Gallery: Here's How Nintendo Switch Game Cards Compare To Practically Everything Else

Wait, I'm confused. You have both the PAL and NTSC version of Breath of the Wild?

Looks dank.

So if you had a problem keeping track of your ds games, now the mistake of losing your switch game will cost you double that!

And no comparison with Vita gamecard...

You guys should compare the card to a Vita card.

Also as mentioned on neogaf, the spine looks like a flag with the logo in the top left of the front of the box.

So smol. Very similar to a Vita game card.

@Akropolon I'm not surprised. They wanted to compare the packaging right? Both versions have different packaging to compare I guess.

At first I hated the concept of game cards. Now I think it's not so bad.

The only issue I have is accidently dropping one down my shark of a sofa. Might as well rebuy the game if that happens

Oh.... I see!

Why are they making such a big box for such a tiny cartridge?

@Hotfusion What's there to be opposed to? You can carry a bunch of them in a Backpack pocket and switch out (No pun intended) games you want to play. Much better for those who don't plan on downloading many games if any.

@Tempestryke shelf space. Although it's a portable console Nintendo want to avoid comparisons with the 3DS so have opted for larger boxes.

Nice photographs! Whoever takes these shots for the site always does a great job.

Love the Master System Game Cards

I'm going to have to get a game case for the Switch ASAP. Otherwise, the risk of losing those tiny game cards is too high! They're even smaller than the tiny DS cards!

Really awesome seeing all those cool games. I owned some of them back in the day and regret parting with them. I can't wait to get my Switch next Friday! I hope cartridges don't hold back devs too much. Seeing as they can add extra content through downloads it shouldn't be an issue. Got my 200GB SD card ready!

Love it. Digging the red spines on the cases.

I wish you guys didn't take the manuals out of the boxes while taking that picture.

The best comparison is the DS/3DS cards. I thought it looked the same width but slightly taller...but no, it fits within the card size of 3DS! That's quite something.

@Tempestryke Health and safety booklets.

Princess Crown? I knew there was a reason why I trusted this site's staff when it came to good taste in games.

I like these size comparisons - particularly with the DS and 3DS cartridges - kind of baffles me how little space you can fit so much data in to now... and yet, I know they could go even smaller if they were so inclined.

So they're the same as the Vita cartridges. I like the game cases, but the only thing I don't like is the one-color scheme on the side and just a typed name...kind of makes it look boring if you store them on a shelf (like the XBONE's looks boring). Kind of like the cartridges too, but I don't like the fact that they will be easy to lose and very easy to get dirty in the back of them...not good for some people with kids and definitely not good for kids...parents are going to be in hate when their child loses them!!!!

@RadioHedgeFund Shelf space? To clog it up maybe. Lol. Seems a bit of a waste but whatever.

Wow, I didn't realize the game cards were so much physically smaller than DS & 3DS game cards.

@DragonEleven Looks at GBA boxes with health n safety booklet and Game Manuals. Sigh. Ah the good ol' days.

@duffmmann What are ya willing to bet the next ones will be the size of a battery watch?

@sony_ponies jajaja excellent

@Nintendoforlife
When I said that initially I was not quite sure about gamecards, I was referring to a time looong before the console was revealed.

The rumour of the SWITCH USING "CARTRIDGES" was what was circulating. Now let's face it, a cartridge and a gamecard are two totally different things to most people.. well to me anyway.

BTW carrying games around is NOT an issue for me. It will be indeed a miracle if my Switch EVER left it's dock.

I carry so much tech around that the last thing I want is to add more gadgets to the lot, however I respect your point as it factual and will be ideal for others.

@Diskach size is almost identical to the vita cards

Nah, I'm sorry. Look at some of the older games, the illustrations, the packaging. Much more care and attention, the details. These we have here, so generic and uninspiring. Still, I suppose it's the game which counts, just, you know.

@Tempestryke They're not. They're making boxes for game cards.

"given the portable nature of the console you may be seriously considering taking the digital download option (along with a new Micro SD card, no doubt), while those of you who love collecting things will no doubt already be resigned to inserting and removing those pesky game cards on a regular basis."

Here, let me fix that for you guys:

"even given the portable nature of the console, you should seriously think twice about taking the digital download option (regardless of growing sizes and ever lowering prices of SD cards), while those of you who love collecting things and like to have more control over the games they buy will no doubt already be laughing in the face of those whiny download-only punters and will happily choose the infinitely smaller bother of having to exchange those lovely and sleek looking Switch game cards on a regular basis."

Seriously, what's not to like? They're small, VERY portable, durable, don't take away anything significant from that 32GB internal storage, and having ownership of your game cartridges means you can still play these games LONG after the download servers for the digital versions have been shut down...

I love it, the smaller the better.

@ThanosReXXX

Not to mention easily lost or stepped on. Ah well.

You didn't compare it to the hilariously oversized Neo Geo cartridges? Shame on you.

@Tempestryke Never happened to me with GBA, DS or 3DS cartridges, so no reason why it should all of a sudden start to happen now.

And I never lost an SD Card or Micro SD Card either, for that matter, so picturing all kinds of bears on the road where there really are none isn't going to do anyone any good, other than adding to the already WAY too large list of ridiculous complaints...

Things just keep getting smaller. I can't believe it's smaller than a DS game!

I have to admit, as much as I have little to no reason to buy the Switch until Odyssey comes out, this is a darn cool system. I really hope 3rd parties hop on and we get that Gamecube VC, because this could be a really fantastic console.

The only way I would go digital is if you get a discounted price since you aren't getting the physical game/special edition.

@Diskach No one cares about the Vita ;O; Should've been called the Playstation Morte

Annoyed at the lack of manuals with games these days. I know it's the same on PS4 and XBONE too but it's annoying to think that you need to read the instructions on the screen.
It's as if distributors want to give less incentive to physical buyers.
I'd love some gorgeous manuals with lovingly created artwork in them.

@RadioHedgeFund The other reason that small carts get larger boxes... is shop lifting. While most stores don't keep the cartridges in the dummy cases, it still costs something to replace them.

The 3DS cases were fatter, these are taller. Either way, imagine how easy it would be pocketing a Switch game of the case was the size of the cartridge?

@mikegamer I care!

wow even smaller than the 3DS cartridges. that's even only thing that surprises me

Hmm. Small.

Coming to down the back of a sofa near you!

The boxes contain mostly air. They seem way oversized. I think a slim cassette size would be better, saves manufacturing costs too. I wish they still did instruction manuals like the good ol' days. How I miss all the cool little pictures and stories in them. These Switch boxes look completely barren. At least there's some nice artwork on the inside.

Seeing those Super Famicom boxes makes me realise how much worse western box art is. I'm reading the Super Famicom Box Art collection book at the moment. They're amazing!

looks about the size of a PSVita Cart (which i notice ISN'T in your comparison pictures by the way)

Why is the rating for 1-2-Switch 7+?

