The Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U have been dead for good since their eShop’s closure on March this year. This means that, besides purchasing physical copies of 3DS games, there were no other ways to obtain digital content and games through online means.
This is where ‘homebrewing’ a 3DS console becomes convenient where it simply answers that problem.
Unexpectedly, Nintendo pushed an update, that some users claim, targets hacking and game piracy.
The system update in question (3DS firmware Ver. 11.17.0-50) which appears to be minimal according to its official patch notes, is said to break several hacking tools to install pirated games onto the platform.
If a 3DS console already has these tools, it is safe to update. However, there isn’t much reason to do so, and users warned to avoid these updates altogether.
As a company that strongly defends its intellectual property, Nintendo made a wise move. On another perspective, this is rather a significant setback for those attempting to save the numerous third-party and digital-only games on a technically dead platform.
Nintendo have been slowly adding old games from older consoles to the Switch, with the latest being the Gameboy games. Only time will tell when and where they’ll going to offer a rich library of the DS/3DS.
