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[Draugoth]

The 3DS and Wii U eShop services are shutting down at the end of this month and that means you've only got so much time left to buy all of the digital games you possibly can on Nintendo's older storefronts. YouTuber, streamer and video game media personality Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil has taken this to the next level by quite literally purchasing every game available on these platforms.

The main driving force behind this idea was video game preservation – with the aim to "save" every 3DS and Wii U eShop title before they are lost forever. The mission was successful but it's come at a price, with the total amount of purchases adding up to $22,791 USD.

Here's a bit about why Khalil wanted to do this – revealing how all of the consoles and storage are being donated to the Video Game History Foundation so this digital library can "live on":

"Lost media is very real as far as video games preservation is concerned, since the industry started we run a daily risk of losing games forever, that's why this matters. And that's why I've been a long time supporter non-profits like the Video Game History Foundation and their efforts to support the preserveration of video games code, print media and more. In fact we started out own charity event Preserved Play, which is an annual charity event to raise money for them, and that's happening this year on April 15th and 16th on my Twitch channel and I will be donating these consoles and all the storage to Video Game History Foundation in the very end so that all these games can live on. So that's it, it's done - every available game on the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS has been saved - it cost far too much time and way too much money but it was absolutely worth it for the sake of game preserveration."

 

[rofif]

that's pretty cool. Will it still all be downloadable down the line ?

 

[Draugoth]

that's pretty cool. Will it still all be downloadable down the line ?

Only for owners.

 

[DGrayson]

that's pretty cool. Will it still all be downloadable down the line ?

Only for owners.

For the time being yes, but forever? Highly doubt it.

 

[El Muerto]

There are others that are equally concerned about the preservation of games for old consoles, they're just not on youtube trying to get attention for it. You can also download all the games from Nintendo's servers on your pc using NUSD, or just go on the internet archive.

 

[ironmang]

Cool idea for a youtube video but if I were spending that much money I'd want physical copies. I imagine all of these games are well preserved somewhere on the internet anyways.

 

[Impotaku]

I'm guessing it's only usa region as if he was buying every single game then he'd need to do europe & japan as well as not everything was released in the states & vice versa.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Cool idea for a youtube video but if I were spending that much money I'd want physical copies. I imagine all of these games are well preserved somewhere on the internet anyways.

most of these games don’t have physical copies.

 

[ironmang]

most of these games don’t have physical copies.

Of course. I'd still want the physical copies of the ones available though.

 

[Beechos]

Technically they are only redownloadable as long as nintendo keeps the file servers up. Has there been an instance yet where the digital licenses one purchases turn into poop? Whether it be gaming, video or music where the data couldn't be redownloaded?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Cool idea for a youtube video but if I were spending that much money I'd want physical copies. I imagine all of these games are well preserved somewhere on the internet anyways.

Physical copies will ultimately degrade and become unusable. Digital copies will live forever.

 

[Power Pro]

Technically they are only redownloadable as long as nintendo keeps the file servers up. Has there been an instance yet where the digital licenses one purchases turn into poop? Whether it be gaming, video or music where the data couldn't be redownloaded?

Not an entire store front exactly, but remember Game Room on Xbox 360/PC? it was a cool idea that was flawed in execution, where they had old games you could buy and play for 3 bucks a pop and set up your own virtual arcade. It was always bogged down by overpriced games ($3 a piece for atari 2600 pieces of shit), but it could have been cool if it actually had better games.

Anyway, I bought maybe 2 or 3 games on it, one of them being the arcade version of Jackal. Can't play any of my purchases anymore. And it's not even about not being able to download the files anymore, I can redownload the whole game if i want, but it doesn't recognize any of the titles I own anymore, which...I find to be kinda bull shit, especially with how overcharged they were for many of them to begin with.

If I was Jeff Gerstmann I'd be severely pissed, because he bought EVERY game on the service when it was new. That led to like...around $200 just for the launch line up.

 

[ironmang]

Technically they are only redownloadable as long as nintendo keeps the file servers up. Has there been an instance yet where the digital licenses one purchases turn into poop? Whether it be gaming, video or music where the data couldn't be redownloaded?

I think PS Mobile was like this. I remember buying a few games on my Vita but apparently they removed any way to redownload them many years ago.

There's probably several music and movie services that went belly up over the years. I doubt anyone who made a purchase on like the zune marketplace still has access to their music

 

[RafterXL]

Game preservation is a stupid reason to spend $23k, especially considering you've been able to download the entire library of both systems for years due to Nintendo's piss poor security. Sounds more like a YouTube stunt to gain attention more than anything.

 

[Spukc]

Fucking idiot
Anyway he earns this shit back with monetization on the video so eh..

 

[SteelCurtain 59]

Fucking idiot
Anyway he earns this shit back with monetization on the video so eh..

He has over a million subscribers and the video has over 300k views in less than a day, he probably made back the cost in that one video, if not he will in the next one

 

[Anthony Soprano]

Weird clickbait, sceptical of this - maybe a tax writeoff as the endgame?

