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As I am sure many are aware, there is a limit of 300 titles with the 3DS consoles. As far as I am aware, if you installed 300 games, you would have to uninstall one in order to install any more, correct? However, what happens with game carts - and by extension, .3DS titles?
My guess is - and correct me if I am wrong - that inserting a game cart in excess would cause the oldest to simply drop off the list, so at a glance it would seem like .3DS backups are superior to .CIA installations by virtue of this alone, but the saves and DLC are installed, so even if that is true, what would happen if you had 300 cart insertions and each had their own save file? Save games on official carts save to the cart itself rather than the console, as explained here. It's just the CFW that saves cart backups to the SD card, meaning that the 300 title limit should NOT apply to saves at all. Correct me if I am wrong on that assumption.
For DLC, well, since that is installed it should count for the 300 limit with cart insertions as well. I can't find find an exhaustive list, but it seems like there are not enough DLC titles to cause an issue here. A larger issue would be if you update your games, since update data would be installed and therefore should count for the limit. Of course, since you can choose to not update a game that you don't intend to play online, it would seem to be the case that game carts are superior to installed games when available as they would effectively have no real maximum on the same sysNAND or emuNAND.
Of course, last I checked there were 434 titles released exclusively for the Nintendo eShop, so even someone who sticks with the .3DS games can hit the limit. Or rather, it would be, if not for the fact that Citra emulator requires .3DS titles and therefore the community has incentive to develop ways to dump installed .CIA titles to .3DS meaning that if it isn't already possible it will be, so no reason to rely on .CIA here.
In any case, for those who reach this limit, I have read of a workaround: One is to create an emuNAND and then copy it prior to playing games on it. Each emuNAND can be on it's own SD card and it can be swapped out allowing you to have virtually unlimited titles regardless of the method used. However, this solution is subverted by the observation that apparently some .CIA games have to be installed to both sysNAND and emuNAND if they are to be on emuNAND at all which would defeat the point of this and reinforce a preference for .3DS backups.
I wonder if there might also be other options. Suppose, for example, you installed 300 games legitimately from the eShop. What happens if you simply remove the SD card and put another one in? Will those installed games drop off the list? If so, I can see why some people would consider .CIA titles to be simpler to deal with. If not, I am even more confused as to why anyone would prefer having to deal with these limits when they don't have to.
Overall, the point of this thread is to try and figure out how the limits apply to each approach to playing games on the 3DS and what workarounds exist to in turn determine which approach is truly superior. There are many assumptions made above.
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Now, before anyone says I'd never reach it, through game rentals and purchases combined I have already reached 150 titles on my Nintendo Switch that hasn't even been modified (used for online play and to update games for the modded Switch), and I could easily have done so with the 3DS. Besides, it's not like it's impossible for someone to buy hundreds of game carts.
I can't find any information on if the Nintendo Switch has a similar limit, but it likely won't matter as much. Those games can be much larger, meaning that if there is a maximum you probably won't be able to reach it via installed titles at all. Those saves are on the console rather than the game cart, but Nintendo has a way to uninstall titles without loss of save data to then be reinstalled later, and in fact it's an feature set on by default to automatically "archive" such titles meaning that this is probably Nintendo's solution to the title limit issue restricting sales. Even for those running CFW, or simply have poor internet access, a simple workaround should be to disable that manually for each title and use multiple SD cards. While the icons are still present, my guess is that if there is a limit, and if nothing is installed, the oldest icon should just drop off the list. Still, even in this case, cart backups would still be more convenient since you can keep all of your saves in one place and swap the games out directly - or even load from an external hard drive docked - so cart backups should work out better.
My guess is - and correct me if I am wrong - that inserting a game cart in excess would cause the oldest to simply drop off the list, so at a glance it would seem like .3DS backups are superior to .CIA installations by virtue of this alone, but the saves and DLC are installed, so even if that is true, what would happen if you had 300 cart insertions and each had their own save file? Save games on official carts save to the cart itself rather than the console, as explained here. It's just the CFW that saves cart backups to the SD card, meaning that the 300 title limit should NOT apply to saves at all. Correct me if I am wrong on that assumption.
For DLC, well, since that is installed it should count for the 300 limit with cart insertions as well. I can't find find an exhaustive list, but it seems like there are not enough DLC titles to cause an issue here. A larger issue would be if you update your games, since update data would be installed and therefore should count for the limit. Of course, since you can choose to not update a game that you don't intend to play online, it would seem to be the case that game carts are superior to installed games when available as they would effectively have no real maximum on the same sysNAND or emuNAND.
Of course, last I checked there were 434 titles released exclusively for the Nintendo eShop, so even someone who sticks with the .3DS games can hit the limit. Or rather, it would be, if not for the fact that Citra emulator requires .3DS titles and therefore the community has incentive to develop ways to dump installed .CIA titles to .3DS meaning that if it isn't already possible it will be, so no reason to rely on .CIA here.
In any case, for those who reach this limit, I have read of a workaround: One is to create an emuNAND and then copy it prior to playing games on it. Each emuNAND can be on it's own SD card and it can be swapped out allowing you to have virtually unlimited titles regardless of the method used. However, this solution is subverted by the observation that apparently some .CIA games have to be installed to both sysNAND and emuNAND if they are to be on emuNAND at all which would defeat the point of this and reinforce a preference for .3DS backups.
I wonder if there might also be other options. Suppose, for example, you installed 300 games legitimately from the eShop. What happens if you simply remove the SD card and put another one in? Will those installed games drop off the list? If so, I can see why some people would consider .CIA titles to be simpler to deal with. If not, I am even more confused as to why anyone would prefer having to deal with these limits when they don't have to.
Overall, the point of this thread is to try and figure out how the limits apply to each approach to playing games on the 3DS and what workarounds exist to in turn determine which approach is truly superior. There are many assumptions made above.
_______
Now, before anyone says I'd never reach it, through game rentals and purchases combined I have already reached 150 titles on my Nintendo Switch that hasn't even been modified (used for online play and to update games for the modded Switch), and I could easily have done so with the 3DS. Besides, it's not like it's impossible for someone to buy hundreds of game carts.
I can't find any information on if the Nintendo Switch has a similar limit, but it likely won't matter as much. Those games can be much larger, meaning that if there is a maximum you probably won't be able to reach it via installed titles at all. Those saves are on the console rather than the game cart, but Nintendo has a way to uninstall titles without loss of save data to then be reinstalled later, and in fact it's an feature set on by default to automatically "archive" such titles meaning that this is probably Nintendo's solution to the title limit issue restricting sales. Even for those running CFW, or simply have poor internet access, a simple workaround should be to disable that manually for each title and use multiple SD cards. While the icons are still present, my guess is that if there is a limit, and if nothing is installed, the oldest icon should just drop off the list. Still, even in this case, cart backups would still be more convenient since you can keep all of your saves in one place and swap the games out directly - or even load from an external hard drive docked - so cart backups should work out better.
