Hardware Selling my 3DS... what to do with my NNID?

[Bonny]

I'am just rying to sell my 3DS with it's eshop games. Problem is: The 3DS and my WiiU are both connected to my Nintendo Network ID (NNID).

Of course, i want to sell the 3DS WITH the eshop games. So i guess i can't just formatt it. Is it true, that when i delete the eshop account with the 3DS, it's also gone for the WiiU?

I googled a lot, but i couldn't figure out, how to handle the situation: I want to sell the 3Ds with the games. If i don't delete the eshop account, i have to give my NNID and the password to the new owner. But what happens than to my WiiU and it's download games?

Is it possible to untie both or at least one of the 2 systems from the NNID?

How would you handle that situation?

 

[shinkodachi]

1. You must keep your eShop account on the system for the eShop games to work.
2. Unlinking your NNID on a 3DS does not affect your NNID on your Wii U.

 

[Bonny]

1. You must keep your eShop account on the system for the eShop games to work.

OK.

2. Unlinking your NNID on a 3DS does not affect your NNID on your Wii U.

And how to do that exactly? Unlinking, and NOT deleting?

 

[shinkodachi]

And how to do that exactly? Unlinking, and NOT deleting?

You format the system.

Here, from Nintendo's website: "You can format the system to remove the Nintendo Network ID without deleting it. Nintendo Network accounts removed in this way will not be deleted from the Wii U (if linked), and can be relinked to the same Nintendo 3DS system again in the future." http://en-americas-support.nintendo...id/2224/~/how-to-delete-a-nintendo-network-id

 

[Bonny]

Yeah, well... of course. But as i said in the first post: "I want to sell the 3DS WITH the eshop games. So i guess i can't just formatt it."

When i formatt the 3DS, i'll lose all eshop games on it. And of course i want to sell them WITH the system. As it looks to me:

Whoever is so dumb, like me, to link one NNID to 2 Systems (WiiU and 3DS) can never ever sell one of the systems without loosing his eshop purchase on either one of the 2 systems:
If i hand over the NNID to the new 3DS owner, i'll lose my WiiU purchases. And if i keep the NNID for my WiiU, i have to sell the 3DS without the eshop games on it.

Moral: Never ever link one NNID to two systems. Terrible! Is it really this way?

 

[Oishikatta]

Yes, it really is that way. NNID system is terrible.

Moral of the story: never pay for virtual games, always buy physical carts.

 

[Nathan Drake]

The real moral of the story is to not trust Nintendo to come up with a good account system. It's like they're trying to be different while not understanding that being different is just being dumb where online account systems are concerned. Seriously, NNIDs are just barely a step up from friend codes, and are even more flawed as a digital account management system.

 

[naddel81]

wait: you cannot just link your NNID with a new 3DS? I thought that was the whole idea behind the NNID: TO NOT LOSE CONTENT WHEN YOUR SELL YOUR DEVICE/YOUR DEVICE BREAKS?

 

[Oishikatta]

wait: you cannot just link your NNID with a new 3DS? I thought that was the whole idea behind the NNID: TO NOT LOSE CONTENT WHEN YOUR SELL YOUR DEVICE/YOUR DEVICE BREAKS?

The main problems are:

• when you don't have or want a new 3DS, you can't keep eshop purchases for later
• when you want to sell your 3DS, you can't sell your games with it

If you're upgrading to a N3DS and keeping all your games, sure just do a system transfer and everything's great. But if you're not keeping any 3DS you not only lose all of the games, but the sale value of them. That is, unless you want to sell your NNID and password with it... which you can't do if you use your NNID on any other systems.
Basically, NNID system is fundamentally broken. Yay anti-piracy!

 

[ScarletCrystals]

You can't even move the nnid off a particular 3ds without system transfer.
So yeah it ensures you lose content when your 3ds is sold/broken/lost.
Some people had luck bugging the customer service into transferring for them though, although the process may be painful.

 

[Bonny]

If you're upgrading to a N3DS and keeping all your games, sure just do a system transfer and everything's great. But if you're not keeping any 3DS you not only lose all of the games, but the sale value of them. That is, unless you want to sell your NNID and password with it... which you can't do if you use your NNID on any other systems.
Basically, NNID system is fundamentally broken. Yay anti-piracy!

Hey... i don't know if this works for 100%, but it looks like a workaround, not a really nice and clean one, but here it is:

I created a second User-Account with a new NNID on my WiiU online. I made the new account the standart console account and turned the WLAN off. Rebooted the console offline, and started the eshop games i downloaded with the old NNID. It worked. I then tried to delete the old user from the console. I just got a warning message that i'll lose my activity logs and my savedata (game saves i guess). but thats all. I haven't done it yet, cause i want to keep the game saves.

If i now sell my 3DS to the new owner, i'll give him the old NNID, set a new PW for him and remove my email-address. So i can sell the eshop games with the console to him. Even if the new owner deletes the NNID from the 3DS or formatts the system one day, it should be OK for me. As long as i never go online with the old User on my WiiU anymore, the games on my WiiU should stay in a working condition.

Only risk: if the new Owner deletes the NNID, and Nintendo detects that (of course), they could check which Hardware was connected to the NNID and disable the games next time my WiiU goes online - even though i would only do that with the new user i've created! But i guess Ninty is not that cunning.

 

[shinkodachi]

The real moral of the story is to not trust Nintendo to come up with a good account system.

I think the real moral of the story is that digital content is not made to be resold later, either alone or with the console.

 

[N7Kopper]

I think the real moral of the story is that digital content is not made to be resold later, either alone or with the console.

Which is the only thing really keeping physical carts/discs alive beside retailer strangleholds on pricing, and how expensive really big SD cards are for portable systems like 3DS.