Wolfenstein: Youngblood Might Come With A Download Code Instead Of A Game Card

That would make it a lot less interesting, I'm not ready to upgrade my SD card yet. Maybe the Japanese version will be on cart so we can import.

Oh yeah, an empty box.

Totally worth the price hike.

The remark about the standard edition refers to the fact that only the deluxe edition will be available at retail. Both versions, however, are available in the U.S.

@Strumpan : The Japanese version of a screwed-up Western release has never included the full game on cartridge, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Thanks, Fraud Howard...

If that's the case, I don't mind passing on this. Just means I'll play it on my X instead

It's always nice to have a choice between a digital download and a fake physical release that is only a download code. How about letting us purchase a physical release? Maybe skip the box, we'd rather have the cartridge than the crappy box with no instructions or inserts! Yeah, we need to start demanding no box! I don't want to buy an empty box, nor do I want a half-cartridge/half digital download!

It's like they don't want our money. Well if this is true, they won't be getting mine. Digital is bad enough (at least for me) but a code in a case is downright insulting. I wish this ridiculous trend would end.

Enough of this, honestly.

Gamers in decades past (still here obviously) would have mourned a glimpse into this soulless, hardly a box future...

Oh well, Was leaning to PC anyway. Easier to find a buddy to play with in my cIrcle

Well, it's a pass for me. I'll pick it up for my Xbox One X 6 months after it comes out. By then it will be half price and the superior version. I do hope Panic Button does a great job, though. Lots of people only have a Switch and will want to play this game.

This was definitely on my buy list as is everything Bethesda. However if it’s not even going to be on a game card half or not think I may pass on this. But if it’s released on a game card it will be a day 1 purchase

I've been 99% digital with my Switch, no skin off my nose, after all it's only games at the end of the day.

They knew we can't get a refund if we bought it digital so they force digital on us by pretending to be physical. Such a scheming practice indeed. In the case if this game does sucks or is not up to standard like the New Colossus, Bethesda would had already ran away with the money. I too may give this game a pass if no true physical version exist.

The physical release of Wolfenstein 2 was half cartridge/half digital, so I guess this would be the logical step... But let's not be hasty.

Here in the UK apparently download only is about 50% of the market vs boxed which is about 25%. BBC news article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47783558

at this point they might as well make the switch digital only, i don't even know why they even bothered with cartridges at all.

@retro_player_22 if people were smart enough they would only buy Switch exclusives on the console and buy the rest on ps4 and xbox one to have a choice of physical.

But unfortunately that is not the case.

even on ps4 and xbox the choice of physical is getting slim so nowhere is safe anymore.

@Sephiroth_FF unfortunately it's not going to stop anytime soon.

So it's not a physical edition then, just seems like a huge waste of plastic if you're not going to put an actual product in there

Weird. What I love about it though how clearly it shows the intelligence of the average consumer.

I have never understood the “code in a box” thing and I buy digital all the time. Seems like a waste of money on the dev’s side.

Seems like the digital age is upon us. I love it! Either embrace it or don’t ever play games again. Physical users seem to be the minority more and more everyday. I give it 2 more years before everything goes digital! Whooo-hoo!

@WiltonRoots And you call yourself a gamer! 😛

That is the way to give incentive to multiple systems owners!

This was a One X purchase for me anyway!

I'll pass on this game on switch if that's true.

Worst decision ever!

@huyi Buying physical on XBOX ONE or PS4 is completely pointless. Since you always have to install the entire game onto the HDD.

What’s the bloody point of making a box for a game without a cartridge? Not only is that stupid and wasteful but a complete environmental hazard to boot. What a friggin’ asinine thing to do... sickening.

I mostly wonder whether the "buddy pass" co-op will work over local wireless, or only over the internet, requiring a subscription... In case of the latter I'll definitely skip this. I want to play co-op locally.
Then again, if I have to download the game twice even when buying it "boxed", my monthly data will probably be spent all on this one purchase, already making it very expensive... This is really getting tiresome and frustrating.
Well, we'll play some more Timesplitters then, until someone somewhere finally figures out (again) how co-op shooters and fun are combined in a consumer-friendly way.

