1,000 "Digital-Only" Titles Estimated To Disappear When Nintendo Closes 3DS & Wii U eShop

Of those 350 games not available in NSO, is that accounting those like the NES Mega Man and Castlevanias? Which are available in compilations.

One day before February ends I'll make a list of games I intend to buy on both systems before the closure and work on February, March (except on Kirby and The Forgotten Land's launch), April and May to get what I can with my debit card and the rest with Prepaid Cards until August.

It had to come eventually, looks like I'll finally be buying Phantom Hourglass to supplement my Spirit Tracks.

Well, it’s sad that some software may be lost… but they can’t keep the shops up and running forever… what are they supposed to do about it?

Guess the archivists will have a busy year ahead of them

@Alpha008 And so will Nintendo's lawyers, shutting them all down, citing copyright. That this is coming on the heels of one of their biggest crackdowns on copyright infringement in recent years honestly makes me quote the Angry Video Game Nerd, and cry into the darkness, "What were they thinking!?"

yo ho ho

Any chance we'll get a list of noteworthy games to pick up before the shops go down, NL? I'm trying to figure out what games I want to focus on while they're still available, it'd be nice to know what games are worth buying.

As I mentioned in a previous comment on another article, this isn’t taking into account the DSiWare games that will also become permanently inaccessible thanks to both the DSi store and the 3DS eShop closing. (it probably wouldn’t change the number much but still)

We’re losing a lot, huh?

@CharlieGirl with a bottle of rum

Hard to believe that Switch has grown to be such a retro beast yet still doesn’t have 350 retro titles that Wii U/3DS has/will lose! Crazy
And also this is why again physical still rules.

I've been looking for an excuse to hack my 2ds/wii u. Here it is, I guess. Now I feel a bit morally better about doing it.

I'll live, but the war of videogame preservation continues until a solid solution can be found. Bounding digital-only games to their native system is criminal and I hope it changes one day so piracy doesn't have to be the workaround.

I’m sure like 500 of them are abysmal.

This situation is exactly 100% the reason that physical is better than digital. Now, get off my lawn you young punks!

I call for a 13 Wii U salute! One of them will be mine, naturally, but I'll need to start posting on foreign message boards to locate the other 12 they managed to sell.

@iLikeUrAttitude I have no idea who you are magical Tron space pirate man, but your words are wise and true.

To think that future generations will be denied the opportunity to experience meme run....

Think of the children

@dustinprewitt Meme Run was delisted years ago, it's just too good to be allowed on the eShop unfortunately. Maybe the world will be ready for it one day...

HarmoKnight, the Pushmo games, the Denpa Men trilogy, Dillon's Rolling Western, Attack of the Friday Monsters!, Ketzel's Corridors, the Dsiware games; I could go on.

And not one of these games has a sequel or port on the Switch. GG Nintendo.

I’m super surprised “Affordable Space Adventures” hasn’t gotten a physical.

Other than that!

Dillion Dead Heat Breakers and Pushmo games on the 3DS

People didn’t fight hard enough against what they pulled with Mario last year hell they didn’t even fight they just pumped out lame tired memes while assuring people papa Nintendo was about to release all the 3D Stars games separately along with Galaxy 2 which never happened.

@xjulianvel
Nintendo's new strategy with handling legacy games is why there is significantly more backlash than before. People want to own games that they pay money for, rather than pay a subscription to access a large number of older games.

Something like Xbox Game Pass is different story, because the subscription is so incredibly cheap if you add up all the prices of the new games. With Nintendo Switch Online, it's not a good option when choosing to play older games because it's simply not future proofed and it's rather pricey in the long term.

@SalvorHardin
It's Nintendo, what did you expect? The payments are inevitable, and no one can actually change the minds of others. As much as I hate to say it, we're likely part of the so-called vocal minority that speak the loudest.

At least people get to keep the games they buy after eshop closes. They same cannot be said for the inevitable day that switch online is taken down and closes....

