6 ms·

Looks like it's finally time to grab all those games I held off on grabbing because my backlog was already extraordinary, lest I have to find them in a couple y

Looks like it's finally time to grab all those games I held off on grabbing because my backlog was already extraordinary, lest I have to find them in a couple years on eBay at wildly inflated prices.

peruvian 6y ago
Most in-demand 3DS games have not been cheap in years. They've been pretty expensive due to low printing (Bravely Default, DQ remakes, most Atlus RPGs) for years now. I'm guessing Nintendo games are OK due to so many people owning them though. 3DS eShop might be a safe bet but aside from the usual downsides of digital, the games are tied to the system, not your eShop account.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  The 3DS homebrew scene seems pretty robust. The hardware is cheap enough now that you can have a modded system for preservation purposes, while keeping another for digital downloads.
- rdtwo 6y ago
  I sold my 3ds games for a hefty profit so I agree
- AdmiralAsshat 6y ago
  There are some that remained in print, however, and so I held off on taking the plunge because I didn't feel like dropping $40 for Fire Emblem Echoes (for example), knowing it would probably be a year before I played it. But knowing that the console and likely all first-party games will soon be OOP certainly lights a fire under me, as I'd much rather pay $40 for a new, sealed copy of the game than $70 for a cart-only copy of the game off eBay in a year's time. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology evidently went OOP while I wasn't looking, and the Ebay price has already skyrocketed. Argh! EDIT: And yes, I've got a couple from the eShop (Devil Survivor's 1 & 2 and Soul Hackers), but I prefer carts since they're not locked to my system/account. And who knows when Nintendo will decide to shut down the eShop, just like they did for the Wii shop?
  - Macha 6y ago
    You can dump your own carts or eshop titles to ROM files with custom firmware, which you can then install on another system. Technically piracy, but it's not something I personally have moral qualms about, especially when the clock is ticking on the store's own existence.
    - anon9001 6y ago
      If you were to go a step further, the eShop actually trusts the client and you can download the entire 3ds library direct from Nintendo with the right hack. Google "freeshop" and read their FAQ if you're curious. I won't link it here in case it offends anyone.
      - mmebane 6y ago
        Nintendo fixed that loophole back in August 2018, didn't they?
        anon9001 6y ago
        Oops, you are correct. I didn't think they'd be able to fix it. Thanks for the update, it's been a while :)
        Gamemaster1379 6y ago
        Funny story, this loophole existed for both the Wii U and 3DS eShops. While 3DS got it patched, the Wii U is still vulnerable.
        anon9001 6y ago
        Do you happen to know how they patched it? I thought the idea was that it was bad encryption and once the license generation was broken, eShop couldn't tell if it was a real license or a fake one.
- bloodorange 6y ago
  I got a lot of popular 3DS games from the used games market and likewise also sold off some of them when I was done with them. I never bought any at more than half the retail price of the game at that time. Of course, for this reason (and also to really own my games) I always preferred cartridges.
gambiting 6y ago
I mean, I've been completing my GameBoy and GameBoy Color collection recently, and even the big titles that everyone wants(Zelda, Pokemon, Metroid) are not crazy, the most I've paid was £20 each for pokemon games. Not sure why 3DS games would go sky high in prices with time.
- Macha 6y ago
  There were a _lot_ of copies of Pokemon Red, Blue, Gold, Silver etc. sold. There were not quite so many copies of SMT IV or Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright.
clubsoda 6y ago
Facebook Market, Craigslist, and Amazon are severely overpriced for even DS games. For example, Pokemon Platinum, is selling used for about 120-150.
- erinnh 6y ago
  "Even" DS Games is not really applicable anymore really. Games for consoles tend to follow the same cycle every time. They get cheaper as the current console gets older, then once the new Gen starts, they get really cheap and once you're about one to two generations removed, they get more expensive again. It has been the DS's time to get more expensive for a while. PSP has also started to get more expensive, though not remotely as much as DS games, since the DS was more popular.
bzb5 6y ago
You can pick them up for free if you pirate them.

