But if "Key-Card" becomes a norm, which I abhor because they should put on full card and charge accordingly-I will have to plan to buy it. But don't give us 16g card and say oh there is 30g more to download? They have 64gb card use that you Devs - geeze laweez we know people will buy it. And one's location can can price one from buying or importing the games as well. So buyers get sticker shocker that way as well.
It's interesting how people have different pros and cons. Personally I don't want to sell my games so I consider being tied to my Nintendo account a massive pro. Physical cartridges can be lost, damaged or just naturally fail over time from use and environmental factors (we don't actually know how long Switch cartridges will last) but a game tied to my account has the possibility of lasting forever.
@FishyS Did one consider Nintendo could just wipe your account clean and where is your eShop games now? Or get Banned from their server? And anything electronics over time wears out and will fail eventually from usage. Nintendo Server going permanently dark-where are eShop games now? All they have to say is you violated their EULA/TOS and just straight out Bann and you have no recourse.
@FishyS Did one consider Nintendo could just wipe your account clean and where is your eShop games now? Or get Banned from their server? And anything electronics over time wears out and will fail eventually from usage. Nintendo Server going permanently dark-where are eShop games now? All they have to say is you violated their EULA/TOS and just straight out Bann and you have no recourse.
And has Nintendo ever randomly done any of that? no. But has anyone ever lost all their games from theft or fire or flood? yes. Have physical media ever stopped working because of time and climate? yes. It's a known risk versus a theoretical risk — choose your own poison I guess. I chose the one which has been more reliable in my own life because I've lost too many physical games and digital feels much more safe to me. You can make a different decision, that's fine.
As for servers 'going dark' — You can still redownload Wii games 19 years later and the Switch-era account system should make that even better for modern games. Nintendo seems to now be keeping the same account system from generation to generation so they can update their servers and keep all the games available just like Steam has been doing for 22 years with no end in sight.
@FishyS So you work for Nintendo and know this if they Bann or Remove accounts? Reliable is in the eye of the beholder. You could die the next day as well so what and whom do you complain that too then. They can re-issue games again on new carts or double pack. So to say Physical has limits is disingenuous comparisons. They own the IP and can release that games again.
Yep, that was pretty much my original point of different people having opposite pros and cons. It just depends on what type of things you want and what type of risks you are worried about. Nothing is totally reliable and we don't know what the future will bring so it's all a bit of guesswork.
@FishyS Well never know the minds behind Nintendo besides Reggie....They seem to keep those lock too well to leak out for the rest of us to pick their brains on.
@Uncle_Franklin According to Nintendo, with virtual game cards you can only lend digital games if you are part of of the same NSO family group, and the maximum lending time is 14 days, which feels a bit ridiculous given how long a lot of games are nowadays. And obviously you still can't resell digital games. So yeah, key-card games will still have some obvious pros when compared to fully digital ones.
It's not something I would personally do but surely the advantage is that you can (very) easily sell the things. Since Switch 2 games should hold their value quite well you could buy a "Game Key Card" version of a game at full price on launch day, play it for a couple of weeks, finish it and then eBay it.
In theory you can play big AAA premium games for very little (potentially even nothing) in this way if you're not bothered about "owning" or hoarding games. I've done this in the past with BluRay's. You just have to be disciplined with playing and then selling.
Of course the same is possible with traditional carts but it isn't possible at all with "code in a box" games.
I can see that the enthusiasts online are mostly in either "physical only" or "digital only" camps and this satisfies neither of them but for the mass market I think it's a much better compromise than "code in a box".
I can see that the enthusiasts online are mostly in either "physical only" or "digital only" camps and this satisfies neither of them but for the mass market I think it's a much better compromise than "code in a box".
I do not see ANYTHING that could dissatisfy the "digital only" users. They literally never have anything taken away from them.
The physical releases do not hurt them in the slightest. Code-in-box is not going anywhere. eShop is not going anywhere.
The only thing that is taking a hit is the proper physical releases and that affects ONLY the "physical only" crowd. And for the future it is going to get even worse for "us".
The last bastion of hope is to get deep in our pockets and throw large amount of money to LRG and SRG because the publishers will prefer the "superior" method of releasing key-carts
I think this is Nintendo trying to appear to help the physical media crowd whilst also pushing for an all digital future. I can understand that most huge games now won't fit on a cart but they could have made a new physical standard. I think they don't want the headache / outlay.
@Anti-Matter Word up! it's a serious concern for the customers. Because who will benefit from such underhanded tactics? Only the producers, who will be able to shove "just whatever" into the cartridge (much cheaper in production but I doubt there will be a real price change for the end users), and all preservation value is lost.
And who will be able to afford them? Certainly not the indie developers, as their products are already priced pretty low. And I heavily doubt shipping physical boxes with keycards is gonna be so much cheaper that smaller, digital games will get an uprgrade.
The best way we can tackle it is by not buying the product, it sometimes work.
Bring me the sesame, miso, citrus and pepper flavored fish cakes
@Uncle_Franklin According to Nintendo, with virtual game cards you can only lend digital games if you are part of of the same NSO family group, and the maximum lending time is 14 days, which feels a bit ridiculous given how long a lot of games are nowadays. And obviously you still can't resell digital games. So yeah, key-card games will still have some obvious pros when compared to fully digital ones.
The 14 day thing is silly but you can presumably just re-press the button every 14 days. However, it's worse then being in the same family group because it specifies local wireless while lending. So if you have an extended family NSO group spread all over the country, you effectively can't lend them games. If it weren't for that restriction, virtual game cards could do something game key cards can't, but Nintendo blocked it so game key cards are still strictly superior for lending.