I really hope the Switch store is going to be treated like the PS store for PS4/PS5 and Xbox Store where the store going forward is for all systems so when the new console from Nintento drops its using the same store as Switch.

This really sucks.

I'm starting to wonder if Nintendo is going the way of IBM and becoming a patent troll. They probably will end up making more money by suing pirate sites than selling the software legally.

But Thanos was correct!

@TheBigK
I own a WiiU.
I'm not selling it though!
I have a crap ton downloaded to it.
All legally!

@dustinprewitt
Or Bumpy's Party!
That game is GOLD!

@dustinprewitt
Good luck if your DS/WiiU breaks and you need a replacement.
They don't mention that they won't transfer your ID to the new system!

@WallyWest
Nintendo originally said that Wii and WiiU purchases would be moveable to new systems.
They then said wait and see just before Switch launched.
Then they said "F. U., buy a subscription and don't get rid of your old machines."

I'm still confused though, it says you can't add funds, but doesn't the 3DS/Wii U share the same account as with your Switch? I'm pretty confident my balance is the same across both services.

Im so happy i got the FE Fates special edition....the only way to have revelations in physical form.

This really sucks.

These closures will be devastating for anyone who wanted to play the first four 2D Metroid games legally. I know it has probably been mentioned before, but it's worth repeating: the best way to play these four are as follows:

Zero Mission: Wii U Virtual Console
Samus Returns: 3ds eShop
Super Metroid: 3ds Virtual Console
Metroid Fusion: Wii U Virtual Console

"Why do you only buy physical games? You're stuck in the past, boomer!!"

continues to play games happily

@Hikingguy I completely understand where you’re coming from.

I think we should all be fair and realistic. If the store costs more to keep open than the sales warrant, why would Nintendo keep it going? Also, say the companies that made the games signed a 10 year contract with Nintendo to allow their game(s) on the eShop. If that contract has expired, it’s not really up to Nintendo to beg them to stay on the storefront. (Full disclosure that I have no knowledge that anything in that scenario is true, but it would make perfect business sense).

Games have been delisted for various reasons in the past due to rights changing hands (think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being bought by Nickelodeon and getting removed from the Wii Virtual Console as a result). That had NOTHING to do with Nintendo, yet people complained that it was Nintendo’s screw up at the time.

@legend_of_zaleda I have physical copies of all four of those games.

Time to modd the Ol Wii U

Ok, but let's be honest, about 900 of those were just shovelware.

The preview subtitle only displayed “It's like Nintendo's version of the B…” and for a second I thought it was was going to finish with “burning of the Library of Alexandria” lol 😂

You can still redownload your purchases so "dissappear" is a click baity way of putting it.
Save the panic for when they actually shut off the Eshop servers.

@Spider-Kev for the 3DS it's a criminally easy solution with homebrew to move your defunct console's id (so long as you made a backup before it died) to a new one. From what I know of the WiiU it is also relatively easy there.
With a dead one, also solvable but requires soldering.

@legend_of_zaleda Super Metroid is on the NSO. It is one of its redeeming features, along with Demon's Crest, the Donkey Kong games and Mario Picross you almost get your money's worth out of the gate.

Most of which are from 3rd party devs and most of them are shovelware, so b*tch to those devs about moving their games to the Switch instead of complaining about an end date to a store, on consoles you don’t play on anymore.

I have to wonder how many people this actually affects.

@Hordak

Digital without DRM is perfect, as you can Store it as you wish.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Physical isn't going to help you much either. Especially for games that had (problematic) launches and had some big patches/updates or just big updates that added to the game.
All that you won't be able to download and install either anymore when the eShop closes.

But honestly, this is just Nintendo being stuck in the past since forever! If they used modern cloud services, they could have just scaled back the needed resources to an absolute minimum to keep the eShops running at minimal cost, but still keep everything available for people that still use these consoles.

PS. Just for information. Sony wanted to shutdown PS3 and PSVita stores last year summer, but after a lot of critique and public outcry they reverted the decision, so both stores are still open.

The next 12 months is going to cost a lot of money if you want to get them all.

