What’s more, since Nintendo has now moved on to bigger and better things, it’s fair to assume that the community has won. Here’s the best part about homebrew on the 3DS: every version of the hardware, no matter what region it’s from or what firmware version it’s running, can be hacked with just an SD card and some open source software. So after waiting the better part of a month for my mint condition 3DS to arrive from the land of the rising sun, I set out to explore the wide and wonderful world of Nintendo 3DS hacking. Of course, that’s never stopped me before. I knew the hardware was identical, but could the firmware be changed?Īn evening’s worth of research told me the swap was indeed possible, but inadvisable due to the difficulty and potential for unexpected behavior. Then one day I noticed the average price for a Japanese model was far lower than that of its American counterpart. In short, this was the worst possible time for me to decide that I finally wanted to buy a 3DS. I’ve certainly made more expensive mistakes. Whether it’s COVID keeping people indoors and increasing the demand for at-home entertainment, or the incredible library of classic and modern games the system has access to, the fact is that a used 3DS in good condition is worth more today than it was when it was brand new on the shelf this time last year. While putting the 3DS out to pasture might have been the logical business move, a quick check on eBay seems to tell a different story. Of course Nintendo’s focus on the Switch, a hybrid device that blurs the line between console and handheld games, undoubtedly played a part in the decision to retire what could effectively be seen as a competing product. Which is not to say the product line had become stagnant: the system received a considerable mid-generation refresh, and there was even a more affordable variant introduced that dropped the eponymous stereoscopic 3D effect, but nearly a decade is still a fairly long life in the gaming industry. For one thing, some variation of the handheld system had been on the market since 2011.

When Nintendo officially ended production of the 3DS in September 2020, it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

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