Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I buy physical retail games and I buy digital eshop or indie games.

I play what I like
I buy what I like
Be it physical or digital or
Phigital

@subpopz makes yoy wonder if sone of these people ever wonder if they just might take their hobby a bit too seriously.

@1UP_MARIO @subpopz @WebHead
I second all that. Like someone says to a sore loser; “It’s just a game, calm down” 😂

@OorWullie
That could work. I just wonder what the consequences would be when someone undocks their switch and forgets the game they’re playing isn’t actually on the SD card. You know that would happen all the time

@Tsurii It could be that third party publishers need to pay a fee to have their games up on the eShop. That's not too uncommon. And if nobody is buying Ubisoft games on Wii U in Japan, it's a just a money drain. I don't think it's a lot if that's the case, but you know how these companies are. Every penny counts.

Digital download games = Convenient BUT Very High Risk to be lost forever once the service has been shutted down.
Here my thought, Convenience = Disaster.
Old school ways are still better than Convenience.

I think the fact Wii U was such a failure, and yet only one company is pulling games in one country, is a sign that digital isn’t the risk some make it out to be.

The Wii shop lasted 15 years and it was a rental. I’m pretty sure now that home console and handheld have been consolidated, and future systems will be BC compatible (they just had to move away from the dated PowerPC of previous gens), and a permanent eShop, it could last 25+ years (which is like, a third of a lifetime). And even then, you can back up your games on as many devices and SD as you want. And if 10-15 years passes and you start getting nervous that your system is just going to magically stop working without the chance to transfer, you can buy a spare Switch for $100 (just like GC was $100 late in its life) and do a transfer. The fact you won’t be playing your system very much at that point means that second one will last you the rest of your natural life.

It’s all just a bunch of theory, “in theory this could happen”. In practice though I just don’t see any issues

Nothing lasts forever. Personally, I view this hobby as a disposable luxury. No different than spending several hundred dollars on fine dining or a sporting event. Physical collecting is great, you have a tactile representation of your favorite passtime. But physical media can be easily stolen or damaged beyond being usable.

Digital collecting is also great. The convenience far outweighs the negative consequence of losing access to your digital purchases a decade or so down the road. Unfortunately, game preservation is an afterthought in this industry. How many people are going to be worried about the inability to play Starlink once the servers go offline? Not many.

@subpopz I think which one lasts longer depends on the console. Digital games have the shortest lifespan on Nintendo consoles and that's because of how Nintendo sets up their account system. Don't get me wrong, the digital setup on non-Nintendo systems isn't perfect (see PT demo on PS4) but for the most part you're a lot more likely to keep your digital stuff on a non-Nintendo system.

On Xbox and Playstation, the main advantage of physical is to do with the installation process whether you have data caps present, download speeds, just want faster install time, etc. though some of these are being increasingly reduced due to massive updates. Meanwhile there's plenty of other concerns when it comes to Nintendo systems because of things like losing the ability to redownload stuff if they're delisted (see Brain Training Wii U), microSD cards being a lot more expensive than external hard drives and how Nintendo handles ports (see Tropical Freeze Wii U when Switch version happened).

You know what I might do?

Just buy the cover art for Switch 2 games, slide it in an empty case (like the ones I posted here for Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX) and buy digital. For $6 (plus cost of cases) it seems a much cheaper option than buying both physical and digital. On 3DS I simply hacked my system and dumped my physical collection to SD card so as to avoid having to purchase games twice (which admittedly can be abused but I use that power responsibly). I just don’t want to hack my Switch. The days of hacking consoles for me is pretty much over due to the necessary online aspect. It’s fine and dandy at the end of the generation when no more games are coming out and nobody’s playing online, but during the generation it’s just not something I’m willing to give up. And while I could always do it to a separate Switch, having games split between two systems (purchases on one, virtual console on the other) seems to defeat the purpose. The only truly viable option is to wait until the generation ends, but even then I’m not sure if I want to because my account is associated with all my purchases, and that Nintendo Account Will carry forward to future systems. I don’t want to put that account in jeopardy.

I suppose at the end of the generation it’s possible to mod a separate system, then transfer all purchased games over to the separate system and just use that, but... that’s a truckload of work and, at that point we’ll probably be using Switch 2 anyways, so why bother. Like, I can finally mod my Vita now. I have the latest FW that’s still vulnerable so I could easily take 30 min and be able to FINALLY use microSD on Vita via one of those adapters on eBay, but at this point I just don’t play Vita anymore, and have no motivation to even bother.

