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

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OK, seems like aside from Advance Wars I won't be buying any Switch game in this year, since I'll have to hunt down any DLC and digital only games I've missed on 3DS and Wii U instead. This is an awful move and one made way too soon.
 
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Really awful. Hundreds of digital-only 3DS, DSiWare, and Wii U games are becoming completely inaccessible, not to mention virtual console releases.

Thank god no-intro DATs and dumpers have been archiving these libraries. Will totally advocate for "piracy" and ROM downloading in face of closures of digital stores.
 
TheDok said:
Really awful. Hundreds of digital-only 3DS, DSiWare, and Wii U games are becoming completely inaccessible, not to mention virtual console releases.
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AFAIK, they are still accessible after that date for those who have purchased the content. The thread title doesn't match the tweet.
 
jariw said:
AFAIK, they are still accessible after that date for those who have purchased the content. The thread title doesn't match the tweet.
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Know that. That's only good for preexisting purchases obviously. Not a solution at all.
 
Yea this is awesome!!! I love not being able to purchase classic Nintendo titles so I can play them exclusively on Nintendo Switch Online! /s

Time to buy Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal I suppose.
 
Now the question becomes do I buy all of the 3DS Ambassador games on WiiU in case that system ever bricks. Guess I’ll hedge on which one dies first

I’ve also updated the VC thread to mostly complete, so that’s a good place for more detailed discussion of those releases.
 
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Are there any Pokemon in Yellow and Crystal that are unobtainable or impossible to get without an event in SwSh/BDSP? I already have Yellow and was thinking of transferring my glitched Mew to Home, unsure if I want to buy Crystal yet.
 
xghost777 said:
I plugged mine in earlier this morning to play Zack and Wiki which I haven’t played before. Never would have thought 12 hours later this would be happening lol.
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That's such a good game. You're in for a treat.
 
My Bank sub expires in August, does Bank get rid of your boxes due to inactivity? I'm pretty sure I read something about that eons ago but it may just be gospel. If I don't get around to play the 3DS Pokemons by then I'll probably just return them back to X.
 
Yeah this is way too soon. I don't particularly have anything left on either console I haven't already bought, but it's important to support online stores for a more sizable chunk of time than this.

Makes me wonder what kind of revenue they're seeing from both stores. It must be pretty tiny.
 
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Welp, time to get the rest of those Sega and Nintendo 3D Classics. I got a 3DS last year, so I unfortunately didn't have much time to start a collection.

Bummed that I'll never get all the badges that I want, either. C'mon, I get shutting down the WiiU shop, but the 3DS shop has a LOT of stuff and had a longer life than the WiiU.

Also, some of these games are never coming back, like the 3D ones. Blah.
 
Serif said:
Are there any Pokemon in Yellow and Crystal that are unobtainable or impossible to get without an event in SwSh/BDSP? I already have Yellow and was thinking of transferring my glitched Mew to Home, unsure if I want to buy Crystal yet.
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Celebi in G/S/C. They unlocked the event in the virtual console versions. The rest have some method of being obtained, mostly the Grand Underground and Ramanas Park in BDSP
 
I really don't have a problem with this. I've exhausted everything I want to play from these systems and homebrew is widely available on both to back up whatever you want. It's been 12 years for the 3ds, how long are they obliged to keep running the shop?

If they were preventing access to games you've already bought I'd feel differently.

Bill Gaitas said:
My Bank sub expires in August, does Bank get rid of your boxes due to inactivity? I'm pretty sure I read something about that eons ago but it may just be gospel. If I don't get around to play the 3DS Pokemons by then I'll probably just return them back to X.
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I've let my Bank and Home subs lapse multiple times - in the case of Bank for more than a year, and they've never deleted anything.

Keeping your data intact is a good thing for them as it incentivizes people to resub. But they put in the terms that they can and will delete your data because they want you to stay subbed and they may legitimately need to one day.
 
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I am once again asking you to buy Radiant Historia before it's banished to the shadow realm. Thank you.
 
astrogamer said:
Celebi in G/S/C. They unlocked the event in the virtual console versions. The rest have some method of being obtained, mostly the Grand Underground and Ramanas Park in BDSP
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Awesome thanks, might as well grab it. I don't have Bank right now, if I just download it but don't have a subscription I can use it for free next year?
 
This is unfortunate, but kind of expected. I just hope Sony/Nintendo are better about this going forward. Microsoft already has more expertise with storefronts and they’ve been better about this overall — I’m sure having various different infrastructure from PS3-PS4/PS5 and DS/Wii/3DS/WiiU/Switch complicates things for Sony/Nintendo.
 
