Nintendo Badge Arcade 'Free Plays' Might Be Over For Good

Over on the 3DS subreddit, users were booting up the game in order to cash in on their free plays only to find that there were none. Multiple users started reporting this yesterday, with European players also running into the issue today.

One of the earliest reports came from user Mechagouki1971, and many others followed suit, lamenting yet another stage in 3DS' life that's being cut short.

We made sure to log into Nintendo Badge Arcade after discovering this, and we can report that sadly, we also didn't get any free plays for the first time this week. At least you can still pay to play. However, we also noticed that 'FINAL DAY' labels have been removed from all of the machines in-game.

After doing some digging, though, it seems like this might actually be an error and not another nail in the coffin of the 3DS' life. Pretendo Network — a free, open-source software designed to replace the 3DS and Wii U eShop network — has dug into Nintendo Badge Arcade's configuration files, and it looks like the dates in the download data are wrong. The last day in the data is 23rd March 2023.

The files were generated on 16th March, a day earlier than normal, and as such, Pretendo believes this is all just a mistake.

Okay, so it looks like it's not deliberate, but the real question is will it be fixed? Given that the 3DS eShop's doors shut on 27th March, we're not so sure, but we'd love it if they did. Imagine!

Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments.

[source twitter.com, via reddit.com]