I mean, it should get at least a 16+ rating because of that milking minigame...

@Ernest_The_Crab Not surprised as to why'd they compare them, confused as to how they obtained both versions. NintendoLife is a UK website, so I figured Nintendo would only send them a PAL version. How the NTSC version ended up here, is the mystery to me.

These switch carts are just too small! I've never forgave myself for loosing Mario 64 on my d.s, so I'm sticking with digital all the way

So basically the size of a Vita card or so.

Wishing it was March 3rd already. I'm definitely going physical, unless there's digital only games like Snipperclips that I want. I am not worried about losing the carts, I will be getting the Breath of the Wild special edition and it comes with a special Sheikah Tablet carry case with room for many game carts. Here's hoping also that My Nintendo gets physical rewards and they start putting out game cases similar to the ones we got for DS/3DS on Club Nintendo.

Do like the thin box design and the cards are tiny yet can contain a lot of data (may slightly explain the high cost; although then I wonder about Vita and why they tend to be £25-£35 at launch). Although my environmental side doesn't like all the "wasted" case plastic.

Could have gone for something akin to a Vita case but guess they wanted to differentiate.

Also i do love the standardised red spines. I'm a sucker for symmetry and standardisation and love how my PS2 collection looks spine wise. Whilst Shadow of the Colossus and Xenogears Episode II ruin it! As well as any remnant Platinum (the PS2 rerelease branding not the developer) boxes.

They are a lot smaller than I thought they'd be. Nice.

@sony_ponies I love this

I love that the cartridge is super small but I question why they need the case to be 10x's the size of the cartridge. It's not like they include instruction booklets anymore. I really think the case should have been no larger than the 3DS cases.

Wow, smaller than the 3DS cards. I'm glad to know the dimensions of the Switch game case too-- it's barely bigger than a gameboy box packaging, interesting.

So small...

@Akropolon I am confused too, the Switch is not region locked....

Nintendo are spending a lot on those plastic boxes and they look pretty big don't they?

Wow they are smaller thein the DS and 3DS cards. Thank you for these shots it now puts it in good perspective of how big these boxes and game cards are.

It is crazy how small the cards are. What a marvel!

i'll be storing games in my memory cards and a memory card holder.

Incredible seeing how the technology has evolved over the decades.

Why do we still need these giant cases though? The case should be the size of an iphone 4. I know we need it for the customer to see it on the shelf but seriously, send the stores display boxes.

I want to see a Switch case next to a Japanese GameCube case. If I recall correctly they are similar.

Before we know it, the games will end up being twice as small as an SD Micro.

What is that translucent red Game Boy Color? Yes please.

@Damo: +1 for the Journey to Silius pic! That soundtrack....

Hmm. I'm still not quite grasping the relative size of the BotW cart. Could you compare it to a few more items? How about the space shuttle, a truck, a shopping cart, an apple, a credit card, a human hair, and single unit cell of diamond.

I wish the cases are a bit smaller since its weird to have an DVD case with an SD card in it. I understand that the case have to be big for security reasons but I think its just too big. I just want to fit more on my shelves!

Can't wait not long now till the Switch drops .

WOW its been roughly 20 years since i have seen the virtua racing cart for the megadrive.

What a game.

Wow, a GameCube memory card for good measure! But wait, where is a GameCube disc for size comparison? I am genuinely not sure if a GameCube optical disc is larger than a Switch game cartridge or not

No gold plastic cartridge for Zelda. Boo!

To people asking a about the box size, it seems to be about the size of a Vita box case, maybe a little larger.

I think it's about image, and the message a smaller case sends. 3DS sized case screams "handheld" and handheld screams "handheld games" which scream "$40 MSRP". A larger case (and it's still smaller than usual for console games) sends a message of "full console game inside"

There's more to business than many realize. Image and messaging and subconscious thoughts due to conditioning... all things that must be considered when determining the proper case size.

The cases are too huge, 3DS cases were already huge in relation to the game carts. It seems nintendo made huge cases to make the switch seem more like a home console.

The switch carts are so small, Hard to get excited for such small carts that can't even fit some art in them.
I wish they had been as big as snes carts, that's the kind of carts that are exciting to handle and look at

I'm just being extremely picky but I don't like how large the pins on the back of the cartridge are; it's a bit fugly. I like the front though, and I actually wish the logo on Switch boxes went all the way across the top too.

Not that you can actually see what I'm talking about in any of the pics above, but it's just something I noticed.

@Damo Huh, the more you know. ^^

@Damo
How do you manage with digital only on Vita?

I'm physical only on Vita, and only buy digital when it's not available on a cart (even going so far as to import physical copies from UK and English Asian copies from Hong Kong), and yet I still have a completely maxed out 64gb memcard (which itself had to be imported from Japan).

I know I buy alot of games, but if I had all my physical games digital on Vita also (and there's a good 40-50 physical games I own) I'd need a 256gb to even stand a chance!

For anyone confused aboud the box size, it's for retailer loss prevention and, I'd imagine, shelf visibility...sort of like the long-boxes CD's were sold in when they first appeared in the '80's.

As to the cart size? I'm concerned that once I've amassed a library of these little guys, what I'll have is a handfull of VERY spendy confetti. These are going to require a dedicated case where they all can live together. Where's Club Nintendo when you need it?

@Damo fair enough although physical over digital for me and it will be for as long a digital prices are more expensive than physical when they have no reason to be

I wish they had chosen a smaller case, instead of the Wii U size case, used the 3DS size case instead. It just unnecessarily large.

@JaxonH Whoa, that many? What do you own and recommend? I own a lot of the NISA games (the company that makes it more worth it to own the system than Sony, hehe. P4G, P4DAN, Disgaea 3+4, Danganronpa 1+2, Trails of Cold Steel, Ys, Odin Sphere, Demon Gaze, Grand Kingdom, SiSC), the Zero Escape series and Steins Gate, and that is like 18 games. Still, with a 4GB memory card, it's all mostly physical in my case too.

@Tempestryke My first thought as well. It doesn't make a lot of sense to waste all that packaging space on such a small case. In the scheme of things it doesn't make a difference, but it is odd.

Awesome. I for one love the small cartridge design. Perhaps a slightly bigger cartridge would've been better, but I like this way better than any optical disc. Also I have never ever lost a single game because I take care of my stuff. If that is a problem for you, then try putting a game back in its case after you're done with it or just going digital.

Anyway,I love the new cases though they seem to be tall for no reason, but they are ridiculously thin which I love. Can't wait to get the Switch and games!

Nice comparison, I like the size. I'm glad they are leaving CDs. The case is nice too, reminds me of the psp type cases. Though my earlier thought was that the cases weer going to be similar to the DS/3DS cases, I like the one they picked.

@Piersen
Vita has alot of games but not very many top shelf games I'd highly recommend.