Don't worry, I got all the CIAs backup.

This is one of the major downsides of digital only games.

This will be even worse with the Switch honestly.

See on the 3ds the amount of games that must have a patch is really low (mostly extra content, and in some rare cases fixes for game breaking bugs).

Even on the Vita most games work fine without a patch (from the 250+ Vita games I own, I can only name 11 that really need one).

But on the Switch that would be a really big issue, the moment eShop does close there, and you can't download patches (it's Nintendo guys...) then the amount of games that will have issues because you lack a patch, will become even bigger.

And I am not even starting about these games that are using 8gb cartridges which have to download at least twice of that to work, because the game is not fully on the cartridge, or worse download codes.

Having a physical release then will only work in some cases, a game like Luigi's Mansion 3 or BotW will work fine most of the time, LA Noire, Borderlands, Wolfenstein 2 will not.

But again on 3ds (and Vita) that is less of a issue, those 2 come from a generation where games came out mostly complete and often lacked game breaking bugs.

Switch does not have that luxury.

Mind you this is worse with the PS4, but on the other hand Sony handles re-downloads of games and updates much better, so that is less of a issue on that system (but still the main reason most of our PS4 games are digital, we only buy must haves physically).

As for Wii U... well that depends, but the amount of games that need a patch there is also quite low.

P.S Borderlands collection is a great example on the Switch, I have that game physically and the first game is like half on the cartridge, while the other 2 are a DLC code and together they are way above 30gb in size.

People can shout "Physical Physical! Physical!" all they like, but that wouldn't help most of these games as most wouldn't have existed in a physical only world. People can call digital evil etc, but all the tiny simple 3DS games that cost about £1 wouldn't exist in a physical only world. And if that wouldn't be a great loss, then neither should their disappearance here be.

@BionicDodo There are currently 4324 games across on the Switch eShop. The point of this discussion shouldn't be centered around shovelware titles the likes you are bringing up.

We should all be reconsidering our spending habits, because one day, they will close the Switch eShop. Not only will thousands of titles be gone, but Nintendo gets to keep our money. You want to give them money so that they can one day shut you out of your purchase? You're only going to be able to re-download the software you bought for as long as they choose to support that feature.

Rip in peas SMT IV in Europe

Ok, actually the Wii U e Shop hasn't so much good stuff anymore. A lot is gone already. I should get Little Space Adventures before it happens.
The 3DS digital stuff isn't so special.

On any system of both, physical absolutely rules and good example, why people should still buy their games physical.

@BloodNinja You're not really replying to what I said. My comment was not that we shouldn't care about access to game libraries and game preservation, but that shouting everything should be physical wouldn't solve this issue as physical packaging and distribution was always a huge barrier to many small devs getting games out in the first place and many of these games would never have been available if no one bought digital.

As for my library, I do want to keep access to digital games, but you make it sound like when they shut the storefront I will immediately lose that. I get that one day I might need them again and they will have turned off the servers hosting my purchases, but for the foreseeable future I have all of my games downloaded to my Switch/sd cards and those games won't go anywhere unless the Switch/card dies. Now I get why Nintendo doesn't want me to be able to backup my own games, but a solution like on Vita where I can backup my games to encrypted files on my PC (tied to my PS account id) would suit me as then I can rely on myself for preservation of my game collection.

I think there are two separate arguments here though. One is about whether Nintendo should forever maintain all games on servers that allow us to redownload our purchases, and the second is whether Nintendo should maintain storefronts for all their out of production consoles and allow for new games to be purchased forever. I believe that Nintendo should provide a service for the first of those issues (in comparison to archives of uncompressed video, these game collections must be relatively small), but I'm not sure the second is really realistic.

@BionicDodo I didn't answer what you initially said, and stated an alternative. I don't believe that what you were saying initially is the core of the issue.

@BloodNinja I never said that what I originally stated was the core of the issue. I just saw (and have seen across the multitude of articles about this) lots of people stating that if we bought only physical games then this wouldn't be an issue. I was merely pointing out why that isn't a solution as in reality it would kill off more games than it would save.

