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6. With Satoru Iwata recently announcing that the company intends to fully integrate its Network Network Ids (NNIDs) across all current and future Nintendo devices, Nintendo has finally dropped its archaic practice of tying user game accounts to hardware, and embraced backwards compatibility. Of course, true backwards compatibility isn't promised until Nintendo's next console, but it's a step in the right direction and means that consumers won't lose their digital games in future if they are to sell or upgrade their Nintendo consoles. They also won't need to buy the same game twice – a consumer unfriendly practice that has benefited no-one but Nintendo.
The only problem however is that this policy should have been implemented nearly a decade ago, and whilst Nintendo are trying to operate in tandem with consumer and market trends, they still have some way to go in order to offer the kind of digital catalogue that Steam, PSN and XB Live now offer. In other words, Nintendo's competitors have a 10 year head start.
Despite the promise of DS games coming to Wii U in future, Nintendo's Virtual Console store still doesn't take advantage of...