The absolute must haves, for me, are Persona 4 Golden, Final Fantasy X/X-2, Dragon Quest Builders and World of Final Fantasy. DQ Builders can be imported from Play Asia in English.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2 are good though, and Injustice, and Marvel vs Capcom 3. Also Wipeout 2048, Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and a fair handful of digital games like Geometry Wars 3, Bastion, and PSP games such as the Persona entries, MH Freedom Unite and Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.

Y's VIII was just announced but, I found Y's VII kinda meh. I'm still buying it though.

Lovely assortment of games from various machines featured here. Nice to see stuff like Wonderswan represented and good to see some great titles like Virtual On 2, Gunstar Heroes and Soldier Blade. I was saddened that Gunstar Heroes had to share a frame with the likes of just dance. Boo and other sounds of displeasure.

Cool to see how small the games are, especially compared to DS. They were already small enough. Any smaller than Switch sized is too small.

Such a waste of resources to have a box that give for a card that small...like the long boxes they used to wrap around CDs, as mentioned above), and which thankfully went out practice fairly quickly. Benefit to the small card is that it can't get scratched or (as easily) cracked as a disc, but you can bet all of my kids' purchases will be digital downloads; these cards will be lost within five minutes of purchase.

@ThanosReXXX Eh, it happened to me once or twice. I remember losing my DKC cartridge for years. Plus my kid lost my Dawn of Sorrow cartridge, fortunately they did turn up.

I love cartridges, but these things are too small, and the boxes are too big. Plus I don't like the flap on the Switch you have to lift up to insert a cart (I didn't like this feature on the Vita either). Going all digital for the Switch, especially since there's an account system now.

@Hotfusion Were you preferring discs?

What about a comparison between a Switch game card and a Ps Vita game card?

@Tempestryke For standing out on shop shelves, and to fit more back-of-box blurb on it, of course!

Thank you for warning us ahead of time about the amount of images. I made sure to set aside plenty of time to work on my thesis for solving world hunger while the page loads. (It turns out that internet journalists would make for an excellent source of protein)

@Tempestryke

Its about shelf space and visibility.

@QuickSilver88 So your saying it's impossible to see Handheld sized game boxes?

@CanisWolfred They may be delicious, but are they nutritious?

@samuelvictor

The NeoGeo handheld looked a lot like a GB but had color way before GBC and a semi-analogue seeming stick (kind of like 3DS but not truly analogue).

Truly one of the best ever GB era competitors was the TG16 portable which had a back-lit color screen ran TG16 carts and had an optional TV tuner.....its was cool but too pricey for anyone to ever afford

Looks so dank, definitely very hyped

@MysticX Yay!

@ThanosReXXX "you can still play these games LONG after the download servers for the digital versions have been shut down..."

Just curious, have you ever run into the situation you've described above? Or are you just pulling hypotheticals out of thin air?

@ThanosReXXX you're right about that. Download only is far less attractive now.

Adding the cost of the storage with the download premium, download becomes more expensive on average.

I do have to admit my environment changed drastically compared to 10 years ago. I've got kids that lose and break stuff. That Zelda game card seems to fit in a toaster just fine.

Im sooooooo glad that dics are gone they were horrible and to hard to takw care of.

@Romeo-75 Wait, what? You just keep the discs in their box unless you're gonna use them. That's it. No fuss. If it doesn't work, just dust it off with a dry cloth. Cartridges are harder to take care of, since there's a lot more work if you encounter a problem.

@Tempestryke They are high in fat, but that just means you gotta cook 'em longer to melt it off.

So did nintendo just buy all the unused psp cases?

Im.definitely getting this.

@Luna_110
Precisely. It's why the 2nd thing I preordered with my Switch was a good case. I'm physical copy all the way, I want to have my games displayed unless I'm taking them with me on the go.

Worst fear I have is drooling a game when I'm switching them on he go an dit dropping down sewer grates 😣😤

wow those things are almost as small as my underwear

Nice touch the inlay being printed on both sides

HOLY CRAP! THEY'RE FRICKIN' SMALLER THAN A DS GAME!

GET YUR CARD CASES, M8YS!

I was hoping the boxes would be similar to the Japanese Gamecube game boxes. Would have been too nice I guess? Also "expensive".... https://youtu.be/p1_to-gZhjA?t=25
And here's the comparison to PS Vita card size: https://youtu.be/RQaOMnGC5qI?t=107
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RQaOMnGC5qI/maxresdefault.jpg

Wow even smaller than the DS and 3DS cart. I'll have to make sure I keep these cards safe!

So it's confirmed that in US we will have inside cover art?

@Tempestryke So it fits on your shelf with your DVDs and games from other systems properly, I'd imagine.

@CanisWolfred I see. XD

@iGen Aye aye Captain!

remember when a computer took up an entire room? and metroid was the biggest SNES game so far at 24mb?

that's what's crazy to me. stuff just gets smaller. i am going to lose these.
Maybe someday a physyical release can be ID'd so if I lose it I can download digital for free.

@Tempestryke Yeah, kids can make just about anything that is not fixed, bolted or locked down disappear, they are little illusionists when it comes to that, so fair enough on that one...

Wait, no n64 cartridges?

@gatorboi352 No, no offense but have you never seen me say I only go by facts? So, no, I'm not "pulling hypotheticals out of thin air"...

And yes, it actually has happened to me, several times. In all fairness also because I switched my Xbox 360 profile back and forth between American and European, but still: I've lost games, (online) functionality in games and also multiple demos.

And company policies and such dictate that they can do just about whatever the hell they want, regardless of you having paid for the games or not. They can pull online multiplayer, disable parts of the game or even the entire game and so on, reducing your bought and paid for game to useless occupied space on your hard drive.

And what if something happens to that hard drive and you want to download those titles again? There is simply no guarantee whatsoever that you will always be able to get all the stuff that you previously downloaded back again. Physical has no such issues, and online checks to potentially disable a game can easily be circumvented, for example by not connecting to the internet.

And another example is demos. Although not entirely applicable and also not such a big issue as disabling complete games, but definitely a bother to me and also a good example of how these company policies can interfere with us.

Just think of the old demo disc, that used to come with your game magazine: back in the day, these provided for a lot more playtime than the current online only demos we have nowadays. Look at the 3DS, with it's timed demos, with only a limited number of tries before it becomes disabled, or demos on other systems, that are simply removed once the actual game is released.

Might be completely logical for the companies themselves, but for me as a gamer, it is not. I never buy consoles on launch day, so most of the time, I've got quite the back log as far as getting all the must have games (and having time to play them) is concerned, so having those demos around until I can get the actual game would be nice, instead of constantly having to wait and see if they're still playable or not.

Over the years, I've already had to remove dozens of them from my hard drive because they have simply become useless.

I am so glad I pre-order the Special Edition of BotW. That carrying case will definitely come in handy with such tiny game cards and my ability to lost them.

@erv True, but the kids "problem" has always been there ever since the original Game Boy, so that is nothing exclusive to the Switch, other than the fact that the cartridges are considerably smaller.

