Topic: Is the Nintendo Switch physical boutique gold rush over and done?

I look online and it appears to me that all the publishers in the boutique physical sector of the industry are taking hits for their poor customer service, shipping games not complete on cartridge, and/or long production times seemingly getting longer. No company has been immune to those criticisms. Limited Run, Super Rare, Special Reserve, Strictly Limited, etc. They've all been getting substantial heat on social media recently.

More gamers are going all-digital every day. Where do we think these companies will be in a few years?

The fact is that there is still a market for people that want physical games. And it would be there for a time unless videogame companies force it's dissapearance. I mean, there are still people out there buying movies in DVD.
But man... There has been more than one occasion where I wanted to buy an indie physical but the prices would be 3 times the price as digital or you had to preorder it months before it launched with limited numbers (aka Limited Run).
The existence an success of those companies early on shows that some people really wanted physical versions of indies but they really just burned a lot of bridges after a while. Specially because a lot of those behaviours were excused by being new and small company selling indie games but that can only get you so far and it gets worse over time.

Now I just search in normal retailers and if the indie game is not in a similar price of the digital version some months after then I just buy it digital.

I know Nintendo will continue selling physical releases as long as they possibly can. They know their market, and it lies a lot in physical and digital. Nintendo won’t pump out a console anytime soon that has enough power for all digital. As for Sony and Microsoft, they’ve been pushing for all digital as soon as they can, so that market is uncertain.

@TheBigBlue

MS have been pushing for all-digital since 2013.

I can only really speak for Limited Run games, but I don't see them going away. Didn't a big conglomerate buy them recently? However, I could see them getting completely revamped, which they absolutely need.

I also feel like the issue at the moment is all based on delays. That's killing the experience of buying physical over digital. Generally, they come out too late, especially with Limited Run. The only ones that really come out at a relevant time are super-hyped remakes.

The only companies that I generally have positive experiences with are ones that have general releases for indie games. I love both FanGamer and iam8bit because there's so much care put into them with the goodies that come with them. And they aren't a limited-time thing. I can still buy a new copy of Undertale or Hollow Knight. Plus there's all the other stuff that comes with those sites. I love by Banjo and Kazooie plushies.

I don;'t think boutiques are to blame so much as the changing nature of a modern game's lifecycle. Much of the time, LRG will release a game after the final dlc so that the game is indeed complete on cart. However, games are getting more and more dlc and tweaks in order to prolong the lifecycle. Imagine ordering Dead Cells day one, and having to wait for the final dlc! You still wouldn't have gotten it yet. But I prefer having patience instead of being asked to repeatedly keep buying the same game.

I don't think the gold rush has ended as such. I just think more patience is required when purchasing. Still...when did gamers ever have any patience? lol.

@GrailUK I've never considered that was becuase of them waiting for DLC. Like... Maybe it's not worth it to wait at this point and just do it earlier? Like, games like Terraria got plenty of updates and it did have a physical edition (on Switch at least).

I wouldn't be surprised if the complaints and production struggles are in part due to high demand, so no, I don't see them going out of business any time soon.

We can see the same demand in music too. Seems like every new album is released in at least 2 different colours of vinyl and even a cassette version (even though I bet most people buying these can just listen to it on their Spotify (et al) subscription for no extra cost.)

@jowe_gv If the developer has a clear road,ap for dlc, I'm happy to wait till the end. It might be better to wait a little longer before offering the game up for sale maybe? But if it's possible, I would rather have all the dlc and updates on the cart.

If the boutiques aren't going to do it, then who? I don't think they are going anywhere. Physical has too much of a market. The bigger companies will obvs want to push digital as it lowers costs.

@GrailUK The boutiques aren't going anywhere for a while but it would be nice if they stopped a bit with the REALLY limited releases. At first they seemed like they were done because they were small companies selling indies but now it just seems like artificially increasing the price. Specially when AA publishers also publish indies from time to time and those get to retailers just fine and the boutique companies aren't that small right now.

I already addressed this in a thread about a digital-only Switch 2, but Nintendo would be nuts to go all-digital when Japan is a cash-heavy nation. Japanese consumers seem to be fine with getting a lot of Switch games physically, and I don't think they would like being restricted to mostly eShop cards bought with cash or using credit cards.

@LuigiTheGreenFire

Please keep in mind that this is a discussion about boutique physical companies, of which there are about twenty companies in that sector. Their shtick is to provide physical copies of games which are usually digital-only.

This is not a discussion regarding the future of physical media on Nintendo platforms.

@jowe_gv I agree with this. I think I'm pretty much over the entire notion of them being super limited collector's items. If the entire point of these is to preserve physical media, why are you limiting a print run so that it's impossible to get a future copy? I get that some games are super tiny, and it's a minor miracle that they get a physical release, but if it's a big game, like the Castlevania and Contra Collections, why is it so hard for someone to get a copy?

@ElRoberico Like I said, I think at first it was neat because the companies selling were small and selling indie games that wouldn't have physical versions otherwise back then but now? It just seem like pure greed. Those same companies can allow a normal physical release but they choose not to.

Personally, I bought Stardew Valley physical double dipping when I saw it in Amazon for 20-25 euro. But if you tell me that I have to preorder that and also pay even more then you just lost me. Specially when those physical versions can launch years after the game being avaliable on digital meaning that, unless you are willing to wait years for a game that you plan of preordering a physical edition, you'll probably double dip for the digital version to play it before.

Physical will always be in want. Those just stating Digital don't understand you can't sell or trade or recoupe your investments. Digital games don't transfer. And it takes up valuable sd card space over time that eat valuable sd space.

More about this in a old YouTube story again: Still True today.....
Digital Distribution Vs Physical Media and True Ownership

I've gone pretty Much digital only on all 3 systems now.
It is so much more convenient not having to swap games, especially given I can multiple games on the go with quick resume on current gen systems.

I will pick up a physical copy if I see it cheap but I don't prioritise it. I'm also lucky as I have plenty of storage and don't mind deleting and redownloading games as I want to play them.
I just wish Nintendo allowed External hard drives as well as Micro SD cards (1tb cards are crazily overpriced compared to the harddrives) as its the only console I struggle for storage with.

I much prefer physical over digital, but I don't think I've ever gotten a game from one of these companies (except I've gotten one or two from whichever one has games at Best Buy, LRG I think, but not directly from them). I don't understand the point. The reason I prefer physical is so when I'm done with the game, I can resell it or trade it and get money back to buy more games. But the savings goes entirely out the window when you pay $40 for a game that you can get for $5 digitally. The cost is just way too much from these companies, so I guess I won't see it as a big loss if they start going away.