@Anti-Matter Word up! it's a serious concern for the customers. Because who will benefit from such underhanded tactics? Only the producers, who will be able to shove "just whatever" into the cartridge (much cheaper in production but I doubt there will be a real price change for the end users), and all preservation value is lost.
And who will be able to afford them? Certainly not the indie developers, as their products are already priced pretty low. And I heavily doubt shipping physical boxes with keycards is gonna be so much cheaper that smaller, digital games will get an uprgrade.
Shovelware do come in eShop as well. So not sure why you would leave this out. "Preservation" is in the eye of the beholder here. Indie Devs will go "Key-Card" so then you won't support them? Everyone talks about going Nintendo Cart but no-one has so far told the rest of us what they really cost? Will someone here do that for us since seems like Nintendo keeps that a closely held secret.
@Uncle_Franklin According to Nintendo, with virtual game cards you can only lend digital games if you are part of of the same NSO family group, and the maximum lending time is 14 days, which feels a bit ridiculous given how long a lot of games are nowadays. And obviously you still can't resell digital games. So yeah, key-card games will still have some obvious pros when compared to fully digital ones.
The 14 day thing is silly but you can presumably just re-press the button every 14 days. However, it's worse then being in the same family group because it specifies local wireless while lending. So if you have an extended family NSO group spread all over the country, you effectively can't lend them games. If it weren't for that restriction, virtual game cards could do something game key cards can't, but Nintendo blocked it so game key cards are still strictly superior for lending.
"Game Sharing" just got started and no one outside of Nintendo what that does or doesn't do. And yeah they would make it limited to the NSO Family group for good reasons. They want more NSO subscriptions did that not ring a bell for anyone cause I got that message loud and clear from Nintendo about "Game Sharing".
@Jester676 buying or not doesn't change the fact that its purpose is to give gamers a sense of ownership of a piece of plastic that will be useless after, say, 7 years. Physical games on cartridge can last much longer.
I am not certain what you mean by "shovel" and what I have left out in this. As for preservation, I mean the way the games can be safely stored and backed up when necessary. It is a very intriguing matter, actually. There are loads of games that are forever lost in the sands of time because they were either not backed up, or online only. Like Revived Witch, for instance. Players had to dig up tons of data, like sprites and voiceovers to preserve them. The soundtrack itself (which is absolutely stellar, btw) was the easiest part because Youtube exists.
As I said, indie devs will probably not go keycard because the distribution of physical "token" still exists, and this is the biggest cost for such devs. Placing order in a physical distribution factories (which are pretty scarce, by the way) is really not an option for developers, especially when it comes to cheaper games, such as Lunistice, or Blanc. And what about more niche games?
And as for being easier said than done when the only option is Keycard - digital copies will still be sold on the eShop as they are a cheaper way of distribution. Additionally, it's not like games are a first need product, not buying it is always an option, it's not like you need to buy a game in order to survive. And if you do, there is an option, you can buy a used copy. That way you don't have to fuel a toxic anti consumer practice.
@Jester676 buying or not doesn't change the fact that its purpose is to give gamers a sense of ownership of a piece of plastic that will be useless after, say, 7 years. Physical games on cartridge can last much longer.
I am not certain what you mean by "shovel" and what I have left out in this. As for preservation, I mean the way the games can be safely stored and backed up when necessary. It is a very intriguing matter, actually. There are loads of games that are forever lost in the sands of time because they were either not backed up, or online only. Like Revived Witch, for instance. Players had to dig up tons of data, like sprites and voiceovers to preserve them. The soundtrack itself (which is absolutely stellar, btw) was the easiest part because Youtube exists.
"ShovelWare" You read faster then the corrections were updated. Digital games can't be stored as Memory deterioates over time. So unless burn to physical optical media they will wear out. eShop is online only so that can be lost over time again the Digital save games analogy has big holes in it. Youtube isn't a game preseravation database for that is to burn to physcial "Optical Media" that will long term storage for the data. Nothing else can do that right now.
As I said, indie devs will probably not go keycard because the distribution of physical "token" still exists, and this is the biggest cost for such devs. Placing order in a physical distribution factories (which are pretty scarce, by the way) is really not an option for developers, especially when it comes to cheaper games, such as Lunistice, or Blanc. And what about more niche games?
So now your indie game develoeper? That's pretty outrageous here and your not even a developer who makes the choice for them. The biggest cost is putting full game onto Nintendo cart. Like I said everyone talks about putting onto cart but noone has told the rest of the what's the real cost of those Nintendo cart to buy and for Nintendo to put their games onto the cart-this has a cost for the Developers it's not free.
And as for being easier said than done when the only option is Keycard - digital copies will still be sold on the eShop as they are a cheaper way of distribution. Additionally, it's not like games are a first need product, not buying it is always an option, it's not like you need to buy a game in order to survive. And if you do, there is an option, you can buy a used copy. That way you don't have to fuel a toxic anti consumer practice.
"Key-Card" can be sold online or retailers and will drop in price as well so not sure why someone would just dismiss "Key-Card" can't come down in prices. Digital prices only go down when the publisher want's it to go down not the buying market consumer whom determines it's value.
@Princess_Lilly I would like to chime in with the case of Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth as it was a Wii Only Digital title.
It was released in December 28, 2009 (I am using the NA release date) and as of January 30, 2019 it is no longer available for purchase. The only way to get this game is to pirate it.
And it is a damn good game.
So only 9 years after it release the game is NOT available because Nintendo shut down the servers.
That is why I stay away from anything that is on Nintendo's servers.
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Topic: Game Key Cards... What is the point?
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