My issue with Digital Distribution on Consoles is that it's a closed shop. It works on PC because theoretically anybody can set up competition to Steam, GOG and the like. I know in reality it's Steam and the others but another vendor with the right backing and business plan could set up shop. On Consoles it's not possible and without retail driving prices down, Nintendo (and Sony and MS) can charge what they want.
@electrolite77
Games drive prices down. Competition from new games. If they want to sell the older ones, they have to lower the price. That or watch the sales taper down to a whimper (disregarding evergreen titles which have indefinite sales curves- those will stay full price because of continued demand).
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
Zachariah 12:10 (500 yrs before Christ)
They will look on Me whom they pierced
the ability to sell the games you no longer want appears to have alluded your argument completely
I think my argument itself has alluded you completely.
I never claimed digital is better than physical in every way. I never claimed there aren't benefits to physical either. In fact, as I said previously, I am a physical gamer myself. Clearly there's a reason for that.
However, the point about games not being complete anymore is a fair argument. The percentage of games which run poorly or are missing content or need vital updates is growing by the day. No one can deny this. Even Zelda would have you dealing with an unruly framerate and lack of DLC if you played straight from cart. Splatoon 2 would be half the game it is now. As would ARMS. NBA 2K18 would be unplayable, whereas now it's an immaculate, pristine example of a game done right. RE Revelations would be playable, but the second wouldn't be.
The examples go on and on.
And the bottom line, is what's the difference between getting half of LA Noire on cart (which is still 100% playable without any download btw) and Splatoon 2, which is also half on the cart? What is the different between needing a download to fully experience DOOM features, and needing a download to fully experience ARMS features? You need a download to get a playable experience in NBA 2K18, but you need a download to play Zelda with a half decent framerate too. And if you bought the season pass, to access any of that content.
And that's the argument. Right there. Not that there aren't still benefits, not even that it's better. And it's only going to become even more true as time goes on.
The days of buying a SNES cart and having the entire game, complete and archivable, are over.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
Zachariah 12:10 (500 yrs before Christ)
They will look on Me whom they pierced
It's a shame that Falcom is wary of the Switch. I can kinda see where they're coming from, but judging by the Switch's first 8 months, but their doubts should be nullified. I'm really hoping we get a Ys game on Switch eventually. Ys Memories of Celceta on Vita was great, and had a pretty big world. I can imagine what they could do on a much stronger handheld device.
Speaking of the Vita, since Falcom put quite a few games on Vita, why wouldn't they put a few on Switch? The Switch is already on pace to eclipse the Vita's sales within a fraction of the time.
Ys Book I & II is one of my favourite Wii VC downloads. I never played much of Nihon Falcom as they stay away from developing for Nintendo (and if they did it was mostly Japan only) most of the time, and it doesn't seem to change. Well, at least there is now an abundance of RPGs we can look forward too.
Skyrim and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 just came around.
Battle Chasers Nightwar and Lost Sphear are soon to follow.
And for 2018 we can look forward to at least Dragon Quest Builders, The Longest 5 Minutes, Project Octopath Traveler, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei V, Pokémon, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Dragon Quest XI, a Tales of- game, not to mention the many indie RPGs, and what else Square Enix, NIS America, Koei Tecmo, Marvelous, Nintendo, Sega, and Bethesda have not announced yet. Nihon Falcom would make a good addition, but if they don't want it's not a huge loss, as we already have some of the best RPGs ever covered for 2017 and 2018 on the Switch.
@Ervex_109
Apologies if it seemed overly defensive.
I'm not making an argument for digital over physical. But I am making an argument that the benefits of physical are rapidly eroding away. There are still games you can buy complete but the percentage of them that are 100% complete nowadays... is definitely a minority. The extent to which that affects the game varies from case to case but the point remains: buying physical games no longer guarantees you the full game and more often than not you aren't getting the full game. 50% of the time it might still be playable but... then again so is LA Noire... so is NBA 2K18..: so is DOOM.
Meaning: anyone who takes issue with a physical release that requires a download to the point they refuse to buy, maybe it's time for them to reevaluate, because the vast majority of the games they are buying already require downloads and a certain percentage of them are just as limited or crippled without those downloads as these recent "partial download" games on cart. And whether it be fortunately or unfortunately, that's only going to become more and more true over the next 5 years- certainly over the next 10.
We're all going to have to face the music soon enough (in fact we already are, to an extent).
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
Zachariah 12:10 (500 yrs before Christ)
They will look on Me whom they pierced
Not sure if this was already posted or not, but there's a rumour going around that Bandai Namco will have some sort of special event on the 15th, and Nintendo will have a big presence. According to Liam Robertson, from Unseen64, those games will be: a Dark Souls Collection (was rumoured before), One Piece Dawn, Soul Calibur 6 (was rumoured before), Xenosaga HD Collection, and My Hero Academy.
My issue with Digital Distribution on Consoles is that it's a closed shop. On Consoles it's not possible and without retail driving prices down, Nintendo (and Sony and MS) can charge what they want.
To be fair there is still competition. If one of the big three went out on a limb by themselves and started charging obscene fees for their games? Third party publishers would start pulling the pin. Equally if one publisher started charging over and above the price that other publishers are charging? Consumers would buy something else.
On top of this, the ability to sell the games you no longer want appears to have alluded your argument completely. As things currently stand, our money is pretty much lost forever the moment we click that download button, whether we like the game or not. It's simply too high risk for many people.
The ability to sell games once you've played them isn't really a net-positive for consumers. To be blunt, someone is making most of the money in the used market. It's not the consumer and it's not the developer/publisher. The fact that Gamestop/EBGames makes money out of this should tell you something about what is actually happening here.
And in any case there's no technical reason why there couldn't be a trade-in system on digital purchases.
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@FragRed Probably the same strategy as Capcom used for RE Revelations collection, small games on the cart, big games are a digital download and for some reason digital only in Europe.
My issue with Digital Distribution on Consoles is that it's a closed shop. On Consoles it's not possible and without retail driving prices down, Nintendo (and Sony and MS) can charge what they want.
To be fair there is still competition. If one of the big three went out on a limb by themselves and started charging obscene fees for their games? Third party publishers would start pulling the pin. Equally if one publisher started charging over and above the price that other publishers are charging? Consumers would buy something else.
But to be fairer, they have an oligopoly instead of an monopoly. Which can be as bad as a monopoly. They will only ever have competition if they chose to do so. If they all just have the prices fixed at a high rate, they can pretend to be competing while gaining every single benefit of a monopoly.
@Therad Isn't that already happening? Digital prices in Europe went up this year from €60 to €70. Physical is still €60, but the competition drives down those prices even further, meaning physical games are often less than €55 on release.
I think @electrolite77 has a point though. Ubisoft is the only distributor of Assassin's Creed: Origins on the digital console stores, yet there are many different sellers in the physical market. In the digital space, Ubisoft doesn't have anyone to compete with for the sales of Assassin's Creed: Origins.
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