I just keep all my portables in their own cases, that also have space for carrying cartridges, and that has always served me quite well.

@Damo: Serioulsly, no comparison to an SD-card? That's the only comparison that would've really interested me (I couldn't care less about all the other media that are shown in the photos), because they almost look the same.

I'm really surprised to see how tiny they are. I expected they were slightly bigger than 3DS cards from earlier pictures. Seeing it's tremendously smaller than 3DS cards is stunning.

That said to everyone who is saying it's about the same as a Vita card, it's definitely not the same as a Vita card, and that's a good thing. Vita cards were extremely thin, and therefore flexible, and therefore offered potential to break from accidental handling. These look to have some thickness to them meaning they're made of a thicker, more robust plastic, and should be more durable. Granted, I've dropped vita cards (Stupid launch day edition semi-hard case....would it have killed them to put elastic on the felt gamecard pouches??) , outdoors, on dirty wood and never had a problem. But I like that these are more durable. They'll be in good shape 30 years from now.

@ThanosReXXX I'm shocked, no, STUNNED to see you're part of the physical games camp! And strongly so as well. I'd have pegged you right away for the digital camp.

And it's twice as good with the Switch proposal. Not only do you get the whole digital rights ownership thing....but they buy you your storage device FOR you with your game purchases. Win-win.

Am I the only one that likes the PAL cover of Breath of the Wild just a tad more than the NTSC version?

Also those cartridges are pretty small. Soon we'll have games the size of a micro SD card.

ok so minus a few points for no n64 comparison but plus several million for the Dreamcast case comparison and choice of game.

@Deadlyblack The PAL version's coloring makes me think Xenoblade Chronicles more than Zelda though. The NTSC version pulls in the gold hues that are a Zelda box art tradition from the beginning here

Wow, that is a crazy tiny card

@Tempestryke Totally agree! You could cut these cases in half and it would still be too big for the game card. Such a waste of resources.

MicroSD cards are even smaller, so this is quite an achievement, but it's no world record. Android devices can play PC games from microSD cards. Forget the NS card size, though, I'm more interested in seeing... Skies of Arcadia, Cyber Troopers Virtual On, Princess Crown, Shining the Holy Ark, and of course, Gunstar Heroes? Someone there is a Sega fan, and they have good taste.

@gatorboi352 @ThanosReXXX
I've heard it said that for STEAM digital games, if your account gets banned you lose all your games because they ban and delete your account, and you lose all licenses associated with that account. I think Valve came out and said as much point blank, like they weren't backing down from it at all.

My friend was all hysterical when he heard it because he's a big Xbox gamer, and thought MS was following a similar system due to the Terms of Service, and Xbox Support Tweeting this: If your account is banned, you also forfeit the licenses to any games that have licenses tied to it as listed in the ToU

But Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) was asked that question point blank, and he denied it, stating you'll always have access to the games you purchase. But who knows. It's definitely something they do on STEAM, and may or may not be the case for some consoles. And some have argued to just not get banned, but there have been cases of innocent people being banned due to hacking or cheating by another player.

In any case, I know once the games get pulled from the server you can no longer re-download (like when DKC was pulled from Wii) but if you already have it, so long as you don't delete it you'll be fine.

I think it's on Nintendo, Sony and MS to ensure that all their games from their first digital store onwards continues to offer downloads of purchased games. Obviously games get pulled here and there due to licensing and other issues, which is understandable, but the vast majority needs to be offered indefinitely, for the sake of those who purchased them. I haven't yet seen an entire digital store shut down, but if one were to shut down my money is on the Wii Shop. But now that eShop is their permanent storefront, they have a responsibility to ensure everything from Wii U/3DS onwards is always available to redownload. Same for Sony with PSN and MS With Xbox Store

@NEStalgia You pegged me for digital? How so?
I'm 46 years old, I'm VERY adamant about my rights and ownership of the products I buy and I still own all my handhelds and consoles and most of my games are physical. I don't like where gaming is going AT ALL, so once we go 100% digital, then that will be the day that my hobby will change from gaming into retro gaming...

3DS cards are already easy enough to lose as it is. And if they're going to be so small, are we getting two card slots on the system? That would be cool. No? Okay.

@JaxonH Agreed with most of what you said, but that still leaves the very important point of companies disabling (parts of) games because they don't/won't maintain the servers anymore.

Even Nintendo did that, for example with Mario Kart for the Wii and several other Wii games. Fortunately, they are still quite modest with such measures, but in general, this is something I see happening more and more.

Where in the previous generations, having online multiplayer services discontinued would at least still leave you with the single player experience, saving your game from complete oblivion, the current policy in a lot of games is moving more and more towards simply disabling the game entirely once the online functionality of it is removed.

All it takes is for Microsoft, Sony or the company hosting the servers, to send a signal to your console to block the game. Next thing you know they're simply gonna remotely delete the game from your console.

No, I'll stick to physical as long as possible. And if they enforce the same policies on digital too, then I'll just become a full-time retro gamer...

@JaxonH To add to that, something I forgot to mention in one of my earlier comments:

A lot of games nowadays also rely so heavily on the online part that if you don't have online access, either due to internet problems or your subscription not being active because you couldn't afford it at the moment for whatever reason (could happen to any one of us), then even that single player, not-online dependent part of the game doesn't work, because there can be no "online verification" or whatever other lame excuse they throw at us.

@ThanosReXXX (beat me to it, wrote this before your response)
While that is possible, I don't see it happening, just do to the sheer force of backlash they'd suffer. Fans would not let that slide, at all.

However, what they will do (and are already doing) is make games require an internet connection... even for single player modes (For Honor, Steep, The Crew, Division, Destiny, etc). Which means without that server the game will not work. Without your internet connection the game will not work. This is something I refuse to support on consoles, except in very rare cases.

@JaxonH Well, it HAS already happened, and it will soon happen again and again.

Like I said, it even happened to the Wii, and personally, I have stacks of original Xbox games with zero online support. Luckily, they still have their single player part, because back then, measures weren't so restrictive, but with last gen consoles and current gen consoles, I definitely see this becoming worse with each generation, and that to me is also one of the main reasons not to go full digital, because measures on physical media are already strict enough as it is.

Amazing how something so small as a Switch card can carry so much power! Technology never ceases to amaze me.

@ThanosReXXX
Wait, what ?
Did you mean if I have digital version of Sony or Microsoft games on their machines (ps4 or xbox1), when they discontinued their online service, my games will be gone / unplayable / something bad happen ?? (Unless if I own physical games)

@Anti-Matter It is not to say that it WILL absolutely happen to EVERY game, but a lot of games have and will have both online and offline functionalities removed, making them practically useless, and with digital you simply have less rights and/or options to do something about that.

On Sony's consoles, a lot of digitally downloaded games are useless if you don't have online, or ownership of the game is only granted when you have a subscription, and with Microsoft you have some similar measures, although for most games, once they are downloaded, they will also function offline.

