by The 3DS and Wii U eShop services will be shut down at the end of this month, which means there’s not much time left to buy all the digital games you can possibly find on Nintendo’s older storefronts. YouTuber, streamer, and video game media personality Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil took this to the next level by literally buying each game available on these platforms.
The main driver behind this idea was the preservation of video games – with the goal of “saving” all 3DS and Wii U eShop titles before they were lost forever. The mission was successful, but it comes at a price, with the total amount of purchases amounting to $22,791.
Here’s a bit of why Khalil wanted to do this – revealing how all consoles and storage are donated to the Video Game History Foundation so this digital library can “live”:
“Media loss is very real when it comes to preserving video games, ever since the industry began we have had a daily risk of losing games forever, that’s why it matters. And that’s why I’ve long been a supporter of non-profits like the Video Game History Foundation and their efforts to support the preservation of video game code, print media and more.In fact, we’ve started our own Preserved Play charity event, which is an annual charity event to raise money for them, and it’s happening this year on April 15th and 16th on my Twitch channel and I will be donating these consoles and all storage to the Video Game History Foundation at the very end so that all these games can continue So that’s it, it’s done – all the games available on the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS were saved – it cost way too much time and way too much money, but this in was definitely worth it for the preservation of the game.”
Funds for this mission have been raised with the support of The Completionist sponsors. And at the end, 866 WiiU And 1547 3DS Games (including DSiWare, Virtual Console and DLC) were purchased with 464 eShop cards. THE entire libraries have taken 1.2 TB on Wii U And 267 GB on 3DS.
Of course there was a lot hurdles to overcome, from stores limiting eShop card purchases to Nintendo only allowing a certain amount of funds per digital wallet. Particular games even had to be completed Before DLC could be purchased, which sometimes made the whole process a bit of a nightmare.
This work means that 3DS and Wii U fans can now rest easy knowing that all of those digital games were saved when store services were shut down. March 27. Thanks Jird! The video documenting the entire journey is well worth a watch and even features a 3DS game recommendation from our very own Nintendo Life video producer, Zion Grassl.