@iLikeUrAttitude

Just because someone doesn't sell you something that doesn't give you the right to steal.

wait just going check ps store, xbox store,steam GOG etc etc. Fan boys defend them again no doubt

@iLikeUrAttitude we pirate games because we have the opportunity, not because we have the "right". I've used flash cards, emulators and CFWs for years, but I don't feel the need to feign personal rights or contributions to "VG history preservation" in this regard. I don't even need to paint myself as a "noble pirate" since adopting selective piracy of the games I can't purchase and otherwise amassing some hefty legal libraries over the last six years. But so many other fanheads here want to feel GOOD about themselves, to act like the evil corporation forces their hand. It's definitely not like we just follow a specific urge for entertainment and achieve it by any means we can get away with, no siree!

@BloodNinja here we go again. I'm even glad I procrastinated on our last debate because the meantime just informed me that even the fandom's, including your own, bellyaching about the previous shutdowns proved to be a teacup storm - Nintendo outright warned users of a limited redownload availability back then, and yet Wii shop contents are friggin' available to this day! /)_-) But just as I called it yesterday, the likes of you are out again, not only with "The End is Neigh" for 3DS/Wii U servers that even the impending cashier booth demise doesn't stop from committing to the content for the "foreseeable future", but with the same rhetoric for a platform that's several years away from so much as its hardware production end. And once again, once the servers are down someday...

Archives? Torrents? FlyLink hubs? Never heard of them. Pretty much all the released games, DLC and patches getting quietly dumped and stashed up for future public (if sufficiently subtle) access as we speak? Perish the thought. And then you go and call other people naive.😅

Honestly, fellow commenters, at the risk of "promoting" the aforediscussed piracy, all this buzz often tempts me to dig up and post blatant torrent thread links here. A quick search on one tracker site alone reveals a 425 Gb 3DS pack (if reportedly light on Japanese releases). Tell me more about "Nintendo keeping all your money".🙄

@WallyWest I seriously doubt the eShop will roll over like ps-store. The sole purpose of NSO, is to avoid the legal trouble created by charging people for the 4th-5th time for the same game. We can now only rent retro games, because Nintendo are too greedy to honour purchases on legacy systems.

@TheBigK I shall join the salute!

So the Wiiu had games after all...

@Chocobo_Shepherd I can always play games that I purchased digitally too.

They do not take games away from your library

@nocdaes not if you bought the games digitally before it closes.

@GrailUK About 45 people?

If all the indies went on a last-minute sale for bargain prices, everybody would win: players would enlarge their collections and get to try new games they would have otherwise ignored, devs would make some money and reach new audiences, and the games would be in many more hands (and SD cards), making them a little bit less rare.

Just you wait till the Switch e-shop gets closed: 1000 titles will be peanuts...

1000 games Thanos snapped!

@Guitario The issue is that when you get a problem with your 3DS console or get a new one, you won't be able to download your digital purchases anymore, when the eShop has closed down.

Frankly, that Nintendo (or any other provider) can simply get away with this, is appalling! You paid full price for this game digitally, so you should be able to redownload it when needed.

It is one thing, with closing down the store front itself and stop the sale of new games, but people should always be able to (re)download the games they paid for!

Seriously, the cost to keep a download repository open for people to connect to and redownload their games should be neglible for Nintendo.
Again, if Nintendo went on with the times, they can just create cheap repository on AWS or Azure as cloud service at minimal cost.

PS. Like others already mentioned. This is going to be a lot worse with the Nintendo Switch in the future. A lot of games require a day 1 patch (including many of Nintendo's own titles) or come incomplete on the cartridge and require a big download from the start.

@nhSnork @Mark-number-12 There's a reason copyright expires. Having the mega wealthy sit on properties, with zero intent to use them, other than to prevent others doing so, is bad.

Pirating old, unused content is moral and right.

Just a warm up for “you’ll own nothing and be happy.”