And that is why I will always prefer to buy physical games.

..wow...so small...with 3DS I went mostly digital to not carry everything..but I might go back to physical this gen and save memory for patches and DLC, depending on game sizes.. so this cart size helps..

The size of the Switch game cards blow my mind. Can you imagine showing someone in the 80's the comparison, especially if they could see what the games actually look like?

People are cancelling their Netflix account because of this one site.

So basically it's an SD card. Can't say I didn't see that coming.

@ThanosReXXX
Ah... I see.
Thanks for the information.

It's insane how the Nintendo Switch cartridge is even smaller than a 3DS cartridge and it's 10000+ more powerful. We in the future!

@Anti-Matter You're welcome.

Hey! There's some kind of agenda going on here... Why is everybody trying to sway us on the digital download thing? I like my physical games!! They're "real"!! And lower in price, and gain value!!!

@j-life
Until the Switch was revealed, yes, I preferred disc. The history of the N64's persistence with cartridges when the competition went disc came to mind. However that history is very unlikely to repeat itself.

Sheesh, those are WAY too small. Impractically small, even. My cat could eat one of those if I'm not careful...

Every time they get smaller, I keep thinking of Chris Rock and Joe Pesci in "Lethal Weapon 4"...

"They keep making 'em smaller; you know why? So you'll lose 'em, and why? So you'll have to buy more."

The fact they can even fit such a huge game onto a card that size amazes me like crazy; imagine what they could do with a 100GB disc these days!

@ThanosReXXX I can attest to this, with the atrocity that is Uplay forcing you to play Heroes of Might and Magic (save for the older ones, because that was during a better time when Uplay didn't exist), even in single player, only when logged in. So if Uplay ever has issues... yeah.

What? Didn't have any Vita games on hand?
Would've been nice to see comparison of Vita, 3DS, and Switch.

So the largest game world ever is contained within the smallest game card/cartridge ever... what kind of witchcraft voodoo paradox is this?!?!

@ThanosReXXX so basically "get off my lawn"and what not. Got it.

@Hotfusion I'm just a unique person, mentally, and loading time just kills me. I was playing Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, it's one of the best games I've ever played. And the other day I was thinking, if it wasn't for the loading time I would play another level rather than turning it off.

I much rather have a few masterpiece on the Nintendo 64, 20 years later, than for those masterpieces to be ruined by PS1 level loading time.

I rather the SNES had been cartridge base with no loading time, than to have the same games with extra content, with loading time, or lame cut scene.

The SNES that I feel are masterpiece would have been ruined. That's my logic.

Dahm, florpin tinee arse cahds!

Imagine, eventually game cards will be microsd size and we'll never find them once we blink.

@dronesplitter the Micro SD isn't far off!

@j-life
I agree with you and find no fault in what you said. Let's face it, disc would be unpractical on the Switch, even mini ones.

As for disc loading times, to me this was a Nintendo issue on the WiiU and Wii. The way the other consoles utilises HDD makes this a non issue. At least for me.

You mentioned Donkey Kong TF loading times but personally I found the loading time on almost all Nintendo disc based games a pain. The truth is everything about the WiiU is slow. It took my WiiU sometimes up to twenty seconds just to get into the settings. I changed my router recently and whereas my other devices find networks and connects in seconds, it took ages on the WiiU.

The good news is that the Switch menu is blinding fast (from the YouTube video) and I expect game loading to be the same so we should both be happy.

Oh, one other thing I like about game cards. Noise.. or rather the lack of it.

My WiiU is so noisy reading disc it is annoying.

@Alpha008 N64 cartridges are pretty big and fat, but I'd like a comparison to the most obese carts ever: NeoGeo.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah I didn't think that would be you at all. You seem like the tech of the future, every new advancement and service makes the world a better and better place kinda guy Since you were so big on being interested in wherever the progression of tech heads, it just seemed like a no brainer you'd be part of the chorus of "but digital is the future and it works so well, and everything will be at your fingertips without the need for manufacturing and the limits of material goods, and who wants to be stuck in the past blabityblahblah" junk

Edit: Heck you seemed to love the idea of games as a streaming service! shudder

I know this is obvious, but it's so cool that technology has progressed to being able to shove a massive game on a cart like this. It's been so long since a 'console' used a cart, the time for tech to progress in carts has been a long time coming!

Cool. I've always wanted video games made into SD cards.

Small, smaller and smallest..............next up......MicroSD gaming with Nintendo. No doubt it can be done

Man, there was some wonderful boxart there. Can't wait for next week! Also, I know modern flash storage is incredible but my raised-on-cartridges brain still can't get over how tiny the Switch cards are!

Well, just an SD card for data storing, nothing more. Last console that had true game cartridge was GBA.

@gatorboi352 No, not at all. I don't mind a decent discussion and I did give you plenty of examples from what I myself have seen and experienced, so for all intents and purposes, these are facts, which is why I have no idea how you would come to that conclusion.

But if that is how you feel about it, then that's also fine by me. We all have a right to our own opinion.

Cheers.

@NEStalgia Not so much loved the idea of streaming games, but simply taking into account the various possibilities of it happening and/or being feasible on today's console hardware. (and it is)

I'm all for physical copies of games, but I simply cannot be blind to future developments and more and more, companies move to digital.

@JaxonH Blizzard fans let it slide for Diablo 3. Nintendo fans would probably let it slide, and say, "This is normal now. Accept it."

@ThanosReXXX Still surprising. I think your defeatism toward the inevitability of it comes across as an attempt to convince the reader to succumb to the march of technology (and implies that you support that inevitability.) Glad to see you don't! Actually, try to notice that when you write about it. I think reading posts from knowledgeable people like yourself that sound like an attempt to tell people to "deal with it" (to quote Mattrick) do more to convince people to accept the forfeiture of their rights than any company campaign could

I see the direction they're going with digital too, but I've stopped worrying about it quite so much. I watched PC go almost 100% digital, and that was depressing, but I also realize the PC market is just weird, and I also don't think it would have gone that way were people not paying pennies on the dollar through in the race to the bottom that is Steam. Until someone starts offering AAA games for $20-30 for consoles on digital only, I don't see the same uptick. And considering the big publishers resistance to Steam, I don't see them allowing anyone to duplicate that again. Digital won there due to pricing (and destructive DRM on physical) more than due to convenience.

I spent 20 years worrying about the day that music and movies and games would be digital only. The tech is closer, the adoption is larger, but we're still far from there. Considering music is the smallest and easiest medium to make 100% digital and has the largest adoption, I use that as the barometer. Even with $10/mo streaming or cheaper services, CDs are still in print. They're not in every supermarket anymore, but they exist. It's, what 60/40% for the market now? There will be further shifts but I think digital/physical hits an equilibrium at some point where there's enough market demand to maintain both. The corporate dream of eliminating distribution hasn't come to pass in any industry yet, and most of the remaining physical customers remain not due to technical limits, when it comes to music, but due to a desire for that particular product.