@OptometristLime yes I am still here 😂 and I don’t like it at all.

Seems pointless to even have a physical version then anyway, apart from to please the collectors.

It's a budget $29.99 release, if it came on a 16gb card it would cost more than the other versions for sure. Then people would be complaining about that. The physical option is just for those who like to collect boxes.If there was no physical option at all, people would be complaining about that also. We've got to be realistic here, Switch game cards cost more than discs, we know that. The blame lies more with Nintendo than 3rd parties.

Looks like I'm going to skip buying two copies of this as well. Evidently, Bethesda doesn't want my money.

Fire Emblem is out on the same day, so... small mercies?

@BensonUii : Doesn't Nintendo offer replacements?

I can't imagine what could have happened to the cartridge short of mistreatment or the fermentation of the saliva from having licked the cartridge finally catching up with you.

Oh dear..... This now looks like a pass from me. I expected a Internet download to be required as I couldnt see the game fitting completely on the cartridge. But selling a box without a cartridge with a code inside????? Not for me sorry.

@KingdomHeartsFan Or physical were you gamecard dies or disc rot or scratches on you discs.

On the Switch you can make a backup of the gamedata on your SD card and restore it to a newer SD card if your SD card dies on you.

@KingdomHeartsFan I'm someone who is mostly all digital and here is my reasoning. I'm 41 year old so potentially losing access to my games in my late 50's is not something worth worrying about. All I care about is convenience now while the game and system are still fresh. What may happen in 15 years or so when traditional gaming hardware may not even exist is not something that concerns me. If I'm still gaming at that time, I'll have the latest Nintendo system whatever it is. I'm not one to collect systems and it doesn't bother me that I no longer have access to my 64 games so the same applies with Switch

Manufacturing plastic cases for a download code just seems environmentally irresponsible to me. Such a conflicting message. All digital is better for the environment...so we'll make a plastic cover for a code. Or, we want retail visibility, but let's not actually make a retail version. AAAAAAAAGH!!! Can we please go back to the 90s.

@GrailUK : But without the enormous boxes for a little CD jewel case.

I recall buying a boxed game on a CD containing a whopping 300kB of data. That would fit on a 1.44MB floppy four times over!

Still, they were good times. And most games were DRM free as well!

@Silly_G You made me think of X-wing on the PC lol. Huge box with a CD case inside lol.

If we want a Game card version we have to tell Bethesda we're willing to pay the extra that game card manufacture costs. So contact them. Tweet them.

Bethseda are probably doing this code thing for retail prominence and to enable gifting of the game.

This is just plain dumb. So many gamers are going to pass on this now.

They will of course charge full price for it without a card.

I'll buy this and then sell it when I've finished it...oh wait..

@Kinpatsu I’m not a big fan of the “code in a box”, but for a publisher I think it makes a lot of sense at it ticks a number of boxes.

Firstly it appeals to people that like displaying something and to retain something tangible. That’s not everyone but there’s a market for it clearly.

Secondly and I think most importantly, it boosts presence of the game by having it marketed in physical stores by the store itself. More eyes that see the game the easier it is to attract sales. Combined with the first point it’s also a way to market to people that don’t visit the eStore or possibly don’t even play games themselves, such as moms and dads, who are buying the game for someone else. Not only can it be a sale based on little background but the fact there’s at least a case means a gift has a tangible component to it, something that can be wrapped up and given as gifts so often are.

Thirdly while it’s a compromise and doesn’t feed into second hand trade, I assume physical stores would rather be getting games than not getting major releases at all. Keeping them on side is important for selling other things be it other games or hardware.

It’s been going on for a while so I can assume the economics of it does work. Again, not for me but I can see why a developer may do it.

Doom requires a huge download as well, not to mention all those post-release updates, so it surprising that this one will too.