Yeah... I'm kinda starting to find Steam a hell of a lot more attractive right about now. Mods are cool but they were never a reason for me to choose the Steam version over the Nintendo version. But this kind of stuff may absolutely get me to jump ship and get things on PC instead.

The gaming industry is a real mess right now, isn't it?

Blame the developers for not doing more to preserve their work.

Can we get a list of some of the exclusive titles on 3ds that might be worth getting?

I bought Ogre Battle 64 and Radiant Historia a month ago or so.
I've bought just about everything want - but it's still a bummer.

@Jeronan
Nintendo being stuck in the past is most likely a deliberate move. I will not download any games on a Nintendo console that’s also on the Playstation and Xbox stores. It’s inconvenient to not have it portable but better than not being able to carry the purchase to the next console. The Chrono Cross remaster announced in the Direct last week I will get it on Xbox.

My favorites on the 3DS which I downloaded are Shantae, Pokemon Yellow, Attack of the Friday Monsters, Picross E, Zelda Alttp.

Soon I'm only gonna buy Pokemon Crystal and some missing Picross E versions. I just ordered a 2nd hand psychical copy of Pokemon Rumble World.

There is a lot more VC and exclusive gems what I probably still wanna download in the future but I decided to not care about it and pray that the Switch will offer some good replacements soon or later.

"Nintendo's phased closure of 3DS and Wii U eShop stores will see credit cards usage removed from the service by 23rd May 2022."

No, this misinformation needs to stop. This line is only present in the NA press release, because it's only removing the ability to use cards on the consoles' eShops themselves, just like what already happened in Europe and Japan. You can still add funds on the website if you have a Nintendo Account (the one Switch uses) linked to your Nintendo Network ID. Credit cards can still be used until next March.

Let's be fair at least. Nothing of value has been released in a long time. And anything you don't have, you still have ample warning to pick up. If you still don't have it by then, did you really want it?

They're still allowing redownloading of games you own. They're just closing the storefront.

Yea. Ace Attorney 5 & 6's localizations... Pushmo World... Fire Emblem (as this place said before)... the Denpa Men games... we're losing a chunk of history if we don't archive everything. (+, Yo-Kai Watch. Oh boy, this was the only good way to play it, and now, it's gonna be not cheap.)

@Noelemahc
"...money's worth out of the gate..."
Except for the fact that most will only play those games once every few (?) years. They'd have to keep subscribing or hope they don't get pulled from the service.
So no, it isn't worth it at all.
Especially when prices keep going up. And yes, right now it's only for tiers, but how long, and let's be realistic, this IS Nintendo, basic subscription WILL go away soon, Nintendo likes money.

@nocdaes
Not just digital only.
Game updates and patches for physical games.

And also online components of physical games.
XenoBlade X had a decent online component and that was killed years ago before I could ever finish it.

Between kids, divorce, becoming disabled and moving so much I had no internet or way to play anything. Now I have a stable place to live and everything is all better with my personal life, but now I've lost out on a lot of gaming stuff.

@Nintendo4Sonic
Get Bumpy's Party and NES Remix!
DuckTales as well.

@Spider-Kev
Nintendo made it clear from the moment they announced the Switch in October 2016 that it would be a clean break from the Wii U and 3DS: different branding, different hardware architecture (which leads to no backwards compatibility), different physical media, and different form factor (single screen instead of dual screen).

It was clear from the beginning that nothing - be it digital or retail purchases - would carry over from Wii U/3DS to Switch.

@Moistnado
Ha!
Instead of charging for the games once, they now charge you every month!

NL really fanning the flames on this one huh?

So 1,980 games are going to disappear from the shop.

People are going on about how this is why physical is much better so surely that means all the VC titles are a moot point? You can just buy them and their systems, physical second hand. Solved. Moving on. Right?

So that's 1,450 never to be seen again.

Well, except the same goes for the WiiU/3DS games that are also available physically. Moot point.

So now we're at 1,050. Just over half.

