At last, Nintendo has joined the 21st century. With the Nintendo Switch, your Nintendo eShop purchases will no longer be tied to your hardware or device- they will now be tied directly to your account. And every time you log into a Switch with your account, they will be there, waiting for you to redownload them.
Thanks to the Nintendo Switch leak that we reported earlier, it looks like we now know that eShop purchases will be tied to your account. People on Twitter have spotted that the Switch settings menu has this text under one of the options: “Your Nintendo Account contains your Nintendo eShop purchase history and current balance. By re-linking your Nintendo Account after initializing the console, it will be possible to redownload any software or DLC purchased using that account. (Software that has been discontinued may not be available for redownload in some cases.)”
This indicates that the years of hardware transfers and hoping against hope that your system does not break or get stolen are now past- we finally have a proper account system on Nintendo! Good job, guys. Only took you roughly 17 more years than everyone else, though.