Listening to a description of the Venus de Milo, examining the details of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa or following a tour of the ancient Egyptian collections – since 2012, visitors to the Louvre have been able, for a few euros, to stroll through the museum with a Nintendo 3DS as their guide. On Monday, September 1, the Louvre marks the end of this unique collaboration between cultural heritage and video games, as the handheld consoles are permanently withdrawn from public circulation.

Time has taken its toll. Released in 2011, the Nintendo 3DS was gradually replaced in households from 2017 onward by the Switch. Today, it can be found in the display cases of retro gaming shops, alongside the Game Boy and the Dreamcast. It is quite a twist, considering that in 2012, when the Louvre adopted the console, it was presented as "an innovative visitor guide," combining ergonomic controls with technological prowess.

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