Maybe it’s me getting older, but I’ve just lost the desire to do any of that stuff anymore. As much as I would love to have SNES and GBA and GC on Switch... eh. I’ll just use the GPD Win 2 and call it a day.

I get Switch and xbox one games physical when I can now. Switch because I try to save on hard drive space and Xbox One because the disc normally go on sale more than digital. It doesn't bother me to purchase something digitally if that's the only way it's distributed. Next gen I'm going all digital, just for convenience sake.

Plus Nintendo has a pretty decent 5% back program now, on top of actual half-decent regular sales (such as the one going on right now). Not that I wait for sales anyways, but I know a lot of people do.

@ReaderRagfish
Yea, that's true and all, but the majority of people aren't going to bother to research to find cloud drives and stuff like that. Goes back to the old internet forum rule: We tend to be the "best and brightest," lol - the people who are really into the hobby and go beyond just powering on the console and playing the games. We may know about stuff like that and consider them easy to find/use/whatever, but most people by far would be totally in the dark.

I'm not a digital end-of-the-world person, though. Digital is fine. I'll stay physical as long as I can for as much as I can, but I'm not kicking and screaming like some people. Digital is not going away from the looks of it at the moment.

That’s about as reasonable a response one could hope for.

Not everyone is going to prefer digital, and that’s totally fine. But there’s a difference between preferring physical and going out of your way to obtain it whenever possible, even importing from other regions when necessary as I have done many times (and have nearly 2 dozen physical titles from Europe, Japan and Asia I would have otherwise not had), there’s a difference between that and dying on a hill of plastic cartridges, swearing off any game with an eShop only release, or even physical release with a download. Like... I get it. I totally get wanting a cartridge with a full game. But when that becomes more important then actually playing the games, I think such a person has is in need of adjusting their priorities. Maybe take a step back and challenge some of those long held beliefs and ask, does there really need to be such a stark line drawn in the sand over this?

As for games being played

30 hours in, and it only cements my belief that Final Fantasy X is the greatest video game of all time. I’ve always loved this game and have always held it in high regard as one of the best games of all time, but tonight I think I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ve never enjoyed another video game more.

I implore anyone who has not played this video game yet, to go play it. If you have a Nintendo Switch, and have never played Final Fantasy X... let’s put it this way. Forget Xenoblade 2. Forget Octopath. Forget Persona 4/5, forget YS VIII, and definitely forget Final Fantasy VII and IX (they were good for their time, this one is good now, even compared with modern releases), and forget Final Fantasy XV (it was a decent modern game, but doesn’t come close to X)... this is the one you’ve been looking for. The Final Fantasy you’ve been looking for. The JRPG you’ve been looking for. The timeless classic video game you’ve been looking for.

I saw FF X-X2 at a Best Buy and it did not have any download warning (on either side). Is this a printing error or is FF X-X2 the first game to be released on a 32 GB cart. in NA?

On the Digital vs Physical front, I’m in the physical camp but acknowledge that each format offers its own advantages. If a physical option exists and it is a game I believe I will hold affinity towards it, I will buy it, even if it’s a foreign import (in English unless a shm’up) as I enjoy owning a physical copy and I find it an easier method than a digital backup. I will also buy physical copies of games I may already own digitally as I enjoy owning them. However, there are games I want to play but just for the single experience and whilst fun, I don’t feel an affinity to own a physical copy (happens with all AAA 3rd party releases and several indie titles).

@Galarian_Lassie The text is in small print on the back.

I usually just buy whichever version of a game is cheaper. Usually that's the physical version, and even when digital games go on sale it's usually not much cheaper than buying a physical copy. So I usually buy physical when it's an option but digital is fine for download-only games and/or inexpensive ones. However I do think games with very large file sizes, such as Hellblade, should have a physical release.

@Dogorilla I pretty much have the same mind set. Unless the price is much cheaper, ill go physical to save space on my sd card. But if there's a very large game size, I'll hold off on buying It to see if it comes physical. There are exceptions, I bought cuphead digitally even though it'll be coming out physically, that was due to the hype tho Lol. The file size wasn't that great that I needed to be concerned about space

@Galarian_Lassie
Buy FF X/X-2 HD Asia version.
It has BOTH of them.
It will look like this.