But what is not mentioned is how many of those are readily available on other systems still? Yes WiiU and 3DS both had systems that allowed for unique gameplay but how many games actually used them? For WiiU not many and most of the digital only games for that of note are available on Switch and rival consoles, like Stick It to The Man, Child of Light, Trine, Bit.Trip, Shovel Knight etc. For 3DS probably more and there is a bunch of Nintendo exclusive ones that I am genuinely sad to see go like Dillon, Sakura Samurai, Pushmo/Pullblox, Harmoknight ec, but there's also a bunch like SteamWorld Dig, Gunman Clive, Azure Striker Gunvolt, Mighty Switch Force etc that are all readily available elsewhere.

So 1,050 isn't really even the right number, it's less than that again. At this point I'll be guessing but I would think at least another quarter off. And then how much of that is worth saving? Yeah that might sound harsh but the DS/3DS lines were known for their shovelware. And anyone with a WiiU connected to the internet will remember the rcmadiax trash that came out (and there was a lot of it, it's probably another 20 games at least).

I definitely want a bunch of these to stay alive and be preserved, don't get me wrong. But these numbers and stats are super sensationalised. I wouldn't be surprised if the games that actually mattered were less than 100.

@Susurrus
What about new fans of games, or if someone mentions a game and you find it interesting and want to try it but now you can't, because the shop is gone.

@westman98
No, when WiiU was out and towards the middle end of it's cycle, they said purchases would carry over.
That was when Iwata was still alive.
I don't like bringing up the deceased, especially in scenarios like this, but sometimes it can't be helped.
I think even when WiiU was first announced or when coming out they said all purchases would be future proofed.

@Ogbert
So you buy a game second hand, a year and a half (or more) from now.
Tell me, how will you get the online patches or DLC or updates?

Doug: Snaps
Wii U and 3DS:
"Mr. Switch, I don't feel so good..."

@Spider-Kev
No such statement was ever made.

In fact, Iwata even commented in 2014 about how futureproofing across the Wii and DS families was hard (for example, it was difficult to port Wii games to 3DS or 3DS games to Wii U), and that he hoped to design their next platform with a more streamlined hardware/software approach in mind.

The Switch has been released and it's hardware is indeed easier to work with for future streamlining: no dual screens, no 3D effect, traditional controller layout, familiar Tegra GPU + ARM CPU with few weird customizations, digital purchases tied to account rather than hardware, etc.

Excluding Wii U and 3DS compatibility was the only way to make that possible.

@Jeronan are they closing down the ability to re-download digital games?
I thought it was to stop purchasing new digital games.

Either way this is why I prefer Steam. The games are always re-downloadable on different PC's and you can purchase digital games from different digital stores

Can we see a list of these digital only games?

"It had to be done eventually".

Meanwhile I'm over here downloading PS1 games on the PS3. Sure the services probably do need to be shut down eventually but why so soon? Nintendo isn't some indie company struggling to stay afloat. Put some of that money you make selling us a sub par subscription (Nintendo Online) into keeping the stores up.

Steam Deck is looking like it's going to replace my portable handheld needs in the near future...you're not irreplaceable Nintendo...

@locky-mavo I will have you know M2 developed the GBA on WiiU and also speak for yourself i still play all those OLD games!!!!

@iLikeUrAttitude

My family and myself have also given tens of thousands of dollars to this company over the past thirty-five years, in exchange for their products and services, and will continue to do so indefinitely, so if I theoretically managed to break out my wii u for some minor modifications, I wouldn't feel too guilty.

Not that I'm going to, but the desire to do so currently outweighs my feelings of premeditated guilt.

@nhSnork That escalated quickly...

@Jeronan This is why I also think sloppy launches and the reliance on post-launch patches should be minimized.

@Guitario That's true, but in my experience, hardware fails much sooner than a physical piece of software degrades. For instance, even my NES games whose batteries might be dead can be fully played and saved on my Retron 5. Where as both of the NESes I've had over the years have now more or less died. PS1 is dead, PS2 is dying. It just happens — the more complex the thing, the more that can go wrong. Discs and cartridges are nice and simple.

