Has anyone experienced having a broken 3DS with Animal Crossing pre loaded to the machine?

I got the AC themed 3DS when it came out, last week I have noticed my hinge has cracked on the right side by the light. I have looked at the repair service Nintendo offer but I'm nervous to send my system off if they are going to replace anything that will affect my games and ac that are downloaded to the machine! I have emiled their support but not had a response back yet.

Has anyone used this service before?

I have also tried to google it and there is alot of different information, I am hoping not all true!!

Oh dear! I also have that style of 3DS and it's one of my biggest fears!

I did use the Nintendo repair service on an older model 3DS, but it was for an internal problem. They were able to fix it and send it back, but the entire memory was wiped. I'm hoping that since yours is purely a superficial issue, that won't happen in your case, but I can't be sure. Hopefully someone else will have more info!

Please do let us know how it goes!

I think that if the 3DS has a cracked hinge they will simply replace the shell. You could try to go to their support forum and ask about it!

I have just spoken to their customer support, they were no help he couldn't say if the repair would or wouldn't affect the saved games. He said I could re download all my games I have bought but that's not getting my thousands of hours worth of saves back.

Also a little insulting he said that repair would not be in the warranty as its user damage! I would argue that its a design flaw not how I handle the console! I very rarely take it from its hard case!

I know hes just doing his job and hes working on a Saturday but he helped no more than the online form, It would have been nice to get abit more from a person.

I will book it in for an assessment

I wish you luck and would like to keep up on what you decide. I had the AC themed DS and the hinge broke. Eventually I started having trouble with the games. Not sure if it was due to the hinge or not. I'd lose progress in my gamet-the screen would just go dark and shut off the DS. I slowly moved everything in storage to a daughter's game on another DS for safekeeping. I thought about the Nintendo repair but was too worried to send it in. I was almost done cleaning out the post office letters when it would no longer restart. I ended up buying a new 3DS and Nintendo transferred my games for me since I couldn't do it. It took a few days. I lost my town and my progress in the streetpass games.

I think it bothered me more that they wouldn't give me more info when I called to ask about it. I really liked the AC 3DS. Bought a black 3DS to replace it but it wasn't really what I wanted. I was still able to trade the broken AC 3DS in later it to GameStop for a discount on the Happy Home Designer 3DS-just wish it would have been an XL. (I do like changing out the faceplates though.)

Best of luck getting your 3DS fixed. I wouldn't judge the guy for telling you it won't be covered by warranty, however. Warranty protects you against any manufacturing/production faults - the hinge breaking could either be this or more likely from user wear-and-tear. If you didn't buy the 3DS that long ago, and it's still within its warranty period, definitely highlight this though - as the quicker it's happened, the more likely it is to be a weak product, that could then be argued to have to be covered by warranty.

If the game was preloaded, it may be worth seeing if it was associated with your account upon signing in. Can't save data be loaded onto your SD card as well? I haven't used my 3DS in a long while...