Looks like it's finally time to grab all those games I held off on grabbing because my backlog was already extraordinary, lest I have to find them in a couple years on eBay at wildly inflated prices.

peruvian 6y ago

Most in-demand 3DS games have not been cheap in years. They've been pretty expensive due to low printing (Bravely Default, DQ remakes, most Atlus RPGs) for years now. I'm guessing Nintendo games are OK due to so many people owning them though. 3DS eShop might be a safe bet but aside from the usual downsides of digital, the games are tied to the system, not your eShop account.

mywittyname 6y ago
The 3DS homebrew scene seems pretty robust. The hardware is cheap enough now that you can have a modded system for preservation purposes, while keeping another for digital downloads.
rdtwo 6y ago
I sold my 3ds games for a hefty profit so I agree
AdmiralAsshat 6y ago
There are some that remained in print, however, and so I held off on taking the plunge because I didn't feel like dropping $40 for Fire Emblem Echoes (for example), knowing it would probably be a year before I played it. But knowing that the console and likely all first-party games will soon be OOP certainly lights a fire under me, as I'd much rather pay $40 for a new, sealed copy of the game than $70 for a cart-only copy of the game off eBay in a year's time. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology evidently went OOP while I wasn't looking, and the Ebay price has already skyrocketed. Argh! EDIT: And yes, I've got a couple from the eShop (Devil Survivor's 1 & 2 and Soul Hackers), but I prefer carts since they're not locked to my system/account. And who knows when Nintendo will decide to shut down the eShop, just like they did for the Wii shop?
- Macha 6y ago
  You can dump your own carts or eshop titles to ROM files with custom firmware, which you can then install on another system. Technically piracy, but it's not something I personally have moral qualms about, especially when the clock is ticking on the store's own existence.
  - anon9001 6y ago
    If you were to go a step further, the eShop actually trusts the client and you can download the entire 3ds library direct from Nintendo with the right hack. Google "freeshop" and read their FAQ if you're curious. I won't link it here in case it offends anyone.
    - mmebane 6y ago
      Nintendo fixed that loophole back in August 2018, didn't they?
      - anon9001 6y ago
        Oops, you are correct. I didn't think they'd be able to fix it. Thanks for the update, it's been a while :)
        Gamemaster1379 6y ago
        Funny story, this loophole existed for both the Wii U and 3DS eShops. While 3DS got it patched, the Wii U is still vulnerable.
        anon9001 6y ago
        Do you happen to know how they patched it? I thought the idea was that it was bad encryption and once the license generation was broken, eShop couldn't tell if it was a real license or a fake one.
bloodorange 6y ago
I got a lot of popular 3DS games from the used games market and likewise also sold off some of them when I was done with them. I never bought any at more than half the retail price of the game at that time. Of course, for this reason (and also to really own my games) I always preferred cartridges.

gambiting 6y ago

I mean, I've been completing my GameBoy and GameBoy Color collection recently, and even the big titles that everyone wants(Zelda, Pokemon, Metroid) are not crazy, the most I've paid was £20 each for pokemon games. Not sure why 3DS games would go sky high in prices with time.

Macha 6y ago
There were a _lot_ of copies of Pokemon Red, Blue, Gold, Silver etc. sold. There were not quite so many copies of SMT IV or Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright.

clubsoda 6y ago

Facebook Market, Craigslist, and Amazon are severely overpriced for even DS games. For example, Pokemon Platinum, is selling used for about 120-150.

erinnh 6y ago
"Even" DS Games is not really applicable anymore really. Games for consoles tend to follow the same cycle every time. They get cheaper as the current console gets older, then once the new Gen starts, they get really cheap and once you're about one to two generations removed, they get more expensive again. It has been the DS's time to get more expensive for a while. PSP has also started to get more expensive, though not remotely as much as DS games, since the DS was more popular.

bzb5 6y ago

You can pick them up for free if you pirate them.