Topic: Hogwarts Legacy Download Required Question

I am new and struggle with buying Switch games. My standards are physical game only but many of the games are very confusing when looking them up and deciding what to buy.
I want games that 20 years from now I will be able to play without needing any internet access or some kind of download to make it work.
So my question on this game is. Since it requires a first day patch to play. What happens when this download is no longer available in the future. Is the game no longer playable?
If this is the case then this would not be a game I would want to add to my collection.

Then stick to an older retro console and avoid modern gaming cause that's every game now pretty much.

@GamingVeteran55 I think the game is decent on the switch in it's current state with the download & patches.

But onto your question, if it's worth it to buy physical, and will it be playable without the patches? It appears the answer is "no" in that context.

The physical switch cartridge only had space for like half or less of the game, required an 8GB day one patch. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/10/hogwarts-legacy-phy...

I'm struggling to find any info for it is playable without a patch. I think the lack of info points toward the game not-being-playable without the download/patch.

The switch cartridges have a higher production cost compared to cheap disks on PS and Xbox, and it scares off publishers - and it's the reason publishers pull this baloney of only putting half the game on a cart that didnt' have the capacity for the full game. They didn't want to saddle the cost of a 16Gb or32 GB cart.

The game is dirt cheap on the eShop most of the time thanks to the recurring discounts… Since the game will be “half digital” either way, I’d say if you are interested in it, just save some money and get it “full digital”.

Honestly if preservation is your concern then get a digital version of it on PC. Get all the updates for it and maintain a backup of your game folder. Because PC is the ultimate platform for preservation. I mean you can argue the merits of physical vs digital all you want but at the end of the day a Switch cartridge is a single copy proprietary media. What happens if the cartridge itself gets damaged? What happens if in 20 years your Switch itself fails? Physical media is not the saviour of game preservation that people think it is

I'll put it another way. I purchased Portal on Steam during the Wii era around the same time I was buying games for the Wii. The PC I played that on is at this point spare parts in a box, but that doesn't matter because I can still download Portal and play it. And if they pull the plug on on Steam I have it installed across multiple devices anyways. So I'm good. Something like Super Mario Galaxy on the other hand I have the Wii disc. I require a working Wii to play it, which I have, but Wii optical drives do eventually die. And in any case optical media doesn't live forever. So if I want to preserve Super Mario Galaxy the best way to do it is to make a backup, which I have done

And in any case..... you're talking 20 years from now. Thinking about what games I was playing around 20 years ago. Lego Star Wars I had a copy on PC and it's currently free on Epic Games. C&C Generals I played a lot around then, that was a couple of bucks on Steam a few days back. GTA Vice City was another and is admittedly in a rough state but my best way to play it is the (since delisted) pre-remaster version I got on Steam several years back. I have no idea where the original discs for these games are but that really doesn't matter because none of these games are hard to access

And early DS which is also about 20 years back now. My DS Lite top screen is dead, I could and probably should repair it. I have a couple of 3DS but those aren't quite as good for playing DS games. Honestly the best platform I have ATM for playing DS right now is the Steam Deck via, obviously, not my original cartridges I still have. Hopefully Nintendo expands NSO but again, even if they do that wouldn't be via the original media either

None of these games I was playing 20 years ago are gone but also the reason why they're all still there has nothing to do with me having a physical copy of them. Digital preservation is king

@GamingVeteran55
Oh boy. You opened a can of worms around these parts lol.

Ignore the walls of text from these people. There are actually tons of games on the Switch that can be played entirely from their carts without the patches that are offered.

Hogwarts Legacy, unfortunately, is not one of them. I own the game and can confirm that you must download the patch to play.

@Tasuki I know were are heading in the digital direction but for now I am going to keep collecting what I can on Physical Cartridge. I think it's going to be awhile before everything goes digital. When PS5 came out that said the digital one would out sell the disk version. That did not happen and now the disk version sells for more than the digital.

@WoomyNNYes Thank you for the information. Thats crazy the way they did that. Who puts half a game on and half to be downloaded. This is why I ask these questions before I buy. Just like assassin's creed putting one game on the cartridge and the other 2 have to be downloaded. Or the game Perky things where it can only be played on Hand Held and not the TV. The problem is that they don't tell you these things or they put it such a way you can't understand it. So I am hoping this site can help me sort all this out.

@Eel I agree with you 100 percent

@skywake I may one day work my way towards PC. I am old school so habits are hard to break. As for backups. I am pretty dedicated. I have 5 Nintendo Switches. 2 we use and 3 brand new ones put away for the future.

@rallydefault HA! Its ok I can handle it. It won't be my last post. I'm trying to figure out a good way to determine before i buy a game if it's what I am looking for. I know a lot of people are into the digital thing and that's fine. For me it makes sense to buy a game at 50.00 on physical cartridge. Play it and if I decide to get rid off. I can just sell for 30.00 and the game only cost me 20.00. As for if I had downloaded it cost me the full 50.00.

@GamingVeteran55 It because they can't fit the entire game on a cartridge for various reasons, price, time etc. So they put what they can on a cartridge and the rest you download.

Great there goes sd space.... lmao

@SwitchForce
Yea it's disappointing.

I mean, it's amazing they got the game on the Switch at all. It's really fun to be able to play games like these on the go, and it has a respectable framerate, but they quite obviously had to muddy down the graphics to achieve it.

@rallydefault I bought it for the DLC and hope to replay on Switch 2 with more GPU to go.

@GamingVeteran55
To be clear I'm not saying that you should get a PC. What I'm saying is that chasing preservation for a multi-platform game by getting a physical copy on console is a fools errand. Both because physical isn't any more secure than the digital copy and also because consoles have DRM and proprietary media which is specifically engineered to make backups difficult

If you want to play the game? Just get it wherever. But if your goal is preservation you're on the wrong platform for it and the physical copy will not save you. And in any case, in 20 years time if you want to play it there will be opportunities, especially given this is a fairly popular game