9 replies to this topic

[Insanejawa]

I see horror stories about how if your Wii U bites the dust you can not recover your games, or it takes an act of congress to convince Nintendo to refund your credits so you can repurchase them from the eshop. Should I be sticking all my games on a USB drive instead and if so, in the case of a broken Wii U would I be able to hook the external up and sign in with my Nintendo ID and go about my merry way?

[MorbidGod]

I see horror stories about how if your Wii U bites the dust you can not recover your games, or it takes an act of congress to convince Nintendo to refund your credits so you can repurchase them from the eshop. Should I be sticking all my games on a USB drive instead and if so, in the case of a broken Wii U would I be able to hook the external up and sign in with my Nintendo ID and go about my merry way?

You should just cry like a baby!

Lol jk. I don't know but I hope so. My games are on my flash drive and when I get my Wii u back I want to be able to olay my games.

[NintendoReport]

I don't see horror stories, for some reason people just don't have the patience to contact Nintendo and try and get things straightened out.

[grahamf]

I already have 50GB of games so I need an external drive. My Wii lasted over six years with no problems, and by the time the optical drive started to make loud noises I was able to transfer everything over to my Wii U. I'm fairly sure it's going to be the same case for the Wii U, with Nintendo possibly implementing a Wii U to Wii U transfer method within four years.

[MorbidGod]

I don't see horror stories, for some reason people just don't have the patience to contact Nintendo and try and get things straightened out.

I would call them if it doesn't work. But I don't have faith in their customer service.

[Merky Water]

I don't see horror stories, for some reason people just don't have the patience to contact Nintendo and try and get things straightened out.

True fact.  I called Nintendo about another issue(seeing if they planned to bump up the friendslist capacity since I'm full and MK8 hasn't even dropped) and while on the phone with them, asked them about this.  They said it's no big deal.  Send them the busted console and they'll pop your purchases over to a new console.  Of course, I'd say call them first if this happens to see if they haven't put out something that can be done on the user end by then.

 

I didn't ask them about game saves but, even if those don't get transferred over, at least ya keep your purchases.  This was a big deal to me as I kept buying disc copies in fear and kinda letting my Digital Deluxe Promotion go to waste prior to this conversation.

[Kokirii]

The games are tied not just to your NNID but to the console they were originally downloaded onto.  And your NNID is also tied to the first console you link it to.  So it wouldn't be as easy as saving them an ext hdd, plugging that in to another console, signing in to your NNID, and playing them.

 

With that said, when I bought a second console I had no trouble at all getting my NNID and games transferred to the new system through Nintendo Support.  I just had to verify ownership of both consoles and then they forwarded my request to some special team.  After a day or two I got a message saying I could now link my NNID to the new console and redownload my games.  

[Merky Water]

when I bought a second console I had no trouble at all getting my NNID and games transferred to the new system through Nintendo Support.  I just had to verify ownership of both consoles and then they forwarded my request to some special team.  After a day or two I got a message saying I could now link my NNID to the new console and redownload my games.  

 

Nice!  and that was all doable on the user end just via a phone call or email?
 

[Insanejawa]

Awesome, Thanks all.

[Kokirii]

Nice!  and that was all doable on the user end just via a phone call or email?
 

 

Yes that was all doable via a phone call.  

 

I verified ownership of the first system through my Club Nintendo account, which very conveniently keeps the serial number of the console right there for you.  I gave them the serial number of both consoles and mentioned a few of the games I had bought (again, using my Club Nintendo account for reference).