Latest 3DS update makes eShop a little less dumb! (Still pretty dumb though…)

There has been a lot of buzz today around Nintendo’s latest 3DS update. The update adds the Miiverse to the 3DS, allowing users to interact with greater ease and share pictures and notes at will. Users also now have the ability to combine their network IDs on both the Wii U and 3DS, allowing funds to be shared across systems. This is a step in the right direction, but could Nintendo be any slower? From day one, the Playstation Network (PSN) allowed users to share funds across multiple devices, as did the iOS and Android operating systems. This is not a new development, this is Nintendo beginning to catch up!

The Miiverse is an interesting idea but not the most important thing Nintendo should be focusing on.

Compared to other systems, Nintendo is still woefully behind the times. Their policies on downloadable content (DLC), for example, still connect content to hardware instead of your Network ID, so if you lose or break your DS then you have to contact Nintendo directly in order to get your content available for another download. Let’s compare that to any other popular portable device, where you simply log in and press download when you wish to re-download content .

Nintendo’s still maintaining its unhealthy disdain for travelers and people living in different countries though; today’s update has done nothing to ease eShop purchases for people living outside of Japan, Europe or the USA. You can read my personal story here. Also, gamers who have different currencies in their accounts are forced to use it or lose it, since Nintendo maintains a one currency per account policy.

While Nintendo should be rewarded for taking a small step in the right direction, please don’t get too praiseworthy of its efforts. Nintendo needs to understand that its current policies on DLC and region locking are just ridiculous and need desperately to change. Perhaps if Nintendo spent less time on Mii-based nonsense, they could focus on bringing their product up to par with the rest of the market.

(Photo source: NZgamer)