Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Knuckles-Fajita Those 3, Doomsday and Hidden Palace are the only music tracks that haven't been used since the 360/PS3 ports of Sonic 3 & Knuckles (standalone and part of the Ultimate Genesis Collection in 2009).

Between Generations (stages and unlockable music), All Stars Racing Transformed, Mania Plus and Team Sonic Racing the rest have been present in a Sonic game released in 2011-2019.

@Grumblevolcano Doomsday actually did reappear....kind of.

In pre-release gameplay for Sonic Generations 3DS, the Big Arm boss used a remix of Doomsday Zone, before being replaced with the actual Big Arm theme from Sonic 3.

So really, its just 4 tracks from Sonic 3 as a whole that have yet to re-appear, and Hidden Palace probably wont re-appear because...well thats barely a level.

@Knuckles-Fajita Ok i read doomsday and for a second i thought we were talking about The Death of Superman lol

Ok I’m sold on The Touryst

@Knuckles-Fajita I just checked and Hidden Palace's music is the same as Lava Reef Act 2 which is in Mania. So yeah, it's just the 3 you mentioned.

@DarthNocturnal Yeah, when a listing goes up usually everything involved is either licensed indefinitely, or a fixed period of time. Most games are the former, and the latter is like how Bayonetta 1+2 were taken off the Wii U eShop after 5 years since the music rights had likely expired and there was no way it would have been worth it to renegotiate.

Is this accurate about the music? They're still distributing it on the Switch eShop, whereas if they had lost rights they wouldn't be able to distribute at all, would they?

@Cotillion I mean, it's all theory since we can't see the contracts, but I'm assuming the original contract specified 5 years on the Wii U one, and it wasn't worth having the legal team draft up another contract to extend it because no one was buying it anymore. The Switch release presumably would have required a new contract.

Edit: to clarify, they only are presumably leasing the rights on a specific use case basis, not for anything they want.

I never really understood this argument. I can't actually think of an example in real life where it works like this. If I buy a sixpack of beers in the supermarket, I can't drink these in a bar. If I watch a movie in the cinema, I can't rewatch it automatically at home. If I buy my music on an LP, I can't listen to it on a CD... Of course they could make it possible with digital media, but I can't really see any worthwhile incentive for a company like Nintendo to do so.

Saying this, it would make sense to stick with a subscription service for their classic content which covers multiple Nintendo platforms from now on; meaning that you only need one NSO for both your Switch 1 and future Switch 2 (or pro, or whatever...).

This looks cool! I'll probably pick it up when I have some more free time on my hands. I just bought a new house and it's insanely busy at work right now, so there's not a lot of gaming going on right now. Thanks!

@toiletduck There is 1 example and that is the Xbox situation. Games you own on OG Xbox and 360 are playable on XB1 when it's added to backwards compatibility. Games stopped being added in June 2019 because the focus is on getting everything you own on XB1 (XB1 games and backwards compatible games) working on Scarlett but the current list is pretty impressive.

@toiletduck
Agreed. I HATE when people are like, "I bought it once on the Wii VC, I should own it FOREVER AND ALWAYS ON EVERY SYSTEM I EVER OWN."

Like...seriously? Is that how all of your media works? Nope. You buy a movie, a song, a book, you're pretty much locked into whatever service you bought it through (with a few exceptions, I'm sure). If you're wicked old school, you're also locked into the form factor you bought it (yes, I still buy actual paper books lol).

@Grumblevolcano
And then you have this. I'm gonna say something on this: I LOVE Microsoft. Some people are Apple people, I'm a Microsoft person. I have surface everything, I've owned ever Xbox, etc. I totally support them, and I think they always add a necessary element of innovation and competition to whatever field they enter.