The day the publishers stop pressing music CDs is the day we're one step closer to games and movies going digital only and it might be time to worry. For now I see both models being supported out of sheer demand. Not only is there demand but there's vested interest from the publishers to maintain a shelf presence and to create the image of limited supply.

Not to mention the server farms to distribute this stuff turned out not to be nearly as cheap as these companies imagined compared to manufacture. At least manufacture is value added. Digital is money leaking away to a service provider. They're not seeing the gain they thought they would. Their imperative now is not pushing digital to save on operating costs to increase margins, but simply pushing means to force planned obsolescence, which can be done with physical via other means anyway.

@NEStalgia Defeatism? Oh man, my poor aching heart...

There's a lot of things you can say about me, and not all are positive
( yes, I'm THAT honest... ) but defeatism, real or perceived, is not one of the things that fits the bill.

It is simply realism, which is why I said that I cannot be blind to the likelihood of companies going completely digital, because that is simply an actual possibility, whether I want it or not.

I have very strong principles, but I'll only stick by them as long as they work in my advantage. Once they start working against me, they will need to be revised or dropped altogether.

And it's not so much worrying about it, but more me feeling slightly sad about the game industry probably going in that direction, ESPECIALLY since I like collecting physical games so much. And of course also the considerably larger amount of control over what you've bought that comes with it...

But I have confidence that physical will at least (partially) still be around in my lifetime, or for as long as I will keep on gaming, so I'm good in that respect, but because I'm highly empathic, I still feel sad, even for the generations of gamers to come, that will probably never experience the joys of physical game collecting.

As for the whole CD analogy and the rest you said: all true and completely agreed, although we do have to add to it the benefits (trying to be objective here, so this is NOT my personal opinion) and savings of digital only, so on the one hand there are OTHER costs involved with going full digital, but there's also the benefits of not having to manufacture physical game media and packaging/artwork, shop space, stands and so on. And also no risk of making too few or too many copies that'll end up in the bargain bin.

Having the game in an eShop makes it VERY easy to discontinue it when interest in it goes down, so there will never be an issue of surplus amounts of games being made, it can be "made to fit", so to speak.

And all of that comprises a rather considerable amount of savings, that can go towards paying for these alternative costs that come with the territory of digital distribution...

@ThanosReXXX Haha, well I didn't say you ARE a defeatist...just that it can read that way as phrased

Yeah, if we're going past our own generations, then yeah it's a real enough possibility that things will go all digital and future generations won't have the joy of collecting the games. OTOH, while for many years I was increasingly convinced that would be the case, I'm less certain. I see a stunning amount of young teens & 20's people firmly embracing collectible to a degree that 10 years ago I thought wouldn't exist. So it's entirely possible the joy of collecting will still keep physical in demand permanently (unless cost advantage becomes so great as to offset it which no company is even attempting to angle for. The goal for them isn't to increase value it's to increase margin ). Plus, gamers, by nature are kind of into compulsively collecting and "maxing" things...in retrospect it shouldn't be surprising that physical collections are a thing. Also the fact that XBox was viciously treated in the community (while previously #1) for their attempt at selling physical that was tied to online was heartening. I didn't think that many gamers still valued their rights It wasn't a tech issue, or a collectibles issue (it still had discs), it was a rights issue.

There's definitely cost savings from not manufacturing, but I think the numbers thrown around early into digital (from the recording industry) were these pie in the sky dreams of how, basically, servers and bandwidth cost next to nothing and they'd save all this supply chain money. The reality of the cost of servers, security, staff, and bandwidth caught up to them harder than they imagined. It ends up nearly break-even, but while physical manufacture increases their value in terms of non-liquid assets, digital became mostly endless outflows of payments. Plus a big loss in visibility from lacking a physical footprint. These business seriously thought a few LAMP servers running in the executive suites could run their business empire for like $300 a year or something and save them millions in costs. They eased off their digital push when three things happened: 1) The costs of cloud servers, usually leased, and bandwidth was not the free lunch they envisioned, and 2) The move to digital reduced the perceived value of the product and consumers demanded (and rewarded) lower pricing to the point that music is worth pennies now. 3) Consumers forced them to stop their restrictive DRM and rewarded services that opened up to no DRM, eliminating their primary interest of forced obsolescence by ending disc resale. It actually made the problem worse by allowing unlimited copying with the push of a button. It was never about distribution, it was about control of usage. Their own efforts to restrict users came back to bite them and they lost that battle. It wasn't long after that that they stopped trying to convince everyone to stop buying CDs and then came back around to the physical buyers that they spent years telling "your media is a relic, move to digital" and went "hey forget CD's we've got vinyl again! So much better than that lossy digital stuff!"

Personally I dislike digital, HOWEVER, I've bought some records digital if it's cheap enough for something I won't listen to critically. And I subscribe to, I can't remember, 3 streaming services? I use them all the time. But that replaced radio, another streaming service, not physical albums which I also still buy (and buy MORE of them as the streaming introduces me to more things I like.) Of course I do rip them for my own digital library now...so convenience plays a role there still, in a way that 100GB game downloads sucking up a hard drive don't.

So I think the push for digital in games will remain as long as they can maintain the same price points as physical, can use it to maintain control over usage and ownership, and they don't have a large audience resisting it. Once consumers demand greater digital freedom and control so that it no longer has an advantage over physical to the companies, and once consumers demand lower (Steam-like) pricing for digital, you'll see the companies lose interest and embrace the split in the audience preferring physical. And given the big companies like EA and Ubi effectively boycotting Steam's pricing model by boycotting Steam itself, they'll be stuck right where they are indefinitely.

I'm more worried about renewed attempts to license physical like digital ala XBone in it's original form than pure digital.

@NEStalgia That's a hell of a lot of points that I can heartily agree with. Especially the pie in the sky part. As an IT Sales guy, I've experienced this whole media circus of the unlimited promise of server storage first hand...

And another thing I need to get off my chest: although on the one hand, I'm not exactly advocating more users to join NLife to plaster the comments sections with walls upon walls of text, yours make sense most of the time, so they are actually a rather welcome addition, which begs the question: why where you just a lurker for so long? Although in all fairness, I was one myself for about a half year as well, before I finally decided to post my first comment, but still...

And there's more "wondering about" going on at this end of the ocean, in that other topic we're in. Be sure to let me know your verdict once you've sunk your teeth into the F-Zero games.

It's always nice when we from the dedicated F-Zero mob manage to convert another lost or clueless soul...

Looks like I'm mainly buying physical over digital like I do with my Vita.

There are a lot of fantastic games for other systems featured in those pictures.

@ThanosReXXX Haha, I bet you have! Somehow in the little pea brains of bean counters everywhere, when the word "cloud" popped up circa '99-'03 (the absolute most grotesque marketing buzzword since the invention of putting an 'e' before everything digital in the 90's), they all somehow understood the cloud as a magic place where all the inner tubes endlessly pour fairy dust and unicorn urine, and everything is free for everyone but their customers! Then the arrays of 800 $600 SCSI drives started failing.....