But hey, this is just my philosophy, you are perfectly free and welcome to have a different one!

There are many factors as to why people would resort to pirating or emulating obviously, what you're giving me your personal anecdotal experience.

But so many other fanheads here want to feel GOOD about themselves, to act like the evil corporation forces their hand

Well in this specific case they are. Once the eshop purchase support goes away there will be no other legal method to obtain the games from both the Wii U and 3Ds - that includes their eshop exclusive games, Virtual consoles and more.

It's definitely not like we just follow a specific urge for entertainment and achieve it by any means we can get away with, no siree!

Again another anecdotal.

@ModdedInkling
Even with gamepass on Xbox the games have a "buy and keep" option (discounted too iirc if you have the gamepass subscription) which is something i wish the NSO app had, since its not like these are cloud releases and are running natively on switch.

Also yeah i definitely agree in that my main issue is more to do with how the switch is handling the content than the inevitable shutdown of older servers.

when an account system was added to wiiu and 3ds i was hoping it would end up something like what happened with the psone games on ps3/psp/vita where our virtual console purchases would work across multiple devices and carry over to switch an we wouldn't have to deal with the library being split/reset like with wii>wiiu, though at this point a wii>wiiu situation would have been vastly preferable to the NSO app for me (with getting a discount on VC games you bought on wiiu or 3ds)

i am glad that it seems like some devs/publishers are going for the remaster/port/remake/collection option especially considering we have been getting some games which previously never made it out of japan.

it sadly Nintendo don't give us a option to preserve this games.

@Mgalens
It's just quite unfortunate that Nintendo themselves haven't caught on well with this remake/remaster stuff, and they certainly seem to hate collections before of how much money they potentially lost.

To this day, I can never understand why some Nintendo games have never been re-released permanently/long-term. That's why no one knows about The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, among other games.

@HammerGalladeBro I made an account just to say it looks like you didn't read the entire article. It says "credit card usage removed from the service" May 23, 2022 and then "Nintendo eShop card funds can no longer be added to eShop accounts as of 29th August 2022". Only the download codes will still be available to redeem until late March 2023. So really, it'd be smart to have a $0 balance and everything you want purchased before May 23, 2022.

Wild to think that Nintendo-published games released less than a decade ago (Pushmo, Boxboy, etc.) will no longer be able to be purchased in any form... Even if one supports the closure of the eShop for infrastructural/financial decisions, I don't understand how Nintendo cares so little about the games they had a hand in making just last generation.

@ReaperMelia
Get all of the Virtual Console games, all the digital only games on the 3ds and Wii U.

I cancelled the pre-orders I had for Strikers, Advance Wars and Lego Star Wars so I can buy as many digital only games on the wii u and 3ds eshop as I can before they're gone forever. Suggest everyone else do the same.

Most of them absolute nonsense.

I enjoyed Planet Crashers.

Out of the 1000 games we're losing, only 50 at most will be worth having, and you've had years to buy them if you wanted them, so if you haven't got them already, you probably never wanted them

That's a lot of legacy content that's going. Nintendo might have some new hardware or collection line to announce soon I think. I don't think we appreciated it how good we had it with the wii virtual console back in 2008.

I don't want to play games on a streaming service. I'd like to own the games, whether physical or digital so I have my saves.

@Richnj How do you know that they have zero intent to use those properties in the future? You are just making up your own rules inorder to justify theft.

@Mark-number-12 It's been 20 years since Eternal Darkness released, and Nintendo are yet to re-release the title.

Goldeneye 007 has been vaulted by Nintendo for 25 years.

Star Fox Adventures. 20 years.
Star Fox Assault. 17 years.
Paper Mario TYD. 18 years.
Mario Kart Double Dash. 19 years.

If you want to wait literal decades for Nintendo to release certain games (if at all) so that you can feel morally superior for sycophantically defending a billion dollar company's ability to hoard art and culture if it isn't immediately financially beneficial to them, then be my guest.