss poor Switch offering will be the only official way to pay these games. what a shame
 
Common Knowledge said:
Probably better to just not acknowledge how shit something is in the first place. Why did they even include that?
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Better to rip the band-aid off now then do it later Pokédex style. Besides you know this was gonna be a thing people were going to ask them about, still will probably, in any interview shortly after this announcement.
 
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VolcanicDynamo said:
What a blow to games access and preservation. This sucks.

In truth, if we are being realistic, none of these games will truly be "lost," not any time soon. 3DS and Wii U hacking are trivially easy, allowing backs ups of games to be made and redownloaded (and play homebrew and hacks - great for more than just backups!), and while I am not here to advocate piracy, it would be silly to pretend that it isn't happening and that people don't have roms uploaded deep onto the internet somewhere. But official access to these games will be much more difficult, especially for games that were released exclusively as digital titles, and that's extremely unfortunate. Heck, pirates are the least affected by this - it's people who, years in the future, want to go and play these games without going through hoops.

This all applies extra for 3DS - Wii U emulation is making great strides, and backups of games run well on good hardware. 3DS emulation is far from ideal for many titles, however - original hardware is still king.
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This is a blow to accessibility, but not preservation; it's been widely known since the "Gigaleak" last year that Nintendo has preserved almost everything since they entered the gaming business so none of what is on the 3DS and Wi U eShops will truly be lost.
SlumWolf said:


woof. soon the piss poor Switch offering will be the only official way to pay these games. what a shame
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To be fair, most of the Virtual Console titles that people bought are available on the Switch either through NSO or the various rereleases and collections that third parties have released.
 
Not sure if we want to sort this out, but I’ll start a Wii U/3DS virtual console essential purchases thread. I think it will be wiser to consolidate by type and not just have one general thread which broadens discussion too much. I’m not much for making threads, but will try my best to make it useful. If someone else wants to do this then I’ll just help contribute with comments.
 
Pretty soon for the 3DS, unfortunate.

This is bad news for Pokemon Bank, which will make it so folks who didn't download it can't transfer Pokemon from before Gen 8.

I wonder if we will still be able to pay for Pokemon Bank.

EDIT: The answer is in this thread, that's nice at least. Free to use, but new users won't be able to access it.
 
Tangerine_Cookie said:
Availability and accessibility aren't required for "preservation". Or else we'd have a lot of problems with works of art being kept in private collections.

It's fine to be mad the games will be harder to actually play legally. (Not that there aren't other avenues nowadays to do so, anyway). That's understandable.

Throwing "preservation" in there though, bothers me on principle. These games are perfectly preserved already, both in Nintendo's vaults and in... Community dumps, let's call them.

All talking about preservation does in these instances is basically negatively paint actual game preservation for many. There is very little risk of misplacing and "losing" 3DS software forever. It's another word some people use until their meaning is run to the ground and back, in some cases to justify, well, illegal access to games, and it's tiring.

There is very little risk of "losing" 3DS software forever. Physical copies are in plentiful supply, and digital content is dumped. It's fine to be bothered by digital purchases ending, but preservation this ain't.
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This isn't some one of a kind physical work of art. These are infinitely reproducible digital works. The comparison doesn't work at all.
 
Barely Able said:
Not sure if we want to sort this out, but I’ll start a Wii U/3DS virtual console essential purchases thread. I think it will be wiser to consolidate by type and not just have one general thread which broadens discussion too much. I’m not much for making threads, but will try my best to make it useful. If someone else wants to do this then I’ll just help contribute with comments.
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Just in case you were unaware the Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (phew that's long) has special E-Reader bonus content already unlocked. I would put that on the list as a definite buy.
 
Barely Able said:
Not sure if we want to sort this out, but I’ll start a Wii U/3DS virtual console essential purchases thread. I think it will be wiser to consolidate by type and not just have one general thread which broadens discussion too much. I’m not much for making threads, but will try my best to make it useful. If someone else wants to do this then I’ll just help contribute with comments.
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Ok. Will work on a decent one with purchase links (for NA at least) if I can find them and whatnot tonight. Hopefully have it ready by morning.
 
Moltres006 said:
What about online play for these, will those still be active? My cousin and I still play gen 7 pokemon and Smash bros on 3ds.
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Online play isn't being cut in the foreseeable future.
Seven said:
This is a blow to accessibility, but not preservation; it's been widely known since the "Gigaleak" last year that Nintendo has preserved almost everything since they entered the gaming business so none of what is on the 3DS and Wi U eShops will truly be lost.
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You're not wrong, Nintendo has a deep vault - and if we're talking pure "access," again, won't promote piracy, but it'd be wrong not to accept the reality. But legal access, that's gonna suffer so hard, and for the grand majority of people, that's what matters in practice.
 
