What does it even mean to “own” a video game?

[JWeinCom]

Conina said:

Chrkeller said:

Honestly I have no idea.  I mean could I redownload stuff on a 3DS?  fair and kudos to Nintendo, I don't know how that works.  When I return old consoles, I just emulate what I lost.  

If I remember correctly, digital 3DS games are bound to the hardware, not to the eShop account.

So if my 3DS dies, I can't just buy a used 3DS, log into my account and redownload my games.

Nah. My 3DS had a tragic encounter with a toilet bowl and died a couple years back. I got a new one and was able to call Nintendo to transfer the account. Once I did, I was able to download the games I had on it. Unfortunately my save data was gone. But, for the save files for all my digital games were gone :(. 

Can't confirm that will still work today though, but I imagine it would.