Nintendo de-lists 250 DSiWare titles in North America without warning

Nintendo has de-listed 250 games from the North American DSiWare shop, without warning customers first.

Games that received the axe include Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, Zenonia, Mr. Driller, and Dr. Mario Express. Several games seem to have been removed from the Japanese eShop as well, though it appears that Europe has been spared for the time being.

Responding to question on Twitter, Shantae developer Matt Bozon seems to have been caught off guard by the move as well. He noted that having certain games in your collection would give bonuses in others, which is no longer possible given the removals.

“Wow. Having that, and Flip Champs and Milky Way is how you get the starting gem bonus from the vendor in Scuttle Town. I guess that feature slips into the mists of legend,” he told followers.

DSiWare titles were originally small games which could be downloaded to Nintendo DSi systems. They were later made available through backwards compatibility on the Nintendo 3DS , which was only discontinued last September.

While it appears players can still re-download any titles they’ve already purchased, for now anyway, this move has reignited the debate over digital sales.

When you purchase something from a digital storefront, you don’t actually own it. You’re just buying a license. An open ended contract which usually allows you to use that product for an indetermined period of time. However, the retailer or publisher can choose to revoke that access whenever they’d like, for any reason. This applies to other digital items as well. Something which Amazon Prime Video customers recently discovered.

This is why I try to buy physical copies whenever possible. While online services can be discontinued, which blocks access to patches and multiplayer, most single and local multiplayer games can still be used for the life of the hardware. You’re also free to share and sell them should you so choose. You may not own the copyrights to the software itself, but they can’t take the disc or cartridge away from you. Of course, even this is becoming a challenge as more companies shift to online based DRM schemes even for physical releases.

I think this is one of the reasons why I still find myself gravitating back to PC. While physical games on the platform have been confined to the dust bin of history, there’s a lot more competition in the retail space. GOG for example built their entire store on the idea of preserving and providing access to legacy games. Many which were once lost have now found new audiences.

Of course there are other (ahem) alternatives should license holders decide to screw over customers. Even a lot of console games have found new leases on life through emulation. Which publishers detest. Nintendo especially. However, if there is no simple and legal option to purchase and play older games, what choice do players have?

Source: DelistedGames.com