Physical vs Digital my take 2 years later - Nintendo Switch Forum

RunGMhx · 2020-04-22T12:07:39+00:00

So I bought my switch back in 2018. I like it very much and lately my whole family like it very much, to the point where I barely ever see it anymore with the wife on animal crossing and my son chasing Pokémon’s just like on his favorite tv show. In fact the family love it so much that my wife now entertain the idea of buying a second one. My son has demonstrated some interest in animal crossing and my wife is pretty strict about not sharing her island. Now this idea of second switch shade light on a debate I’ve been having with myself for quite some time. When I bought my switch, I had one strict rule, I buy every first party game physically and every other game whichever way is the cheapest. The principle was that the Nintendo games, unlike most 3rd party, hold value pretty well if I ever want/need to sell them and they’re likely to be the only one I’m nostalgic of when the eShop go down in a few years (hopefully stil far away). But lately I’ve been cheating on this rule more and more with Mario Maker (sold the physical but the digital), animal crossing (bought digital, there’s no way I’m switching the cartridge every day in the next few months) and just last week sold Splatoon 2 with the intention of buying it digital if we buy a new switch. Basically, the switch and the whole state of games in 2020 is switching my take on the physical vs digital debate. Here’s my reasons : 1) Some games receive so many free updates that even if you own the physical media, you’ll still be unable to play the game you likely will remember when the eShop goes down. This is why I started this whole digitalization process of some first party title two months ago. Mario Maker was the culprit, what will that game be when there’s no more level to download? The game received some important update in the last year and received another major one today, to the point where the game on the cart is nowhere near what I’ll be playing in the next few months. Same logic went for animal crossing as I was expecting the game to receive a few updates that would change it trough time and the upcoming update prove me right. Also the same goes for smash but to a lesser extent but it still received sizeable update even without the paid DLC. 2) For the first time ever in my life I’ve bought DLC, did it for Breath of the Wild, Fire Emblem (To be fair I got the Walmart pricing error which was 30$ for the game and expansion, so this was pretty much a no brainer, would have never bought the game otherwise as I had no interest, but god am I happy I did now having played it) and recently did it for Pokemon and I’m entertaining it for Splatoon and potentially Smash. Once you bought DLC well you pretty much might as well go digital because a good portion of the game will never be on the physical media and you’ll therefore lose it anyway when the eShop goes down. 3) Its way more covinient, especially when playing in TV mode. You can switch games easily and I’ve found myself playing more Mario Maker because of it. I can just jump in and out for 15 minutes without having to change the cart ridge so it’s more of an impulse play. On the plus side, I don’t trust my 5 years old handeling the cart properly without damaging the switch or the media itself. 4) With more than one switch you can play the same game on more than one console at the same time without having to own two copies (wich is a big no for me). For most game this is simply a convenience factor but with other it’s simply a game changer. There’s no local multiplayer in Splatoon, but being able to play against my son on two console while owning only a copy is a huge plus. Same goes for animal crossing, being able to have two island on two console with one copy and being able to play at the same time if not together is a huge plus. Yes there’s some strict limitation in order to that as to how you set up primary account and where but it’s still possible which would not be the case with a physical media. So basically here are my reasons, I doesn’t go digital for every game, Mario Galaxy and Breath of the wild will remain physical for me as the vast majority of the game is on the cart and multiplayer is a non factor. But for a lot of other game digital advantage can easily outweight physical... What’s you take on it? Am I missing something?

Topic: Physical vs Digital my take 2 years later

Posts 121 to 122 of 122

121
Wallax1992
Sat 2nd Jan 2021

I know this this is a bit irrelevant, but I thought I’d share my experience anyway.

I recently won a PS5 on eBay by accident & it was the digital edition. With the price I ended up paying for it, I’ve started looking at selling my PS3 & PS2 stuff. I usually don’t like throwing stuff away, as I said previously on here, but if I don’t use the system then why bother keeping it? Eventually it won’t start up & most of the discs will stop working anyway. It’s nice I can get some of my money back by selling them though.

So far I’m not regretting having a digital only console, as I like the convenience of being able to go home & just select another game. We will see how things pan out in a few years time when a new console comes out. You can’t get your money back on the PlayStation store either, so I’m being more careful with what I pay for.

Wallax1992

122
SKTTR
Sun 10th Jan 2021

Digital on Wii was ok, there were no retail versions of Virtual Console or WiiWare games (except on extremely rare occasion) and vice versa, there were no retail games for download. It was a great balance.

Digital on Wii U was different. You were able to download most retail games, just like on Switch. I straight went digital only, with my fancy shiny new 500GB harddrive. I regret it. It was a mistake. I should have bought all the physical games on retail. Like the Wii, the Wii U has memory for only 300 game icons, and it doesn't matter how much space you've left on the console or harddrive, you have to delete games if you have more than 300 downloads. As long as the servers are up you can re-download most, but before the servers go down you have to carefully select the 300 you wanna keep. I even double-dipped and bought Xenoblade Chronicles X again, but this time as the beautiful physical limited edition.

On Switch I have a list of physical games I want, so digital is only for must haves that have no retail version in sight. I really wish I had the retail versions of Thimbleweed Park and Undertale instead of the downloads.

[Edited Sun 10th Jan 2021 by SKTTR]

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

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