Topic: Should Retail games come with a Digital Download Code?

Should Retail games come with a Digital Download Code?
I say yes.
Other mediums do it!
Blu-Ray, DVD, CD, Comic Books.
So why shouldn't Games as well?

Because saves are kept on the game card for one, and because there's no foolproof guarantee that someone won't buy the game at retail and give the download code to someone else. You'd have to make sure the right game card was in the system when you downloaded it, and prevent that card from being used on any other system. Just doesn't work in practice.

Why not?
The Club Nintendo Codes are only good once.
With the Club Nintendo and System Accounts changing, this can easily be done.

I totally agree with ya, they should do it just like they did with giving us a exclusive download code with Kid Icarus Uprising.

They could make it so that on the card it says "Do you wish to connect to the e-Shop and Download the game?"
That way it's can be used only once. And you NEED the cart to download it as well as the code.

Well if that happened you could:
Buy the boxed game
Download it with the code
Return the boxed game later on and get your money back
Free game

Definitely yes. When you buy a game, you've bought it. When you buy a hard copy, you probably aren't going to buy a digital copy. For this reason, giving the player the digital copy with the retail version probably wouldn't cost the distributor many digital sales. It would just make the customers particularly happy. Come to think of it, including the code with all new retail copies would be a huge incentive to buy games new, making it a decent business strategy.

@MrArcade
In my experience, few stores will accept returns of opened games in the first place, so I don't think it would be too big a problem. For those that do, they could just stop taking returns on opened games that came with any online code (probably a good policy even now, what with the online passes and DLC codes that are out there).

But if stores stopped accepting used games, there would be no used game market, which would be bad for many reasons.

I only buy my games new nowadays, but as a kid, there were many series I only got into, because of used purchases. For example, I got FFX & KH used, but because I liked them, I got FFI&II: Dawn of Souls, FFIV Advance, FFXII, KH:CoM, KHII, KH:365/2 Days, and KH: Re:Coded all new. In essence, my used purchases ended up allowing me to be profitable for Square Enix in the end.

Ok so EB games, GameStop, Games and all other use game store won't sell use game because of that... No more "old" market and probably the end of them (since new game are most of the time at an higher price than other place).

If a physical copy of a game came with a download code for the digital version, nobody would buy the digital version, making them obsolete.

@Swiket But why would you buy a digital version when you could get the digital and physical versions for the same price?
At least with Nintendo, I don't know about other platforms.

PC games do this all the time, with Steamworks being the norm for game DRM, so everyone should just follow suit.

Some PSN games have started doing something similar, buy it for one system and be able to access it on both Vita and PS3.

That's not the same thing. If you by a Steamworks game, you HAVE to register it on Steam to play. The DVD in the box is useless without the code.

In this case, the cartridge and download code (once redeemed) would give two separate copies of the game. If you give your Steamworks CD to a friend, they can't install and use it. If you gave a 3DS code to them, they'd have their own copy.

As to whether the games SHOULD come with one - I think no. From a consumer's point of view it would be great, but it would likely lead to significant decreases in game sales (i.e. I buy a game and give the download to a friend) and lead to reduced revenue unless the game prices are increased. I think it'd be very unlikely that any publishers would go for this idea.

1) Person buys game
2) Person redeems download code. Because shop doesn't allow returns, person instead used retail game for trade-in credit. Person still has the game, though, thanks to the download.
3) ????
4) Profit... well, except for the folks who made the game, but no one cares about them, right?

I could see DL a game and the returning the game, but you wouldn't get full refund

Or they could simply sell you the download code in the box. No game card.
Or "instalation cards" that become useless after you install the game on the system. Or something.

I really don't like where some companies are going with online pass or key authentication, but I'd say, if a game requires you to input a key in order to play it, it should come with the ability to digital download as a backup. The disc itself would be useless except for being just a more convenient method than having to download a whole game. Since keys would be required, people wouldn't be able to resell their discs and those who purchased the games will have access to their games even if their disc gets lost or damaged. At least, that way there's a bit of an advantage for both ends, consumer and publisher... instead of being just a one sided advantage for software publishers.

It would take some fool-proofing. Such as, instead of getting a download code the first 3DS it's inserted into get's the option to be played. Then the game would become "locked" to that console and could only be played by that console.