Last year Nintendo of America began selling retail downloads on its website, in what we hoped was a baby step towards a future where any game on the eShop can be easily bought online. Utilising the online capabilities of the Wii U and 3DS, it's possible to buy a game directly from the website and have it download automatically to your system, all through a linked Nintendo Network ID.
It's a feature that's been available for a while on other platforms and there are limited options to buy Nintendo download codes in multiple countries, but this new functionality in North America is the big N's biggest step forward to date.
Initially this store was limited to Nintendo-published retail games, but a range of Virtual Console and download-only games are starting to appear. In fact, when you now search for Wii U and 3DS games available to buy on Nintendo.com you get over 100 results.
It's great to see the range expand, with titles available including NES Remix 2 and EarthBound on Wii U, to Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Mega Man Xtreme 2 on 3DS; they're all games that Nintendo has published or directly licensed, which accounts for efforts from third parties such as Capcom and Konami. Though titles such as those originally on the Game Boy Advance are featured, it's still a fairly scattered collection; a bizarre absentee at the time of writing is Super Mario World, for example, while Nintendo is clearly still not at the stage where it can include third-party published games - of various sizes - in the project.
These are positive steps, of course, and we certainly hope that - with a dedicated Nintendo smartphone app expected this year - that 2015 will bring easy accessibility to the eShop from any device to allow us to buy games for our systems. An opportunity to gift games is also on our wishlist.
Let us know what you think of this gradual update, and what you want to see Nintendo offer in terms of selling eShop content online.
[source nintendo.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 66
Any signs of this coming to Europe?
Just wish they'd put GBA/SNES games on 3DS. It's obvious the 3DS can run the games.
I misread that as them adding a bunch of games to the Estore lol
I wish I was able to get GB Tetris before it was pulled out here in Europe. I'm still waiting for the New 3DS. Can you guys on NA buy 3DS games on the webstore without owning a 3DS but have a Wii U? Or buy Wii U games without owning a Wii U but have a 3DS?
Misread the article title, thought we were finally getting bombarded with more VC for the eshop.
@whodatninja. I misread that as well to say they just added 100 games to the eShop. Not sure if it was poor word choice for the title or sub title to this article... Might be just too early for me (4am).
Could also be the fact that Thursday is eShop update day here in the states and Nintendo's (and others) vast game history library is never released in the eShop made me hopeful that the Regginator finally pulled Reggie's head out of his derrière and got the VC games under control.
@whodatninja me too! Read it as in they ADDED 100 New VC games to the eshop that were not there before
Oh well.
I've bought codes to download games from nintendo's website in europe early last year I just had to search for 'digital' and they had a fantastic selection of nintendo published 3ds and wii u games. is this only a new thing in america?
@whodatninja I thought that was what they meant when I read it...until I read the article.
Yep I'm with the guys above,I thought that too.My eyebrows even went up and a I let out a puff in disbelief.Nevermind!
omfg another misleading headline.
Dayum, like the others, I too was thinking we were getting the mother load of VC games......... oh well.......
Yeah, the headline made me think we were getting a ton of new games too. Oh well.
I knew what they meant. Considering the picture is of an already released game and they said "web store" not "eShop", I'm not sure how much room there is for confusion.
Although I do still hate NL for the stupid "Cross-Buy is now a thing on Nintendo Systems!" with a generic picture of Mario...that was for Squids Odyssey, only in Europe.
@Deanster101
I was so happy then oh that is meh.
@Discipledoctor
Oh I knew as soon as I finished reading the headline but after those first few words my excitement was building.
My Eyes lit up at "Nintendo Adds a Bunch of Virtual Console Titles" and then went back down at "to North American Web Store".
Thought we were getting more games added to the actual e-shop. lol
Damn, that would have been a nice surprise, back to reality, in 2 years will be able to say 100 titles have been added
Yep thought it meant eshop as well
Just wish they'd put GBA/SNES games on 3DS. It's obvious the 3DS can run the games.
They probably want them to be exclusive to Wii U so people with a 3DS have more incentive to buy one. As if all the great retail games weren't enough.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting for access to the eShop down here in Brazil.
This news titlr is misleading
3DS isn't getting GBA games. Iwata said so back when they issued the Ambassador games to early 3DS owners. Not sure why people still are expecting it to happen.
It is way too early to have a headline screwing around with me. There for a second I thought that Nintendo finally got it, but I guess they are sticking with current strategy.
(That is when people are starved for new games on the console, deign to release a high demand Virtual Console title to generate buzz and follow it up with nothing).
Misleading headline is misleading.
@bezerker99 because many of your fellow NL users want it to happen, and people, even leaders of major companies change their minds all the time. Simple really.
And please re-read the comments. People are saying they wish it would happen, not that they are expecting it to.
Can't say I'm surprised. The way Nintendo of America handles VC releases has been nothing short of pathetic for over 2 years.
Anyone remember the August 2013 Nintendo Direct?
Does that mean you don't have to use those annoying cards anymore? If so, please carry on!
