2004 was the start to what could be called the Golden Era for Nintendo. It all began back in 2003 when on Nov. 13, Nintendo put the world in suspense with revealing a new game product was in the works, said to be released the next year. Indeed in 2004, the console was released in North America on Nov. 21, by the name of the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen). 

The success of the DS would then lead Nintendo to making more models, such as the Ds Lite and DSi (along with the XL version) systems. More and more units would be sold, the overall game library increased much more, and led to the worldwide unit sales reaching 154.02 million in 2016. To this day, the DS is the console with the second most units sold, being only a million away from the Playstation 2.

Once its official lifetime had ended, the Wii had sold a whopping 101 million units, making it the the fifth best-selling home console of all time, opposed to the 1994 Playstation. 

When Nintendo had realized how successful the two families were, they came to the conclusion that it should not stop at the Wii and DSi. The 3ds, 2ds, and Wii U (along with the “New” variations) were put onto shelves starting the 3ds in 2010, though the popularity of the two were low.

No matter the small popularity, the consoles currently mark the last of the two families, and Nintendo had made an announcement last year. Though the hardware for the Wii U and 3ds were discontinued back in 2017 and 2020, it has been announced that the last bits of life for the consoles will be extinguished. On March 27 of this year, the 3ds and Wii U Eshop will be permanently shut down.

Because of this news, it means that the Wii and DS families will officially be gone, due to Nintendo not having plans for the consoles because of the Switch. For someone like me, this is very unfortunate and sad news. I grew up with both console families and spent many hours on them when I was young. Even today I still enjoy playing many games on the consoles. 

For the past year since the announcement, it has been a scurry to obtain the best games made for the console, both digital and physical copies. Since the games can only be obtained through digital means, the Eshop will likely start the scalping season, as the games can only be obtained physically unofficially, and through illegal pirating via Homebrew software or websites.

I do agree that all consoles have to end someday, it is still unfortunate that people new to the consoles will not be able to play easily. Seeing how badly scalped the actual consoles are, the future is certainly dark in terms of pricing, likely more than most currently are. In an article from 2019, it was stated that “scalpers are scalping the Wii U for 800 dollars,” showing if the prices for just the console were that bad, to think of prices for it and games nowadays, especially more major titles like Mario and Zelda.

The closure will also erase legal accessibility to games that never had physical copies. The biggest example is the Virtual Console series. With the Wii, WiiU, and 3DS, titles from previous consoles were up for sale. Spanning from the Gamecube and all the way back to the Entertainment System, it made reliving classics inexpensive and easy. Not anymore though, but that is another long topic for later.

Besides the games and digital stuff, it is indeed sad to know that the last remaining pieces of the two families are coming to an end. From motion controls to 3D technology and easy portability, each console had its own unique thing that made it special. All that can be done now is to hope that Nintendo has further plans to revive the Wii and DS, while hoping that Homebrew developers do all they can to keep each and every one of them alive.