That being said, I think they're heading down the wrong path. I don't know how to explain it, but I don't know how they're going to keep making enough money to stay in the gaming arena. They're almost at the point with this Game Pass stuff where I feel like they're BEGGING me to try it, almost like they're PAY ME to do it for 3 months lol (I think it's literally a DOLLAR right now to try it out for 3 months). With all this backwards compat stuff... I don't know. I think MS is gonna turn around in a year or two and wonder where all their gaming revenue is going. They're already dead last in terms of worthwhile exclusives, and people keep proving that exclusives sell systems.

Well, I think this stems from precedents being set in other digital media where, yes, it actually is that way. They lock you to the service, but not a specific piece of hardware. If I buy a game on Steam, it's tied to my account, not my PC. I can upgrade or get an entirely new machine and I still have access to all my games. I have games I bought moire than a decade and multiple machines ago that I can access, install and play with no issue of having to rebuy them.
If I buy a movie or game on Google Play, it's tied to my account and I can access it from whatever device I'm logged into. I can get a new phone, new tablet, new smart TV and the stuff I bought is there. Music is the same way. As long as you're using their service, you have access to it. I've never had to rebuy digital music or movies for a new device if I'm using the same service.
With digital media, digital console games are the oddity that get away with reselling the exact same content strictly for a new device. The precedent is there that if I buy a Nintendo game, I should be able to access it on my Nintendo hardware, any Nintendo hardware that my account is logged into (obviously as long as it runs on it, no one would realistically expect to play unported 3DS games on Switch, I would hope). With other digital media, if I bought an HD version a few years ago, I can access it, but I'd have to rebuy the 4K version or special edition. Rebuying new and better versions is more understandable than rebuying the exact same thing again, just because you upgraded your hardware. There's be a huge outcry if whenever you changed phones you had to rebuy your apps, games, movies and music. Console games could follow this model. If you buy x game on Switch, yes you get x game on Switch 2, but the 4K special edition with added features they released for Switch 2 you have to buy.
The key difference here is porting and the companies that provide the hardware, though. Games need to be altered to be able to run on the the new hardware. Going forward this should be more of a non-issue now that all major consoles are using common architecture.
A service like Steam isn't trying to sell hardware, so they have no stake in no letting me access my games on any hardware I buy, so there's a difference there as well.

I'm just saying there is definitely a precedent, as other digital media is tied to a service that you can access from any hardware that can run the service. Many people want game consoles to be the same way, but there are inherent differences as to why they are not, as of yet anyway. I feel this is why gaming as a service is becoming a more prominent thing, because all other digital media is actually this way and people are expecting it from console games as well.

I usually hate voxel style games, but The Touryst is weirdly gorgeous. Footage of it reminds me of the Link's Awakening remake.

Books and DVDs are pretty much 1-time purchases. I have some DVD boxsets that I've had since the early 2000s that I must have played on about 10 different devices. Oh and I still have a first edition version of The Hobbit book, from like 1940 or whenever it came out.

It's ultimately up to the publisher really. I can definitely see some logic to the idea of Nintendo just having an all-time license for some classic games. They could sell it at a higher price of course.

Yeah, I think it's actually pretty normal to expect at least some purchases to carry over to new consoles. Would certainly be a nice way of convincing me to buy more digital, at least. Otherwise I just wait till the console is outdated by its successor to soft mod it.

@Cotillion I’ve bought movies and music on services, to later have the content removed from the service with no recoupment to me. So there’s that to consider, as well.

@Dezzy really? I have you been able to play your DVDs in BluRay quality on your BluRay player? Cuz that's the comparison were making here - either 3DS to Switch (res and TV) or Wii U to Switch (portability).

I think this is the distinction that needs to be made. If I bought Links Awakening on VC before, it should on my account and I can play it. The remake should not be available to me, though.
This is already how it is with some games on Steam. The original version I bought 10 years ago is still available to me, but the modern remaster is a separate purchase should I want it.
They can both let people access their old purchases and still resell old games remastered or with new features.

@Cotillion why should the VC version be available to you on a totally different system? I still haven't seen a valid argument for this.