Haha, you know I never set out to write a text wall. I sit down and think "I'll just hammer out a few quick thoughts in response to this" and then I hit Reply and realize I have to scroll a while to see any other post I just make sure to cover complete thoughts, and it ends up lengthy. As for why I lurked so long, that's a good question. I think a mix of knowing I'd end up spending way too much time writing text walls (retaining a last shred of self control!), and not deciding to stick my toe in the water in case of shark attack, I.E. like we talked about in the other thread, most forums for general gaming are like a gladiator fight without weapons. Took a while of making sure the thoughtful people were long term members rather than passing through before wasting time on it. Non-gaming forums you can rely on a good group of people. But gaming has earned its social stigma, as we know, so I'm a bit more cautious before diving into the opaque, glowing water.

And yeah, I'll definitely let you know about FZ. I'm absolutely curious. But still wrapping up WiiU stuff this week, HOPEFULLY exactly one week from now I'll be diving into BotW...who knows when I'll get a chance to swing back around to FZ. But I'm definitely curious! Had no idea I was missing out on anything other than a 3D drawn F-Zero(SNES)!

@NEStalgia And not just SCSI drives: I used to work for HP, and they marketed the advent of their back then brand new "Blade server" line as the second coming of the Messiah. But obviously it wasn't, and now they've invented cloud storage and terminology such as "big data" to account for the "unforeseen growth"...

As for anonymously hanging around without commenting at first: I guess I had the same reservations as you, then. Some say that's not all that weird, coming from sites like IGN and GameSpot...

And I can definitely agree on text walls sometimes just happening. Quite often, I even have to remove or change the sentence I started the comment with, because I enthusiastically start typing "just a few quick answers" but then it turns into a text wall anyways.

Apparently, us older guys just can't squeeze all our thoughts in compact texts, or we just want to be sure that we're completely clear in our answers, I don't know...

What kind of Wii U stuff are you wrapping up? Just Zelda or also other titles?

I'm still diving in full force, since I only bought one last Christmas (yeah, a bit late, I know but #circumstances) and now I only have Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 1&2 bundle, Darksiders 2, Zombi U, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 and Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition.

And today I ordered Ninja Gaiden 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Call of Duty Ghosts and Project Guard, so that's my entire physical collection as of now.

Got some downloads as well: got the extra levels for Mario Kart 8, Swords & Soldiers 2, Freedom Planet, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Affordable Space Adventure, Lost Reavers and Zen Pinball 2 (Guardians of the Galaxy table).

@ThanosReXXX " I used to work for HP"
You have my sympathy

Oh dear, blade servers.... I need my earplugs and Space Shuttle heat shield tiles just thinking about them.... Kudos to you marketing folks on that for managing to convince ANYONE those disasters of third rate engineering design were as much as usable IBMs still running with it though. It's like a little WiiU in every blade...

"Big data" isn't as irksome a term as "cloud" though. Cloud was a magical perfectly vague term that means whatever the listener wants it to mean, while not having to understand at all what they're actually talking about. Big data is at least descriptive. Though at this point I thought it just meant "Google & Amazon, the only servers the world needs"

"Unforseen growth". I like that. It's fun. It creates the image "You THOUGHT your company was careening into a bottomless abyss of bankruptcy, and possible malfeasance litigation, but look, you're suddenly a success! You did NOT see that coming! Shouldn't you prepare for that possibility TODAY?"

Yeah, I end up deleting prefaces like that often as well. it probably comes from working long enough with customers who need everything spelled out for them in 4-color pictures to understand what you're saying. The younger folks are used to schools where communicating with people in single sentences conveys all the thoughts that need to be said. Versus once you've been out in business long enough you get used to having to include every possible contingent counter argument, including thorough, detailed examples, to every point of discussion being raised to the point that no conversation feels complete without it.

You can't just say "pass the salt". You end up saying "Pass the salt, if possible, to the left, however, in the event that your beverage blocks the path, it would be acceptable to pass the salt to the right, between the pepper and paper napkin holder. If that proves difficult, there are a few other possibilities..." It becomes a tic.

I'm still wrapping up the tail end of TMS#FE which I expected to be sort of a "eh kind of cool, but I don't need to finish it" but turned out be a wonderfully bizarre masterpiece. I daresay one of Atlus' finest RPGs despite not having the scope of their bigger games. Any game that has a bunch of pop idol kids battling demons and randomly breaking into a music video as a special random attack is just so weirdly memorable next to all the grays and browns that dominate gaming. It's the first RPG in a long time that dared a totally out-of-nowhere theme. The FE elements in there keep it grounded in "gamedom" as well. It feels like a fanfic made into a big studio game.

I never started Rayman...still sealed...might sell it off and rebuy on Switch. I never started XBCX. I have no illusions of finishing it, but I'm debating between giving the intro a start if I finish the end of TMS in the next few days just to see it, or avoiding it so it doesn't ruin the grand entrance of BotW in which case I still have the last two chapters of Tropical Freeze to finish. With those exceptions I think I've played every retail game on WiiU except Devil's Third, and Animal Crossing Scrabble or whatever that monstrosity was. And Watch Dogs which I got the PS4 version and slogged through the first half of it before accepting it was just a bad game. Oh, and ZombiU...zombies just aren't my thing.

Wow your WiiU play-through is like time traveling 4 years ago. I remember that lineup fondly Year 1 was great, and then went downhill fast. Bayonetta (especially 2) and Darksiders are fantastic. Darksiders gets choppy on the WiiU at times, but the game itself is really great. It's really underappreciated. Some people liked the first better, but I never played it. Blops2...well...it's certainly ok...decent even. I enjoyed it 4 years ago...not sure I need to ever play COD again. Arkham was cool. It was like mid-90's again. There's a weird feeling to the Arkham games, but they're just so well put together and atmospheric. At least the ones that don't blow the budget on a batmobile....

Gaiden 3 was, to me really good. It got a lot of hate early on, maybe only due to comparing it against 2 which is a classic, but I thought it had great gameplay in it. NFSMW is one of the most fun racing games, and I'm not even a racing fan. I got NFSHP at PS4 launch and it lacked so much charm. Criterion was really the best studio for those.

That's a fun library right there. You get to relive the glory days of the WiiU launch. I'm Jealous Launch was amazing. It was what happened the years after that were less so.

I think the games that most define the launch for me are Darksiders 2, and Mass Effect 3 (because I was already a big ME fan since the PC release of 1.)

The games that most define the whole console for me are Splatoon, Wooly World, and SMT#FE, oddly enough. It's a "very WiiU game."

@NEStalgia No need for sympathy, I actually VERY much enjoyed working at HP. It has been my longest run in any company. I started at Compaq, and during my career it was taken over by HP.