Unless the full game is on cartridge, then releasing this is a full download /or half cart-half download is moot, since you can't play it out of the box, and defeat those who are afraid that downloads would one day be cut.

@HexagonSun Good point. All the 3rd party support we get the better. Complaining about only digital releases is a bit of a first world problem.

@Smigit Don’t confuse me with all of your logic! Lol.

Yeah. Makes sense. Just seems weird buying an “empty” box.

Physical Collector's Edition: A bunch of worthless mass produced trinkets and NOT the video game they were manufactured to advertise!!!1 ::--DD

Hoping they won't go for that approach, but hey, it has happened before.

Two things:

One, the Switch “box art” never showed that ugly internet connection required nonsense that always ruins the design. And two, it makes absolutely no sense that North America wouldn’t be included with the other regions that don’t have physical available, not to mention that only the standard edition talks about digital only. North America is a huge market just to ignore an important detail like that.

So, I don’t buy it just yet. If it does end up being true, I’m gonna be very disappointed. For Bethesda’s sake I hope it isn’t true, cause they need to instill some good faith again after Fallout 76’s epic disaster.

@HexagonSun

I agree that it’s so nice to have third party support again. I felt the same way about a Fatal Frame on Wii U being digital in NA. I was just happy to have it. However for this, I would be disappointed only because Bethesda wasn’t upfront about the Switch being an all digital release in one of the biggest regions. Kinda an important thing to tell us when preorders go live.

@retro_player_22

If it is true its because of cartridge prices, not cause of fearing mass refunds.

Its unfortunate but i dont mind it that much. Its 30 dollars and also a spin off title. Though i woulnt mind paying extra 10bucks to have it physical.

Why are they even bothering with a physical release then?

@brandonbwii Hahaha nearly spat out my Kronenbourg!

@Medic_alert I like the smart install system idea, Microsoft did that for a few XB1 games and it works very well. Like Master Chief Collection allows you to decide which games' campaigns and multiplayer you want to install.

While I generally prefer physical copies of games, I buy digital too. But I am NOT interested in buying a box with a code! What's the point?! If I want the cover artwork I can just print that out myself! A box with a code is really really dumb! If I am going to download it, I'll just download it from the eshop!

I actually kinda get why they did this, its bound to be a hit by the "switch tax" which normally sucks but the game isn't being sold at full RRP but at the £35 mark, the switch tax would make it look like it was full price on the switch where other versions was budget priced.

Off to cancel my preorder ☹️

i was interested in this but now that it is digital only with an empty box, i'll just get in on pc instead. No point into buying the switch version unless you want 340p 25fps in portable mode.

Wolfenstein 2 was ok for a switch port but the framerate and resolution were terrible for a shooter.

I hope it's not true, as someone above, I'm also not ready to upgrade my SD card. I want the Deluxe Edition, let's see if this turn out to be false.

Well, Nintendo really got over on companies with the whole cartridge gimmick again. That's how they made a load of cash in the NES and the SNES days. Of course companies would have rather went to the CD format due to the cheapness of it. Nintendo should have recognised this issue ahead of time. But... maybe they did and didn't really care due to their compression wizardry🤔 Oh, well... I'll probably still get it.

This game looks average at best. Maybe a rental. Hardly worth getting upset about.
Bethesda is a terrible company and it shows in their games and business models.

I don't mind an all digital future, so long as the pricing is right. There's no need to pay full price for what amounts to a copy and paste of an exe. It becomes even less valuable when these companies flip a magic switch the next gen and those digital games no longer work.

It's going to become increasingly difficult for Nintendo to try and tell us that we have to keep buying these games again and again. There's really no excuse that modern hardware can't run these games....with ease. Some of these retro games weigh in the megabytes. There's no excuse and it's downright criminal to abuse nostalgia and exclusivity to peddle 8bit games for 10000% markup.

But I guess Nintendo has to do something to maintain the perception that the switch has a healthy and steadily growing library. By greenlighting every piece of shovelware and overpriced nostalgic cash grabs they can.