Every game has surely been dumped by piracy groups a long time ago. Those are the real preservationists.

 

[willothedog]

all that future content, he's laughing.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I think in general shutting down servers and eshops sucks.

 

[cireza]

Guy has bought quite a ton of shovelware doing this.

 

[Buggy Loop]

He wasted that money for the sake of preservation?

 

[Codes 208]

Oh its Jirard. I was expecting it to be antdude

Maaaybe peanutbuttergamer, but he usually just sticks with the core nintendo IP’s

 

[Hestar69]

Jirard's a cool dude but gdamn spening that much on all those games! I'll stick to emulators lol

 

[Minsc]

He should try doing this for Steam and all DLC on it next, I'm curious if he could afford it. Probably lol.

 

[Dr.brain64]

Nintendo is so lucky

 

[BlakeofT]

I watched this last night. I thought all the road blocks they ran into were pretty hilarious. I've actually been burned by the <= $250 on your account before, but was not aware about a lot of the other problems.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I wonder if you could clone those drives/cards. Imagine powering the device on just to see a drive corruption errors.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Gotta say, that dude is pretty awesome. Mad respect for anyone who can 100% Hollow Knight.

 

[Scotty W]

I think in general shutting down servers and eshops sucks.

I agree that it sucks, but that is just business, no?

 

[Elder Legend]

Fucking idiot
Anyway he earns this shit back with monetization on the video so eh..

Why is he an idiot? When YouTube is someone's full time career and they have over a million subs he knows well enough he will make that money back quickly and then some profit too.
If someone is able to do something cool like this then more power and respect to them. It would be only idiotic if he would of spent all of his money from his banks saving or something really dumb like that. This is for business, you put money in to make more
Very plain and simple concept.

I am personally not interested in 3ds/Nintendo shop titles, but it's still cool that someone did it before it all shutdown.

 

[Robb]

Eh.. that has got to be like 90% shovelware and 10% actually good games. Sounds like a big waste of money.

 

[deriks]

Physical copies will ultimately degrade and become unusable. Digital copies will live forever.

In a sense, every copy is digital

 

[JC 1080P CRT]

Jirard's a good dude. I've always liked his videos, and I think he has a good presence to be a public personality for gaming.

Given his subscriber base and revenue streams, I'm confident he'll make his money back in a very short time, if not while this is the newest video.

Also, who better to make a public endeavor like this than someone nicknamed "The Completionist"? (Yes, I'm aware that many games have been delisted already, and that hackers/pirates are the "real" preservationists.)

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I thought this read "YouTube spends nearly 23k on every Wii u shop game," and I was like...

....THIS is why there's 10 ads in a twenty minute video

 

[Agent_Nobody]

Well at least the music will stay alive:

 

[01011001]

In a sense, every copy is digital

 

[Loomy]

Nintendo: What is this 'user experience design' fad you're talking about?

 

[justiceiro]

It's pretty evident who saw the video and who didn't. Believe me guys, even if you don't care about preservation, the video is worth alone for the wild ride it is buying too many games on the eShop.

 

[GMCamaro]

I guess he ‘COMPLETED’ the e-shop then. Haha, Jirard’s a cool dude, always liked his stuff.

 

[SegaShack]

Each of these titles is already preserved and backed up, this really isn't preservation at all especially considering these servers will likely be offline in a few years.

Just a clickbait idea.

 

[baphomet]

Each of these titles is already preserved and backed up, this really isn't preservation at all especially considering these servers will likely be offline in a few years.

Just a clickbait idea.

Not even remote the case.

A huge amount of this stuff isn't preserved.

 

[diffusionx]

Each of these titles is already preserved and backed up, this really isn't preservation at all especially considering these servers will likely be offline in a few years.

Just a clickbait idea.

sure, but that's the YT hustle. It's a gimmick, but a good one.

 

[Emedan]

Physical copies will ultimately degrade and become unusable. Digital copies will live forever.

Huh, on what do you think the digital copies are stored? I'd assume they'll occasionally make carbon copies of the disks but who knows, also whether that's even compatible if you actually wanna play the games.

 

[CrustyBritches]

I'm guessing they're going to dump these to ROMs to preserve them? Otherwise it's just stuck on a console that will eventually fail.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

dumb

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Fucking idiot
Anyway he earns this shit back with monetization on the video so eh..

YouTube pays so much you can put a down payment on a house with a single video?

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I'm guessing it's only usa region as if he was buying every single game then he'd need to do europe & japan as well as not everything was released in the states & vice versa.

The 3DS is region locked though.

 

[Filben]

He didn't need to buy every single one because you can already download a lot of them if preservation is what he wanted and not a video to generate clicks.

It would have been better if he'd bought those not available somewhere on the internet or that megathread. I guess he did that, too, but he could have done it cheaper.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

Cool idea for a youtube video but if I were spending that much money I'd want physical copies. I imagine all of these games are well preserved somewhere on the internet anyways.

Probably not digital-only ones. This is why you can't get a copy of Castlevania Rebirth anymore.

 

[TrebleShot]

What an utter waste of money.
Idiot.