Advice on Selling Wii-U, with or without downloads?

[Bartsfam]

My daughter wants me to sell her Wii-U and 3DS systems. She has physical copies of a lot of games, but has also downloaded numerous games on both systems.

 

My question is, how do most people sell these systems? Do they delete the downloaded games or keep them on the system to increase the value?

 

Is there a downside to leaving them on? She can't, at this time, transfer them to her Switch or any other system. Does leaving the games on somehow compromise my Nintendo account by some future user having access to my account?

 

I imagine if we trade them in at Game Stop I would delete the games, but it seems like a shame that they would never be played again.

 

Any advice?

 

 

[ianoid]

You can value them like you might a used game but a bit less. So something like half the price paid and the more you have the less they are valued at. I wouldn't go crazy- if she's spent $100 at retail, you might consider $40 or $50 depending on the titles. And the next question for someone more informed is, are the digital buys attached to the console primarily or the username?

 

I'd think you could do better here for a Wii-U than at Gamestop.

[eightbit]

If it works anything like the switch you have to have the account activated (your eShop account) in order for those downloaded games to launch. Obviously you would not want to sell someone a console with your account tied to it, so you will have to go into the eShop and deactivate the console. But doing this prohibits any installed games to launch. If it works like the Switch you will have no choice but to deactivate it and delete the games.

[Bodyshots]

....and this is why I still prefer having the actual copy of a game in hand. I'm not keen on the digital downloads, ever. I may have a handful but thats because the game(s) I've purchased were never made available as an actual physical copy.

 

Sorry, its not quite related to the posters question, I just needed to chime in.

 

[Tanooki]

Umm you remove them, to tell them with the data there is asking for nothing but trouble.

 

Nintendo ties the games to the system and the account on the system which also ties to an eShop account which obviously is bound to your name, address, and payment info all stuck into that account they were downloaded into.

 

You'll basically be needing to sell your account to someone else, and Nintendo doesn't transfer stuff willingly like that. If anything ever happens accidental or intentional and the account gets removed/broken/disabled all those games are gone. You'll have to give them your login/password so they can gain access to your former account and change what they can into their favor. It just seems like a large risk.

 

When I've sold past systems (like when I ditched my New3DS to go back to a 3DSXL at one point in time I set the firmware back to spec, wiped it entirely clean and before hand de-linked my NNID account from the system entirely as I'm too paranoid about theft/identity theft. Only a fool ever gives control over digital information/content to a faceless next party buyer. I see it as playing digital russian roulette.

[KeeperofLindblum]

TL;DR - Just format the system and accept the digital loss.

 

I mean Tanooki basically hit the nail on the head here.

 

I think it's technically a breach of agreement to sell your account in any manner.

 

Best case scenario is changing all the information on it, but if anything ever happened, those downloaded titles are basically gone.

 

I would just sell the plain system unless you're selling to a really close friend or something you see often enough it's not an ordeal. Anybody beyond that and you might as well do a full system wipe.

 

3DS might be hard to get much money for since there's so many of them out now, but the WiiU could have value as they aren't produced anymore. In great condition plus some physical titles, might have something there. (IMO obviously)

Edited May 11, 2018 by KeeperofLindblum

[eightbit]

Yup, as everyone else said as well...just deactivate, wipe it clean and chalk up the digital downloads as purchase losses. Sell the machine freshly formatted with the physical games and that is the best you are going to be able to do. I think I have already beaten the digital vs physical debate to a pulp in other threads so I won't talk much more about that here, but yeah... everyone just has to consider purchasing digital games is ONLY for you. There exists no second hand market there unfortunately.

[HoshiChiri]

While I would agree with everyone above & wipe the systems- double check what you have first. There's a handful of games no longer available for download on both systems, if you've got some of those it might be worth keeping the systems around. (Or at least the 3DS, since they're so common & you're not likely to get too much.)

[Bartsfam]

Thanks for everyone's input. I naively assumed that we bought the software and could resell it with the hardware. I didn't realize that an active account was needed to launch the software.

 

As for the games we downloaded, it was two Zelda Oracle games, and 1 or 2 Mario v. Donkey Kong games for the 3DS.

 

And the Wii-U has Shovel Knight, some Sonic games, NES Remix 1 & 2, SMB 1-3, and Star Tropics from the NES downloaded on it. Nothing too earth shattering if lost.

 

The majority of her games are physical copies so it's not a total loss when she decides to sell.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Bartsfam