Believe it or not, the last place the Nintendo 3DS is still being officially used is not some obscure Nintendo store, but in fact global center of art and culture the Louvre Museum. Since 2012, the museum's audio guides have run not off dedicated devices, as one may expect, but Nintendo 3DS units running a proprietary app, presumably so you can knock out a few rounds of Mario Kart between paintings.
This isn't some case of the museum director finding a crate of them at the local Parisian GameStop, either – it's an official collaboration, and that aforementioned app was developed by Nintendo under the personal guidance of gaming godfather Shigeru Miyamoto himself. All good things must come to an end, though, and the Louvre has quietly announced the end of the program.
Later this year the app, which was developed by Nintendo and spearheaded by Shigeru Miyamoto, will no longer be made available to visitors.
"The New Nintendo 3DS console audio guides will go out of operation in September 2025, to be replaced by a new system," a statement on the official Musée du Louvre website says.
It's not clear whether this new system will be another collaboration with Nintendo – perhaps using Switch Lite handhelds instead – or something different entirely. Neither the Louvre nor Nintendo has announced anything.
That little tidbit about the guides being replaced by "a new system" is interesting – I can't imagine them upgrading to Switch 2s, lest they be forced to auction off a few of their paintings to afford the things, but I have to concur that something like the Switch Lite does seem more likely. Less risk of visitors losing those $60 Joy-Cons, too.
