In 2012 the Louvre rolled out a partnership with Nintendo to use 3DS consoles—released in 2011—as guides for the Paris museum. On Monday, after more than 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 700+ works, with images, videos, and 3D models. Users could use geolocation to create a personalized tour based on where they were in the museum. The units also carried more than 30 hours of audio commentary.
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 stand-alone game cartridge available for anyone to purchase.
However, the Nintendo Switch superseded the 3DS in 2017, and Nintendo stopped producing the portable console entirely in 2020. In the interim, smartphones of course became 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.