The difficulties of legal game preservation and backups showcased in latest Completionist video
The Nintendo Wii U and 3DS eShops are closing next week, which means hundreds upon thousands of games will imminently be forever lost to the shutdown of the respective console's storefronts. Many here are aware of how important game preservation is, and with both the Wii U and 3DS being easy to put CFW and load backups on, it's a fairly simple task to obtain near-complete libraries of either. Of course, while backing up those games may be a legal grey area, playing them without owning them is unlawful, and audiences not tuned into the world of homebrew may not even know about such things to begin with.
Which is why YouTube personality The Completionist has decided to purchase every single available game on both the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U eShops. This endeavor consisted of purchasing 866 Wii U digital titles, and 1,547 3DS games, including all DLC and Virtual Console releases, totaling at over $22,000. The video showcases the difficulties in legally compiling a complete backup of both the Wii U and 3DS, ranging from the problems arising from trying to obtain $18,000 worth of eShop cards, to trying to actually make purchases since you can only load $250 worth of eShop credit at a time, being locked out by Nintendo from making so many transactions at a time, slow downloads from Nintendo's servers, the limitations of the 3DS, and other obstacles.
The video is an important display of why video game preservation is so important, and the arduous process of backing up media so that it does not become lost forever.