Just other day I was thinking of how comfortable has been collecting for Wii U, since used copies aren't usually too pricey.. but now, I worry this will change in a year;

Goddamit, I hate digital media so much...
 
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Well, shit. I have about 200 dollars more of 3ds games i need to buy then i will own every 3ds game that i am interested in.

Not even gonna bother to battle the ebay scalpers to get the games physically, so whatever is on the eshop is what im rushing to buy right now
 
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So, the bad news is here. I expected it to be open until at least 2025, but it is what it is. So now, take a step back and deep breath. You have a year for any digital titles you still may want and most are pretty damn cheap.

Lets leave the lay person or little Timmy out of this equation. I hate when people bring up "What about Little Timmy?" Fuck Little Timmy. Little Timmy does not give a shit. Little Timmy is the reason I get generic GameStop cases when I want to purchase a used game. Little Timmy has a loose cart of Mario 3D Land in the back seat of the car, and a stylus between a couch cushion, and his 3DS in a box under the bed with Lego bricks and a pair of socks. And the lay person traded everything in for 10 bucks and a Funko Pop.

So lets leave that behind. We got time.

It sucks because I was going to take my time and get the last few digital only titles I wanted, so going to get a bunch I still want soon. Mostly VC GB/GBC titles and a few digital only games, so my haul will be probably around 100-150 bucks, which over the course of a year is no problem.

So get what you actually want between now and March 2023, as everything can be re-downloaded once you buy it. Back up data to your SD which you can do in settings, and back up to your computer.

As for physical, expect the usual suspects to raise in price next year: Pokemon, Level Five, Atlus.
 
The way this industry treats its legacy is so sad and pathetic. And I am not talking about the much talked preservation in this particular case, because Nintendo is certainly one of the best companies out there with this stuff and keeps everything. I am talking about accessibility and availability, easy & legal, without the need to mod your hardware.

I knew this day would come, but this feels way too early. And it is sending a bad message out there: You just can't trust Nintendo with digital content. Sure, most people will barely care. But I do.
 
Hopefully we get more sales this year. I would have bought more from the Atlus sale had I known.
 
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This is giving me legit depression because like its the end of something that has existed since j became an actual adult its sad.
 
One last piece of advice. Don't drive yourself crazy. Buy what you are really interested. Like, don't buy Sticker Star if you have ZERO desire to get it or Urban Champion because it is not on NSO (game is shit even with 3D lol).
 
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Earthbounder said:
Same here. All my 70+ Switch games are digital.

I know they are not shutting down the chance to download games we have purchased, but when news like this comes out, it's easy to feel it's only a matter of time before that happens.
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I don't think they'd do that, the blowback would be astronomical.

Going digital is just super convenient on a number of levels - less physical space, midnight release, voucher deal etc - but it's a risk.
 
I'm a little surprised at 3DS this soon, but if people were still actually using the thing in any quantity they wouldn't be doing this. They haven't even given 3DS software numbers in the last few years, but the years ending March 2018-2020 were 36m, 10m, and 5m respectively. Pretty easy to believe the number three years beyond that is negligible.
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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It's the same thing they've been saying for five years. "Retro stuff is going to the subscription service". The death of eShops for long-dead systems isn't changing that.
EddyZacianLand said:
Is it true that SMTIV is only available digitally in Europe, so that would mean from March 2023 onwards, European 3DS' wouldn't be able to play SMTIV.
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They wouldn't be able to buy it.
JR436 said:
I don't think they'd do that, the blowback would be astronomical.
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It will happen eventually, just not soon. Here's what they say about the death of the Wii Shop Channel. "It is no longer possible to purchase new content from the Wii Shop. However, for the time being you may continue to re-download content you have purchased or transfer that content from a Wii system to a Wii U system. Be aware that these features will eventually end at a future date." But that future date hasn't yet come, three years later.
 
Serif said:
Awesome thanks, might as well grab it. I don't have Bank right now, if I just download it but don't have a subscription I can use it for free next year?
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Presumably. We don't know how it will work, yet. You'll probably want to also download the separate Poké Transporter app that you actually need to get Pokémon out of Gen 5 and VC. It's only accessible via the main menu of Bank.
 
Prices on Amazon are already on the rise. A new copy of XCX was $55 yesterday and today is $85. 😞

I hope Nintendo adds GB/GBC/GBA games to the Switch Online or eShop before they pull the plug on the 3DS eShop.
 
