The Nintendo eShop is a joke...

One of the worst things about Nintendo nowadays is their handling of digital distribution. What's so bad about it? Is it the prices? Is it the selection? No, it's that the games are bound to the hardware, meaning that if you lose your 3DS/Wii U or if they get stolen or if they are damaged beyond repair, YOU LOSE ALL THE DOWNLOADED GAMES ON THAT SYSTEM!

From Nintendo's tech support forums:

Since the games are tied to the Console and not to the Club account, Nintendo will not transfer them over. unfortunately, you either get to repurchase all the games or do not and move along. when i returned my original 3DS to Amazon to buy one somewhere else, I had no choice but to eat the cost of Link's Awakening as the transfer tool did not exist at the time. im sure the new owner of that 3DS is loving their free game :/

Now to be fair, the Wii and DSi had games that were bound to the hardware. Maybe Nintendo would correct their mistakes with the next systems, but that didn't happen. Nope. Not at all. It blows, considering the fact that Sony and Microsoft's DD policies are probably less strict than Nintendo's.

So unless Nintendo introduces an account system and makes the DD games bound to that instead of the hardware, I'll probably be skipping out on the 3DS and Wii U (or as another person said, the Wii Eww.)