@BensonUii Hmm, I cannot be certain, but I truly doubt it
@Discipledoctor well I didn't even know about a "web store"... (America only, that explains it)
I don't get it, why don't they just make the e-shop accessible via the web, like you know, the PSN Store and Xbox Store or Steam. I understand they are busy playing catch-up on the digital front, but this seems like a pointless approach. I don't want to be able to buy a 100 or so games, if I don't have access to my WiiU. I want to be able to make any purchase I want, anywhere and at any given time - this is about me giving them my money, why the reluctance?
Must be one of those basic features Nintendo just feels are overrated ....
Promising. Keep it up. The only question is where are the 64 and GC games?
I love when people say GBA games don't belong on the Wii U, because they're portable games, meanwhile they ask for SNES games on the 3DS.
Misread the title.
I thought this was Nintendo going on a blitz and adding a ton of new VC games to the eshop
@GuitarAnthony
I prefer them on the Wii U, myself, but I agree with you. This is something the combined programming platform of the next generation console and handheld should help solve.
It's so completely necessary I wish Nintendo had bit the bullet and combined the teams before launching the 3DS and Wii U. They could have used a bunch of shared titles to beef up the libraries, obviously. Imagine if Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Luigi's Mansion all had Wii U versions at or near launch... not to mention a Star Fox and Ocarina remake. And more on topic, the 3DS could have shared almost every virtual console release from Wii U.
That's the hope that comes from the next two hardware releases having the unified development platform. A bigger library with more paired up releases like SSB. It won't solve all the problems of developing for a console vs. handheld but it will help immensely.
Misleading? I'd say people are misreading the title. It was clear to me
Great next step, Nintendo!
Now please, please, pretty pretty please, enable cross-buy between Wii-U and 3DS...
And make it retroactive, giving us eshop credit for 1st party titles we've downloaded on both platforms!
I've been double-dipping for far too long now...
@Tsuchinoko Yeah, It's so simple and believable that it hasn't happened in the last 4 years. lol
100 new games to the eShop!!!
... wait, what?
this really is misleading
@Bass_X0
To be fair, if the retail games were enough to sell the Wii U, it'd be selling better. Clearly the GBA games aren't helping it either.
Oh, c'mon!! That title is such a cheap dirty trick, @ThomasBW84.
And "upload automatically to your system"? Can I upload things to my console?
@Sherman FINE - fixed it to download
@Fandabidozi I said there were over 100 in total, with a hyperlink to be extra helpful.
@ogo79 Not really, if there were a load of new games I would have said New Games, this is a follow up to when Nintendo kicked this service off with various retail titles last October, plus I used an EarthBound image. Not my intention to be misleading, though, of course.
I want this in Europe dang it!!!
@Deanster101 Me too. Then I got sad.
That is neat. I may have to use this sometimes.
The title is not misleading. There's a clear difference between "eShop" and "web store". Although I would have used the phrase "website store" just to insure clarity.
@whodatninja same, but we should have known better.
The title is not inaccurate, but it's only natural that many of us would get our hopes up for the other possible translation of it.
I don't really understand what the point of this feature is.
During the Mega Man sale I was out of town with enough eShop credit for both Mega Man 6 & 7. However, I wasn't going to make it back home in time before the sale ended. I browsed the website to find a limited selection of VC titles available for purchase through Nintendo's website so I called them to see what options were available to me. In the end they told me to have somebody access my Wii U to purchase it for me - not exactly the best or even a reasonable solution. Glad to see they're making progress.
@ThomasBW84 "a bizarre absentee at the time of writing is Super Mario World[url=games/snes/super_mario_world][/url], for example" I think you wrote the link for super Mario world twice.
What?
@yokokazuo Darn, that's now fixed.
The Wiiware and Wii VC is bigger than Wii U crappy VC.
It is nice for those that want it but I can just wait to get home to purchase games. Accessibility is great though!
@ThomasBW84
i knew what you meant.
my comment was more towards the "untrained eye"
ogo79=hot looking retro gamer
@ThomasBW84
Apologies, playfull banter only honest.
Here's hoping Satoru Shibata and the rest of Nintendo of Europe wakes up at some point and starts offering to whole Europe this same.
Still waiting for Photos with Mario, Rusty's Real Deal Baseball, TVii, whole Europe wide Club Nintendo OR a Nordic Club Nintendo. Get on working Shibata-san. At least some of the above must come in 2015.
I sent an angry (but polite) email to Nintendo a couple of days complaining about the lack of VC titles on the Wii U. They listened?
The title of this article is misleading though... I read it as "a 100 new VC titles".
Someday.....but all is not bad, after all we are getting titles that never appeared on the original Wii Virtual Console. My guess is Nintendo won't release them all at once because they'd rather have a consistent income instead of one big lump sum. It's like a game of cards and you gotta play the ones that fit the situation. And to think....Nintendo used to make cards!
I understood the title after reading it a couple times, I guess it took a double take. As I already knew that Nintendo was offering games via their website in Europe (moreso than in NA), I quickly surmised what the article was actually conveying from the title. No "misleading" here.... Thanks for another relevant update on Nintendo sales strategy!
@bezerker99 Because it's not much to ask for considering what the big n's competitors have brought to their online services.
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