Nintendo 3DS e-shop trustworthyness

Hey guys, I figured that this was a reasonable place to come to ask this question.

I'm currently living in England for the semester, studying abroad. And I really want the new Fire Emblem game and, probably, the new Luigi's mansion game when it comes out. Unfortunately, games come out later in Europe and are region-locked (or so I am told). So I am seriously considering buying Fire Emblem from the e-shop.

However, I've heard worrying rumblings about it, such as the account being system locked, which would mean that if I lost my 3DS or if it broke or wore out, I'd be down a fire emblem, and I still play original GBA fire emblem, which means I'd be frustrated to lose access to the most recent iteration. So what's your advice on this? Should I try my luck with the e-shop? Or should I just wait until I see people from the states and ask them to bring it to me?

I'm pretty sure Nintendo said they'd be moving away from the system locking to an account system like Steam/XBL, but I haven't seen anything come of that yet. 
As far as worrying about losing that information, if you lost it you would be out of luck, but being broke/damaged you might be able to send it in and have them recover the certificates to a new machine. 
It's certainly a shitty system that needs to be rid of soon, if at all.

Well that's...bizarre and frustrating. Thanks for letting me know before I made a bad decision. I wish I knew what Nintendo is playing at, that's such a stupid system.

I don't quite get this, what'S the point of buying the game on the e-shop? Do games get earlier release dates there? Or do you plan on buying an american 3DS?

As a european, the release date is the same and it's usually overpriced, so I honestly no idea of why you would want to buy it from the e-shop.

As a european, the release date is the same and it's usually overpriced, so I honestly no idea of why you would want to buy it from the e-shop.

It is. It's not in stores until April, or so the GAME website tells me. And I already own an American 3DS, I'm just in England for the semester and I want Fire Emblem: Awakening. And yes, the European release is overpriced by $11.

Only people who hate themselves buy Nintendo games digitally.

Here's the thing:

Pretty much every system locks games to the hardware, Nintendo is actually better because they allow you to switch what system it is attached to. Take the 360, I have had 3 of those and digital games stretched across all 3, I can't play the games from the first two unless my account is logged in(online) and even then it gets sketchy if other people want to play it.

Nintendo provides a tool that lets you move the actual hardware level attachment to other hardware, and in case of the device being broken/lost/stolen as long as you have the system information you can call Nintendo and they will do it on their end.

Think about it, how is it suppose to be locked to an account? The 3DS is a portable system, you aren't always online, the way Nintendo does it is actually better then any other system. If Nintendo used the Xbox/Steam method and you ever replaced the system you would only ever be able to play your games if the 3ds was online(so no portable play).

@CoverlessTech: That's an easy problem to get around. Just look at the Vita with PS+ games. It hits PSN and gives the Vita a certificate that allows it to play the game offline for some period of time (I'm not sure how long, something like two weeks). That way you still have the ability to have your content tied to an account and play games offline.

@Cameron: Why have a timed usage at all? Like I said, you can always change what hardware your purchases are attached to. In your case I always have to hit the internet to revalidate sometime, the way Nintendo does it: I purchase once (if I need to change hardware, I do it once) then play and never worry about it.

It would be nice to have a better transfer tool, something attached to an account. But Nintendo's current system isn't as bad as it looks at face value. Especially when other system are actually worst. I'd personally rather have Nintendo's over Microsoft's.