Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Happy Easter, everyone!

@JaxonH
Is it really that simple, though. Like... if BotW is 30 gigs or whatever, all it "costs" Nintendo host it on its servers for download is 30 gigs of server space?

@rallydefault
Well, throughput must be factored in also. And I don’t know enough about the details to speak on throughput, but I do know the traffic for such games will be near non existent for legacy platforms.

@rallydefault I mean, basically there are two costs: Storage Space ( the whole Wii U library combined can probably fit on a single drive, same for 3DS) and bandwidth consumption (which is likely a drop in the water compared to what their active systems use).

What it comes down to is that there's likely basically no cost to them keeping it up, while taking everything down requires them to put manpower on that. Since it uses the same access point as Switch, they shouldn't need to even worry about paying for the additional bandwidth from those who use the service, and even the minimal income they get from people still buying digital games probably more than pays for keeping it up.

@link3710
Interesting. Really makes you wonder why companies even bother making physical media anymore at all.

So I grabbed mortal kombat 11 on Amazon since it was on sale for only $20. I guess i forgot it has a 20 something gb download 😣

@NintendoByNature Yeh, that download blows, and is the thing that keeps preventing me from buying the game. I see it drop in price and think "Now's the time" but then something reminds me about the download just in time, every time. Same goes for the Spyro trilogy really.

@gcunit yea its hefty alright. I just simply forgot. I probably won't play it for a bit but it was so cheap I pulled the trigger. I jeed a bigger sd card as it is.

Really wonder how much market research and PR companies weigh up to not completely destroy physical sales... yet. Every big company wants to move to all digital for bigger profit margins of course, but cutting off physical sales right now wholesale is dumb.

Nintendo most likely has the biggest % of physical sales as well, because in general you don't need to install games or download mega big patches. I got my physical Deluxe Edition of FF7R and I had to wait 40 minutes to install before I could jump in. That's crazy. Meanwhile I just loaded up my copy of Rune Factory 4 on my Switch and it just plays immediately with no downtime.

I just accept having a large micro SD or hard drive is basically mandatory for gaming. Buy the biggest money can buy right when I get the system and forget about it. Then buy games at will without ever having to pause or worry about space.

Of course, I take it to the extreme (two 4TB SSDs and a 2TB NVMe boot drive for PC, and a 1TB micro SD for Switch) but if you go one step down the ladder there's much better deals to be had, at least on the micro SD front (not so much for SSDs, there's a little cost savings but, I paid $450 for 4TB while it was still $200 for 2TB).

I know the 512gb micro SDs have been on sale for less than $50, and even now can be had in the $85 range. Maybe less if you shop around.

does anyone use there switch as a handheld to play games like Fortnite or Mario kart 8 deluxe?

Me.
Oftenly.

@Anti-Matter can you see what your doing on the screen or is the screen too small to make out the tracks in Mario kart

@Ninfan
It just right.

@Anti-Matter Great thank you.

@EvilLucario
Yea, they must have research showing it still remains profitable to produce physical media. But I bet the margins are getting thinner by the day.

I assume the new Xbox and PS still have optical drives? I'm honestly not that excited about them, so I haven't been reading much. The Xbox in particular is really just a PC that you're paying an upcharge on the hardware-to-power ratio; vast majority of Microsoft's games are playable on PC and Xbox these days.

Things might change this year with everyone shut into their houses, but most big games still sell better physically. Even if digital is a HUGE part of the equation now, no manufacturer in their right mind would shut themselves off from physical game sales at this point in time. Maybe in a generation or so, when the kids who are growing up with tablets and smartphones start purchasing home consoles themselves.

I definitely think this year will drastically speed up digital adoption due to everything going on. More and more people will finally cave in and buy digitally, decide if that fits them better overall and go from there. Meanwhile, you won't have as much of the reverse due to shortages and delayed shipments on physical media.

I, for one, welcome our Digital-only overlords.

@rallydefault well, one thing to note is that gone are the days where physical runs would be so large they'd last for years. Now, it's far more common for physical titles to run out of stock, and multiple print runs to occur in some cases. Physical is now usually more catered to people who buy in the first few months, and also gives them shelf space (still an important tool for discoverability) while digital is their long term solution.

Physical rules always for me.
Physical games or No play.
#physicalgamesrules 🤟