Funny thing was a running commercial back then (don't know if you also had it in the States) was an F1 racing car barreling down a race track, that was originally painted in red and white and a Compaq logo, but was later on edited/Photoshopped to show a blue and white car with an HP logo...

But they were a great employer: decent salaries, decent bonuses (boni?) and parties/out for drinks on a regular basis. And discounts on the gym next door...

Agreed on the difference between cloud and big data, but what I meant with that is that they continually come up with new words and terminology to account for there not being a cap on things. Everything keeps getting bigger/more expansive, even though they thought back then that they had the solutions to future proof stuff, and that has happened several times...

And the thing with the blade servers, even though I don't agree with your assessment of them, because HP's blade servers were actually quite good, was more that I was trying to show yet another example of how people future-proofing back then, really wasn't all that future-proof. Going from normal servers to blade servers to HQ Blades, to cloud, and we STILL come up short for storage space...

And THAT is what I meant with the unforeseen growth, the growth of data storage capacity needed to provide for companies' needs, not money growth or something else.

And people on here battle over 32GB storage...

Agreed on our usage of vocabulary and amount of text (how could I possibly not?).

As for the games: I just bought these two COD games because they are the only COD games on the Wii U; personally, I much prefer the games based on actual events instead of the fully futuristic or fantasy mixed with facts like Black Ops, but I like diversity on all my consoles, so that is also why I bought them.

The reason why I bought that specific Batman game is because of the GamePad functionality, which I really like, now that I've tried it out. But I have also bought a Pro Controller and played some games with that as well.

I still want to buy all the other must-haves, such as the ones you mentioned, but most of them are still pretty pricey over here, so I have to be a bit selective in what I buy and when, so I started out with all the cheaper titles: nothing of what I've bought so far has cost me more than 20 euros per title.

Most of the other triple A or first party games are more expensive, so these will be bought somewhere later this year. I intend to buy at least two games a month, to make sure that I will still be able to grab most of them before they run out of stock or they are taken off the market...

I also don't understand all the criticism aimed at the GamePad: it's light as a feather, ergonomically shaped (for me at least, I believe I have medium-sized hands, so it's a good match) and the screen isn't drab or "coated in Vaseline" (like some idiots claim) at all.

I've played a lot of Mario Kart in Off TV mode, and I think it looks great, and the graphics are crisp. And I've got a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to compare screens with. Obviously that looks quite a bit better, but the Wii U is no slouch either, so what the hell all the negativity is about is completely beyond me.

I did find out about the bad range of it, though. But plenty of reviews already warned me about that, so that wasn't really a very big surprise to me.

P.S.

Darksiders 1 is an absolute must-have. It's arguably even a better game than the second, so grab it on whatever system you want, you can't go wrong with it. And both games tie into the other at certain points, so you'll feel instantly more at home with both titles (or at the very least you'll experience more recognition with stuff happening in the second game) and that in and of itself might also be a nice entry into the third part of the series, which should come somewhere in 2018 or 2019....

Now that I think about it that makes sense. My opinion of HP has always been that it was a company run by the marketing department. So you were at the top of the food chain!

Every now and again I do find that the HP version of a product is quite good. It doesn't happen often though. The old Proliants were good, I'll give them that. Around the late 90's, everything HP turned to poo, both consumer and enterprise. They're getting better again though, at least consumer (I haven't dared go there fore enterprise...) as my current Spectre x360 is very nice (guzzles battery though.) Hm...what years did you say you were there again? Maybe those drinking parties explains some things in my hardware graveyard here....

The blade servers, especially those HP ones (not so much the PPC IBM ones) I'm sure performed well, but the problem was they baked terribly hot in those slim chassis, and the little 20mm or 40mm fans had to ramp up much too high to cool them, so they were always deafening with those shrieking fans, and the cage always needed so much cooling.

Granted, I don't hate HP as a company unlike some other tech industry companies....I just don't have a very high opinion of their products, or at least not until the recent split of consumer/enterprise, and always envisioned a company of browbeaten engineers who wanted to make good products and were always told to cut corners, where the left hand never knows what the right is doing.

Games:
Makes sense, 1st party games are always pricy from Nintendo...I wonder when they'll go down in price over there. Theyre still all full price for the most part here. Mass Effect I'd only caution that it's part 3 of 3. It's a decent RPG. The 1st was the most RPG-ish, the second one was when EA bought Bioware and tried to remove everything RPG from it. IT was awful (but was a critical story part.) The 3rd picks up right when everything hits the fan (and EA stopped trying to make it COD Space Marine Edition) so it's a better game than 2, but is pretty hard to get into if you don't know the story so far....thus why it failed on WiiU. Also, if you haven't played Deus Ex: HR on another platform yet, you MUST play that It's also an RPG/shooter like ME with an emphasis (but not mandate) on stealth. But it's great game world if you like "near future dystopian sci-fi" The first game (PC) represents the end of the story and the gameplay hasn't aged well but the story is the best of the series, but HR is a stellar reboot prequel. It's Squeenix, so I imagine you can get it cheap.

Gamepad: I loved the off-TV play of the GamePad. People just hate the outer layer of the resistive touch screen in front of it. Of course most of these people are younger and used to glossy capacitive digitizers and just aren't used to what came before. They've probably never seen truly bad LCD panels. The ergonomics though...I loved the ergonomics at first, but I've learned to not be as happy with it as I was. I've had a few odd effects from the position it holds my hand. It SHOULD be comfortable, but something about the way it shapes/separates my trigger finger from my middle finger can cause discomfort after a while (and nerve issues at worst.) So while I like the gamepad shape, I give credit to some complaints about it. SOMETHING about it holds at least some hands the wrong way at least some of the time. I still like it much more than PS3's controller though! (If Switch is better or worse, we'll see...)

Much as I find the screen fine, I really don't think it can compare to the OLED displays on the Galaxy S/Note series. Those are some of the very best displays anywhere on the market. Even an iOS device looks kind of 'meh' next to a Galaxy (or Vita for that matter.) Still, anyone griping it's coated in Vaseline probably has a backlight glaring right across the satin finish outer plastic! That's one flaw of the display's outer covering is it's glare-prone. not a fault of the WiiU though, just the nature of the digitizer. The screen looks just fine to me. The resolution hurts at times for more complex games with tinier text on the interfaces..that's the only serious complaint. I played Wind Waker, ME3 and Darksiders 2 100% on the Gamepad. Played like a dream. I'm so glad the Switch continues that concept!

Yeah I was planning on the DS1 WiiU version....not sure what way I'll go now that Switch is arriving. I'm just so happy there will be a DS3. I thought that series was dead when THQ went down and DS2 under-performed. It's a great series!

@ogo79 bruh

@NintendoLife This Is Pretty Small But I Love It Some Cards Are Gonna Be Smaller Im Guessing

@Braok

@Tempestryke The real question is why is Sony making CD sized boxes for a piece of paper with a download code.

@Olkris That is the question!