Storefront shutdown

Digital storefront shutdowns, or the practice of discontinuing online storefronts for consoles and other devices, has become increasingly common. This often results in the removal of games exclusive to these platforms, such as Pokémon Picross for the Nintendo 3DS, Battlezone for the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) remasters of classic Final Fantasy titles.^{[citation needed]} These shutdowns leave many games inaccessible to new users, raising concerns over digital preservation and the long-term viable usage of digital-only content. Especially as more recent closures mean that access to games that are reliant on servers end up being affected by these storefront closures.^{[clarification needed]}

This removes consumer access for older games on their older consoles, making them have to buy a new one.

The Wii Shop Channel, launched in 2006, allowed Nintendo Wii users to purchase and download a variety of content, including Virtual Console games, WiiWare titles, and other downloadable content. Users could load their accounts with Wii Points, a virtual currency, to make purchases. This system offered access to a diverse library of classic games and indie releases, however the service was officially shut down in 2019, and with it, many of the games and content became inaccessible.^{[citation needed]}

Launched in November 2012, the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and 3DS was Nintendo's 2nd major digital storefront. The shutdown of this storefront in April 2023^[1] was directly connected to online gameplay services also getting shut down for titles such as Super Mario Maker and Splatoon. Roughly 1.5TB worth of games were delisted from the storefronts,^[2] and preservation efforts were hampered through Nintendo's restrictions,^[3] such as the $250 limit for account balance at any given time, no matter if it is via gift card or physical funds being transferred to the balance. The Completionist's video covering the event had also documented a limit for how many games can be downloaded at once, and account lockdowns if you redeem $1000 in eShop cards within a 24hr period,^[3] among several other anti-consumer problems that hampered the efforts of preservation.

Additionally, the VirtualConsole^[4] (VC) series, what was the only legitimate way to purchase new copies of vintage games for multiple Nintendo platforms ranging from the NES and GameBoy, to the Nintendo DS and N64, was among the litany of titles erased from servers, forcing consumers that missed out on purchasing these titles to only be capable of paying for a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) subscription to play retro Nintendo games, which they wouldn't own, and various VC releases have remained to not be re-released on NSO.^[5]

Started in October 2008, the PSP storefront was the first digital storefront established for portable consoles. Despite fan backlash against Sony's attempts^[6] to shut down the PS3 and PSVita storefronts alongside this shutdown,^[7] it was unfortunately still discontinued. Regardless if the storefront shut down, accessibility was dubious at best, since users' only methods to connect PSPs to the internet required either running a mobile hotspot without security enabled, or jury rigging older routers^[8] just to function, and regardless, it was extremely risky for consumers to safely use their consoles while connected online due to the vulnerabilities caused by the PSP's lack of support for most modern network security protocols.^[9] Additionally, a lack of development for the web browser of the console made accessing the internet progressively more difficult and slow since its final update with version 2.70^[10] in 2006, having 15 years of zero support between launch and shutdown, thus requiring hacked consoles to reliably surf the internet with community-maintained browsers.

In November 2005, the Xbox 360 Marketplace was Microsoft's first digital storefront for their consoles. Nearly 20 years later, it was shut down,^[11] although unlike most other storefront closures, users could still reinstall games they purchased as long as publishers did not have their games delisted prior to the shutdown or later, so titles such as World Gone Sour published by Capcom^[12] or Assassin's Creed 3 published by Ubisoft^[13] are entirely unplayable^[12] unless consumers happened to still have had the game installed to their consoles, or bought a disc if the title received an official physical release.

Launched in November 2019, Stadia was the first cloud gaming service with a storefront. Its storefront was abruptly shut down for users in September 2022 without notice, and the entire service shuttered in 2023.^[14] As the shutdown of the service meant users who made purchases on the platform could not play the products they paid for, Google refunded purchases of both hardware and software for the platform,^[15] however many platform-exclusive titles^[16] were never re-released,^[17] so users couldn't reliably replace the software that they paid for.

As of September 30 2021, LeapFrog officially discontinued and shut down the Leapster Connect service ^[18]. Because of this, the devices can no longer reach the storefront to download purchased games or use the features that were advertised. Models such as (but not limited to) the Leapster, Leapster Explorer, My Own Story Time Pad, My Own Leaptop, Crammer, Didj, and Leapster 2 still function offline with any content that was already stored on them. However, any games that were bought but not downloaded to the device before the shutdown are now inaccessible. The software was also necessary for connecting the device to a PC, managing its content, transferring user files, and sending messages to and from your child. ^[19].

In 2021, Sony attempted to shut down the storefronts of 3 of their legacy consoles, the PSP, PSVita, and PS3.^[7] Unlike the PSP however, backlash from the community^[6] made it so consumers currently remain capable of purchasing and downloading new digital copies of PS3 titles, so long as the release has not been removed from the platform storefront. The PS3 is to be the final home console of the 7th console generation and the PSVita as the expected final portable console of the 8th console generation to retain access to its manufacturer's storefronts.

• Video game preservation
• Games as a service
• Stop Killing Games