sethnintendo on 29 October 2012
I see your concerns with buying digital media. Not too sure what I can say about your hypothetical situation if a company goes out of business.
However, the main thing I am concerned about right now is that Nintendo links the VC service with all the Nintendo systems. I should be able to play all the VC games that I bought on Wii on my 3DS and Wii U also. I believe the Miiverse integration with Wii U and eventually 3DS might bring this. However, I will not buy the same VC game twice (and they have already offered a few VC games on the 3DS that I already bought on the Wii). This is what I am most concerned about myself. It would be nice to play my SNES, Genesis, TG16, Neo Geo, etc VC games on my 3DS.