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Sad news. 3DS software sales must be worse than I thought, honestly thought they'd keep it around a couple more years yet for some reason. Wish they would do a final year sale for selected titles.
EddyZacianLand said:
Is it true that SMTIV is only available digitally in Europe, so that would mean from March 2023 onwards, European 3DS' wouldn't be able to play SMTIV.
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The good old region lock strikes again. I was so miffed back in the day when we were unsure if we'd even be able to play the damn game at all without hacking the 3DS (which I really did not want to do). This is a perfect example of a great game being very hard to obtain in the future if it wasn't for hacking and emulators. Unless Atlus were ever in the mood to port their old games that are on old handhelds to new platforms, which we know, unless it's Persona, is very unlikely.
 
Sumio Mondo said:
Sad news. 3DS software sales must be worse than I thought, honestly thought they'd keep it around a couple more years yet for some reason. Wish they would do a final year sale for selected titles.
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I knew it was pretty bad when Atlus games went on sale and they bacially dominated the top 20 eshop sales chart. Those are pretty niche so not like lots of people were probably buying them out of the 70 plus million systems sold. Still a bummer since it shows that sales could have made Nintendo quite a few sales
 
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Now is probably the time to finally pick up a phyiscal copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X, huh?

I'm so disappointed in the lack of a port.
 
maebe said:
Now is probably the time to finally pick up a phyiscal copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X, huh?

I'm so disappointed in the lack of a port.
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If you do, make sure to download the patch that puts a bunch of stuff on the hat drive to load while playing. I don’t think that will be blocked but you do have to access from the eshop rather than the game I think. Don’t want a Skyward Sword Channel situation from Wii happening again.
 
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maebe said:
Now is probably the time to finally pick up a phyiscal copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X, huh?

I'm so disappointed in the lack of a port.
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The system is already getting 3 major Xenoblade games. I think they just didn't want to overload things and chose to focus on the more related numbered entries. Hopefully next system we get X Definitive Edition and X2.
 
This is a really bad move for Nintendo...

This is really interesting in that I have never seen so many people advocate piracy. Like, the Twitter replies are all about piracy, saying how it's now okay, and that people will start doing it.

Over absolutely everything, I think that can be the biggest damage to Nintendo's brand. If people get used to pirating 3DS and Wii U games, who is to say they won't do so on Switch. I think over everything, Nintendo doesn't want people advertising piracy on all of their official tweets. But yeah. That's really bad, and it certainly is too soon for them to close down these shops as well.
 
I did the math on what I want to get today, and while you can certainly give a lot of these VC games a thought from a price point view, many of these games will likely make it to NSO. But those 3DS titles with its features designed around the hardware are a different matter. 3DS software prices are kind of insane so many years after release. There is the odd 19,99 EUR game in the mix, mostly for early 3DS releases, but a ton of games are still 39,99 to 44,99 EUR and a lot of them have never seen a sale in years (including many Fire Emblem, Mario & Luigi RPG, Kirby or Yoshi games). Price stability is one thing and physical looks even worse for some of these titles, but it doesn‘t quite feel right to invest a significant sum one final time when the software will likely not be supported on any future hardware or official emulation.
 
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Lozjam said:
This is a really bad move for Nintendo...

This is really interesting in that I have never seen so many people advocate piracy. Like, the Twitter replies are all about piracy, saying how it's now okay, and that people will start doing it.

Over absolutely everything, I think that can be the biggest damage to Nintendo's brand. If people get used to pirating 3DS and Wii U games, who is to say they won't do so on Switch. I think over everything, Nintendo doesn't want people advertising piracy on all of their official tweets. But yeah. That's really bad, and it certainly is too soon for them to close down these shops as well.
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That ship has long sailed. 3DS and Wii U have been cracked front to back for ages; there have even been PC programs that let people straight up download the digital games from Nintendo's servers without paying. People who want to advocate piracy will do so at the drop of a hat. Don't provide retro games for us to buy? THEN PIRACY IS OK! Do provide it, but don't like the subscription service? THEN PIRACY IS OK!
 
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The effect of piracy on the bottom line is probably not as big as you'd think going off of the Internet. I don't think it's something a lot of people actually consider in the main.

That being said, there will definitely be an increased piracy market for the 3DS/Wii U games that will be lost because of this - and to be honest, I sympathise to an extent with anyone who goes down that route.
 
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