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I actually believe this to be one of the cases where the word preservation holds weight. Sure -- there's nothing stopping you from downloading software en masse through other means -- but so much of the context is missing without the specific hardware itself. Developers intended their games to be played on 3DS displays with 3D or on Wii U with additional GamePad features. Ease of accessibility on original hardware is a means of design preservation in this case.

I'm certain that the 3D effect in particular won't be easy to replicate and it means that particular context will eventually be lost to time as the hardware either fails or becomes unobtainable for later generations. A game like A Link Between Worlds all of a sudden loses its design intent to future generations and I think that aspect sucks from a preservation standpoint. So I don't believe it's a loaded word in this case, like it's often thrown around.
 
I totally understand the sentiment, but is giving Nintendo a bunch of money right before they prematurely close down these storefronts really the move here?
 
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People were so eager to ditch the 3DS once Switch came out, even getting kind of upset that Nintendo was still supporting it with games a year or two after the Switch launch. Now a different tune is being sung, and Nintendo is bad for discontinuing service for a portable that everyone joyfully abandoned years ago, and a perpetually mocked console that "nobody bought."

I’m guilty of this myself. I stopped using my 3DS for so long I actually lost the charger. I dusted it off (and turned my house upside down to find my charger) thanks to the huge sale Atlus had over the holidays and didn’t realize how much I missed it.

Looks like it’s finally time to grab Dragon Quest VIII and Murasame Castle, and give both eshops another look before they go away.
 
If I have a linked account and add funds through the Switch, are they available on the Wii U? Or am I hard cut off from adding funds in three months? There's still a small handful of GBA/DS/Wii games I wanted to buy.

Tangerine_Cookie said:
I honestly don't fully get why closing down purchasing games while keeping redownloading them active.

Like, I'm guessing keeping the redownload servers online is gonna be a cost anyway. Why not at least try to make a bit of money out of it?
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IIRC payment processing servers tend to be separate and more expensive to run (if they're properly secure) than content servers, though I might be making that up. Can't remember.

NarohDethan said:
Nintendo and their yearly 'don't buy digital from us folks'
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If you bought digitally from them, nothing's going away for quite a while still.

Seven said:
To be fair, most of the Virtual Console titles that people bought are available on the Switch either through NSO or the various rereleases and collections that third parties have released.
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The Wii U is interesting because of its extensive GBA, DS, and Wii libraries. The 3DS eShop also had a lot of DSi Ware. Game Boy was nice too, but we're supposedly getting that soon.
 
Jersh said:
IIRC payment processing servers tend to be separate and more expensive to run (if they're properly secure) than content servers, though I might be making that up. Can't remember.
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There’s definitely government compliance/regulatory stuff you have to do each year for things like Sarbanes-Oxley. So yes, it’s certainly more costly than just a simple HTTP content server 😄
 
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Seven said:
To be fair, most of the Virtual Console titles that people bought are available on the Switch either through NSO or the various rereleases and collections that third parties have released.
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Except the vast majority of the GB(C) games for sale. The only good news about this (which doesn't outweigh the bad) is I think it makes Game Boy coming to NSO more likely.
Just last week I was making a list of DSiware and eshop games I want to get. Nintendo published an impressive line-up of new IPs from external devs on these platforms, it's a massive shame most of them will be lost to everyone in the future except pirates. Not to mention the hundreds of little exclusives we're unlikely to see released elsewhere, and region-locked retail games released digital-only in some regions.

The DS and Wii lines having unique hardware was to their advantage, but as old systems break down it's going to become borderline impossible for the average player to experience so many masterpieces in the context they were intended. Emulators can mimic CRT effects (I have no idea how accurate they are but it's something), but how will young gamers in fifty years play Bowser's Inside Story or Nintendogs or Nintendoland without fairly large compromises? Almost every other handheld and home console out there (barring certain peripherals like the NES Zapper gun, Power Glove, Sega 3D Scope, Virtual Boy, et al) can be accurately replicated with a standard controller, but these won't. The 3D effect of the 3DS can at least be done in VR emulators, I guess, but the input method won't be true to life. I'm rambling though; I know Nintendo won't and honestly shouldn't keep these stores open whole decades after they're discontinued (five years after seems sufficient, ten if they're generous). I'm just lamenting.
 
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Jesus, this feels way too soon. And we only have until May before they stop accepting credit cards?! Looks I'm going to have to move fast on some stuff I've been holding off on.

Not happy at all.

EDIT: Oh wait, I misunderstand/forgot how credit cards work on the 3DS/Wii U eshops. I'm not in as much of a panicked rush as I thought I'd be, but still not good.
 
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I don't care as much with the Wii U since the vast majority of the library is available on other consoles. But I think this is a big mistake for the 3DS.

The system only recently got discontinued, and I feel like another 3 or so years of eShop support would've been the better solution, not to mention the vast majority of its library (including VC games) are still exclusive on the system.

I get that it's tough to keep servers for legacy consoles going, but extending 3DS support for just a little longer would've been a better move.
 
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