3DS and Wii U eShop closures a sadly obvious move | This Week in Business
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Friday 18th February 2022
This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check back every Friday for a new entry.
Nintendo understands the value of history better than most in this industry. It was founded in 1889. It has seen more console generations come and go as a hardware company than any other. It is better than any media company (save the possible exception of Disney) at selling essentially the same creative work to the same audience of people time and time again. (I can't count how many times I have paid money for some version of Super Mario Bros.)
It is building a museum as a monument to itself, and that seems less like an act of absurd hubris than a totally reasonable and well-deserved thing for the company to have.
In an industry forever focused on the future, Nintendo is a rare major player that truly "gets" the value of the past. And that's why it's so disappointing to hear that the Wii U and 3DS eShops are shutting down.
In an industry forever focused on the future, Nintendo is a rare major player that truly "gets" the value of the past
The decision is doubtlessly a pragmatic one; these systems have been discontinued and the vast majority of the player base has moved on to the Switch or other options by now. The revenue generated by these storefronts likely no longer justifies the legal and technical costs of running, maintaining, securing, and providing support for them.
There's an argument to make that the costs would be justified simply in keeping so many of these games available in any form at all. The entire
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