Retail Download Cards in Japan Set For Small Discount

At least it's something I mean boxes are getting smaller anyway and games more expensive, so what does it matter.

Its sad that possibly in the future game stores might not actually have physical media on shelves to browse through instead replaced by hooks full of download cards or just counter drawers full of soulless cardboard numbers...
ME 'I would like a Mario Bros 50 thanks'
CLERK 'here is your download ticket sir, would you like a bag with that'
ME 'NOOOOOOOO'

(Wakes up from hellish nightmare)

Er that is not a good discount. It would be good if it was a 10% discount but atleast its a discount.

@Happy_Mask Why not just buy 2 $20 cards?
@MadAussieBloke That doesn't sound like a nightmare at all.

Anyway, 6% discount isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

People can buy digital at a discount while I wait a year or so and buy it at a much cheaper price.

So it's the equivalent of an Aussie paying $65.80? Just think what I could do with that $4.20 I'd be saving!

In all seriousness, it might be a good motivation for some of those people who want to save a bit of cash to put towards something else. If an Aussie buys four of those, they could get a $15 eShop Card with the remainder and still have a gold coin to spare!

At least they're starting to understand that they need to discount the digital stuff if they want it to sell.

@Happy_Mask The point is to download the games you don't have to use the $20 cards. You can just purchase a special card that lets you download the purchased game (New Super Mario Bros 2. in the picture) for a slightly cheaper price.

@TeeJay It's a nightmare to those who prefer physical game copies and the satisfaction of knowing that(if you're someone who really takes care of your games) you'll have them for many years to come.

The same can't be said about digital copies for various reasons(servers going down, games being taken down over time, them being linked to your system and for some reason your system breaks/malfunctions and you lose your games, etc., etc.).

Get a box and cart for 6% more.
Sell it for 80% of the price when you're done.

but you also save on taxes (in the USA at least) so that means about 3%- 10% of f

I'm glad to hear they're releasing the download cards before the game comes out. So you can preorder, in a sense. Hope they do that over here. I'd ask for the option to pre-load your games onto the 3DS, and have it activated at a certain time, but thats probably too much to ask for. What time would this appear on the eShop anyways? Noon, like with regular eShop titles, but that would be hours after the stores open.

That's the kinda thing that's gonna make me buy digital over retail. If that comes here, along with the 100 Club Nintendo coins, you jst got yourself another eShop guy, Nintendo

@Chriiis Right on point bro I don't think these guys know the pain of a corrupted SD card or system and how long it can take to be repaired/restored. Believe me when I say an absolute gamers nightmare
I own 2 3DS systems soon to be 3 when the XL arrives... Lets say my SD card or system fails and I want to play my downloaded games, guess what? I can't because they're linked to that 1 system. With a cartridge I can easily pop it into another on-hand 3DS and enjoy my games while the failed unit is sent off for repair... Nightmare vanquished

@MadAussieBloke Amen!!! This is why I will not buy this game digitally. If Nintendo had eshop accounts ( similar to apple, where anyone signed into your account can get the game for free ) then I would buy it digitally in a heart beat, but since this is Nintendo, it will probably never happen. Cartridges FTW!!!

@Geonjaha Only if you sell it the next day You'd be lucky to get 50% back

What's the point of buying digital at the about same price while at retail you get a box and manual. Besides, Anything MadAussieBloke said could happen.

I would have waited anyway, I only have one system.

It would be awesome if they did what Marvel is doing where when you buy a comic you get a code for a free download of a digital version.

@LztheBlehBird - Nope. Let me give you some examples.Mario Kart 7 - Released 8 months ago - selling for about £23 on eBay average.Super Mario 3D Land - Released 9 months ago - selling for about £20 on eBay average. Those are also first party games. Think about the rarer ones that would have had less physical copies produced; even more!

The only time I'd buy digital was if the game was really rare for a physical copy (eg. Cave Story 3D) - because then there's actually some incentive over physical for how much it's going to cost you in the long run.

Once again Nintendo takes one step forward and two steps back.

Any discount is good in my opinion. Cartridge me anyway.

@jtt235 The average price an Aussie pays for a new Nintendo-published 3DS game is around $70. Some stores occasionally have them on sale for around $55, which is still a bit of a rip-off, but I usually wait for those sales before getting a new game to play.

There should be a £5-£7 difference between price of the retail,and download versions.

That covers tax here in Maryland, lol. I'll probably buy digital for the 100 coins!

I just started seeing the card at my local 7-11. The whole 3DS card display has changed. There is also new Kirby 20th Anniversary and Pokemon point cards.