If you’re thinking about picking up a Wii U, you may want to consider grabbed a used version. Why? It may come with free games. NeoGAF has reported several Wii U’s are granting access to any of the games their previous users have purchased before unloading the system. This is despite a full hard drive wipe with all old accounts removed from the console.
Licenses for downloadable content seem to be tied to a specific console identity, not a user account. It has previously been shown that the only way to recover your downloadable content if you switch consoles is to contact Nintendo customer support. This has been known for a while. However, it has only been recently revealed that access to downloaded content remains after a console wipe.
So if you are in the market for a Wii U, you might want to look for a good used or refurbished console and open up the grab bag of content within. At worst, you’ll get a working Wii U console like you wanted anyway. At best, you’ll get a whole bunch of free games for no extra charge!
Source: Eurogamer