I just bought a 3ds xl last night and want to buy a few games digitally. After some of the things I've read on the internet though I'm kind of concerned about how Nintendo handles digital games and was hoping if somebody could help me out in deciding what to do. Basically, if I download some digital games and lets say 6 months from now some how my 3ds xl breaks or I lose it and I'm forced to buy a new one what happens to my digitally purchased game? Is there no way to re-obtain them on a new 3ds? Thanks in advanced for any help you guys may provide.

You must have been typing this at the same time I was replying to another topic about this very subject.

Take a look - essentially, if you lose your 3DS, your purchases are lost. They are tied to the hardware and once it's gone, that's all she wrote.

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/you-guys-should-i-buy-an-xl-1462295/#6

You should be.

@mb: Thanks for the help. According to your post if you lose it everything is gone for good but you can transfer if you have the old device. May I ask what happens if you still have the device but some part of it is broken and can't be used anymore?

@theriddler81: If it breaks, you can send it in to Nintendo, I think, and they'll try to recover the files if at all possible? I think I've heard of that happening, if it's under warranty maybe? No idea if they like transfer them to a new 3DS or what, or if you get charged anything. But yeah, purchases are tied to that 3DS serial number, so losing the system makes things difficult.

I'm wondering if this is something that could be remedied when they release that unified wiiu Nintendo Network account support update on 3DS? Best case they could just link the hardware purchases to that?

The bigger concern initially is the 3DS comes with a 2gb SD card and most major 3DS games over almost a gig now. Had to upgrade to an 8gig and that's about full. But I mean, if you lose a physical copy of something its gone forever so what's the difference.

@forcen: They've made it pretty clear that the coming update is just a combining of the wallets. Your 3DS can link to a Nintendo Network ID, but that ID doesn't have any games attached to it on either device. The ID is literally just a screen name and a wallet balance, and nothing more.

It's stupid.

Thanks for the help guys. Looks like I'll be buying the physical version for the majority of my games.

@theriddler81: I feel like the fact that you can transfer games/data from one SD to another using your computer is being overlooked here. If you lose your system (and the SD inside) you're boned. But otherwise you should still be able to recover your data (unless you destroy the SD). http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/2012/01/19/how-to-upgrade-your-nintendo-3ds-sd-card/

That seems really unlikely that you'd lose the system but not the SD card. Even so, the rights to the games are tied directly to the system so even if you had the data you couldn't play the games.

Well, it seems just as unlikely that you'd lose the system and not whatever physical games or game you had with it. I'm mostly pointing out that it is possible to upgrade your SD and your system, so long as you're taking decent care of your valuables and not unlucky enough to have them stolen (both of which are problems that would impact your physical copies as well). Basically Nintendo has created an environment where there is little advantage to buying digital, outside the convenience of it. It's shitty, but maybe something they can (they totally can, it's a matter if they will or not) update.

@hatking: Ah, I see you're point. I'm pretty sure they will update it someday. They've acknowledged that people want purchases to be tied to an account and the unified eShop balance could very well be baby steps towards that.

At least I hope it is because purchases tied to systems is garbage.

Crap - I was so stoked about the new 3ds i hadn't considered Nintendo's crappy digital track record :( What's the story if your DS no longer boots and is out of warranty? Sure they have some method to transfer purchases to a new unit?

Got bored and answered my own question: you can contact Nintendo customer support to have purchases moved, provided you have registered your old system.

Still, what a backwards system...

But you can at least back up your save files to an SD card, and then copy those files to a PC... right? Or can you only transfer files from an SD card to the console? I'm sure there's an application available on the eShop that does at least one of these.

Oh, wow, that is still a lot better than having your purchases tied to a single console. I mean, at least the option is there. If there's a way to back up your save files, then there's even a chance you don't lose any games or progress if you do lose your 3DS, or if it gets stolen.

Yeah, you can transfer the saves like that. You can move around 3DS data that is saved on SD cards all you want. There are guides on the internet (and probably Nintendo's site?) on how to do this.

But yeah, I forget how it works. Can other 3DS' read that SD card data, or is it encrypted to only work on the 3DS the data originated from?

I'm thinking about getting a 3DS really soon and was really excited to do digital purchasing so I can have my games with me all the time, but after reading this thread, I'm a little scared. Is all this still a problem? Like someone already mentioned in this thread, if I were to lose my 3DS, I'd lose all my physical games with it. But, if my 3DS were to break and my digital games are locked to that system, how is Nintendo with giving me those licenses back on a new system?