Nintendo Account Holders will finally be able to re-download previous purchases from the Nintendo eShop. With this development, Nintendo is taking a huge step in the right direction. Previous digital purchases were tied to the consoles and cannot be transferred to other Nintendo consoles.
In FloKO’s unboxing video of the Nintendo Switch uploaded by the owner of the new console, the major eShop improvement was revealed. The Nintendo account detail can be seen around the three-minute mark of the video. It is hidden in the fine print of the Switch’s initialization video so viewers may have missed the recent development.
It says that a player’s Nintendo Account contains their Nintendo eShop purchase history and current balance. It says that by linking the player’s Nintendo Account after initializing the console, it is possible to redownload any software or DLC purchased using that account. It also states that software that has been discontinued may not be available to re-download in some cases.
If this new feature is true, it will finally bring Nintendo up to speed with other digital retailers. Nintendo’s lack of a unified account system has been criticized by fans in the past as it was difficult for users to manage digital libraries or carry online purchases between consoles. Nintendo Account System was launched last spring however Nintendo has yet to implement a way to re-download old purchases to current consoles, as published by Polygon.
On the current Nintendo Systems, if a player buys a digital game for a console, it stays there and it cannot be recovered if they want to download it on another system. According to NintendoLife, the statement on the Switch UI suggests that this will no longer be the case when Nintendo launches Switch, its new console. This will be good news to fans of Nintendo as reported by IGN.
