In 2012, the Louvre rolled out a partnership with Nintendo to use 3DS consoles—released in 2011—as guides for the Parisian museum. On Monday, after over a decade, the Louvre ended the service.
For the partnership, Nintendo loaned the museum 5,000 of the devices, which visitors could then rent for a few euros. The units were loaded with a multimedia library of over 700 works, with images, videos, and 3D models. Users could also use geolocation to create a personalized tour based on where they were in the museum. Over 30 hours of audio commentary were also loaded in.
At the time of the launch, smartphones were not yet ubiquitous, and the rental service, which supplanted traditional audio guides, was incredibly popular. Nintendo even released the Louvre guide as a standalone game cartridge availlable for anyone to purchase.
However, the 3DS was superceded by the Nintendo Switch in 2017, and Nintendo stopped producting the portable console entirely in 2020. In the interim, smartphones have of course become the object of choice for most users looking for information about artworks or exhibitions.
The Louvre has yet to announce a replacement for the 3DS guide system.
