Seller Beware: Pre-Owned Wii U Consoles Allow Access to Old User's Games

Bored of your Wii U already? Be careful when selling it on - according to a number of gamers who have purchased second-hand consoles, it's likely that your Nintendo eShop purchase history will still be accessible to future owners, essentially allowing them to re-download your software free of charge.

The claim comes from NeoGAF, where one savvy pre-owned Wii U buyer loaded up the eShop only to find that he was able to download Trine 2 and Nano Assault Neo for free. This suggests that online purchases are tied specifically to consoles, and not Nintendo Network ID accounts.

Eurogamer reports that the only way to actually transfer purchases between Wii U systems is to send your console in to Nintendo directly. Which sounds like one big, expensive ball ache. Nintendo, for its part, has said that it would be more than happy to assist customers with any issues they may have on the matter.