With Nintendo closing 3DS and Wii U digital stores, where does that leave videogame preservation?

One thousand. That, give or take, is the number of digital-exclusive games estimated to become unavailable for purchase once Nintendo’s 3DS and Wii U digital stores are shuttered. For everyone except those who already own affected games –a situation soon to present challenges of its own, given that credit card and eShop Card functionalities will be disabled in May and August respectively – they will effectively vanish in March 2023, unable to be downloaded ever again.

Nintendo has argued that the move is part of the “natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time”. In a now-deleted statement, the company pointed to the availability of over 130 “classic games” on its subscription service Switch Online as “an effective way to make classic content easily available to a broad range of players”. But that service doesn’t include either of these consoles’ libraries.

So, how does it feel to the developers of those games which are about to disappear? “Tank Troopers and Steel Diver were actually [two] of the few titles specifically designed for 3DS, so I do find it a shame that the hardware required to play it properly is now discontinued,” says Giles Goddard, CEO of Kyoto-based developer Vitei. “But the retro game community is very creative and there’s some really cool tech around nowadays, so I think people will find a way to keep playing old games as intended.” While Goddard is sad about the 3DS eShop closure, he also sees it as an inevitability. “It’s extremely rare to see a 3DS being played nowadays and the costs of running the service I can imagine are quite high,” he says. “Nintendo have to draw the line at some point, and I think ten years for a handheld console is a pretty good lifetime.”

Presenting a particular problem for the developers of Wii U and 3DS games are the unique hardware specifications – which, ironically, were exactly what attracted Austrian developer Broken Rules to Wii U in the first place. “I really liked the idea of having two screens and some people in the room not seeing the same thing,” says Broken Rules CEO Felix

Among the victims of Nintendo’s store closures are firstparty titles such as Dr Luigi. Certain indie games taking unique advantage of Wii U stand to be lost, such as Chasing Aurora and 2D puzzler Affordable Space Adventures. In addition, 3DSenhanced ports of titles such as Kid Icarus and Kirby’s Adventure remain unavailable outside of the eShop