Over the past year, YouTuber Jirard 'The Completionist' Khalil spent $22,791 and uncountable hours purchasing and downloading every single game on the Wii U and 3DS eShop ahead of the shutdown of those two services later this month. This is an absurd quest that no one should ever undertake. But according to video game historians, it could also be the only legal path to preserving any of these games in the years to come.
Last year, Nintendo announced that it would be shutting down the Wii U and 3DS eShops on March 27, 2023, just as it had shut down the original Wii Shop Channel back in 2019. You'll still be able to download any games you'd previously purchased through those stores for the foreseeable future, but if you want to make any additions to your digital library after that point, you're outta luck. And as we've seen with those digital Wii games, you might not be able to count on those redownloads being constantly available even before they're officially shut down.