Blame Nintendo for making a system with a pitiful amount or internal storage that uses expensive cards to play games from.

@sanderev you don't have to download the game data from PSN, it's installed FROM THE DISC.

the only data you have to download from psn is the day one patches but that it the norm these days for all platforms.

@CrazyZelda79 the investment is worth it unless you want to keep buying wasteful plastic cases with voucher codes for your game collection and getting ripped off, be my guest.

the only people who have to put up with this is stubborn people who only have a switch.

@Edu23XWiiU in a way it forces people to keep upgrading their micro sd cards with all the data that is needed to download even if you prefer physical only.

fortunate for me i use my switch for just the exclusives so my library is very small, but for anyone else like people who have just a switch and prefers physical they have to keep upgrading with how much data is required to download all this stuff.

@SharkAttackU you can also blame nintendo for using cartridges in the first place, it was a bad idea from the start, cartridges back when the n64 was released were just as expensive to buy and had limitations with how much data it could hold, games were gimped compared to other platforms (ps1) because of this and even final fantasy 7 moved to playstation because of how limited the space was on the n64 carts, history is repeating itself.

@Medic_alert Reviews could be misleading sometimes too. Some reviewers could give a game a bad score just cause they either expect too much and didn't get what they want or they are just not good in playing the game. Not all reviews are honest and I certainly need to try the game to know if I would enjoy them or not, simply reading about them ain't going to cut it. Games like Battle Princess Madelyn got mediocre scores but I play that and enjoy it more than something like Kingdom Hearts 3 which was a boredfest. With digital only game on Switch you can't try them and refund them if you already bought them and not all games on the eShop had demo version.

@MoonKnight7 A big company like Bethesda can't afford to invest in a bigger cartridge to complete their game? If they were a smaller company like WayForward, Slightly Mad Studio, or Shin'en then I would agree but this is Bethesda man, they had no excuse for doing this just like Capcom. A big name company with a truck load of money making franchise is too afraid to invest in something that would complete their game, that doesn't make a slight of sense.

@retro_player_22 most likely the Switch is gonna sell the worst out of all the versions. So to answer your question, of course Bethesda could afford it, but it’s the same reason why Wolf 2 shipped on a 16 GB card, not a 32, requiring a 7 GB download. Bethesda isn’t gonna make their profits razor thin, on the worst selling console just so Switch owners can get a cartridge. What I will say isn’t right, if it’s true, is that they should have informed us about this right out of the gate. Let’s keep in mind though, we don’t know if it’s true yet, I’d like confirmation from Bethesda itself. Someone should be able to get it out of them soon.

@huyi
Owning a TV and calling yourself smart is a joke.

Not a deal breaker for me. Will still get it. I don't care if it is digital or physical.

I’d prefer it to be physical but that’s certainly not a dealbreaker by any means. I like playing video games far more than I like owning physical games. I buy all the best games digitally in addition to physical anyways.

Best part though, being in a box means I still get BestBuy GCU discount.

@Tendogamerxxx

Bait

No physical release? Its a pass for me as well. This trend is just more of the same. The corps own your game you do not.

If this is only a download that will be disappointing- I will still get this game but now it will for a decent memory card sale.

I didn't buy the first Wolfenstein because of the ridiculous download requirement. ( Cheap Cartridge ).

Now this? Well, if it's true it's a hard pass for me.

I dont buy download codes!

@huyi doesn't matter, it still makes absolutely no sense to buy physical on the ps4 and xone because you STILL have to download the entire game onto your harddrive, doesn't matter where it come from you cannot play the games from the disc itself.
There's many things wrong with digital only to much for me to get into.
I'm glad Nintendo has physical carts, it's one of the very few things keeping my intrest in video games.

I'll wait for a sale. Been playing through Wolfenstein II on Xb1 and so far I like it less than the first one. I wouldn't want a game card anyway but it seems kind of weird... I mean why bother?

That sucks for those with poo poo internet download speeds and/or a data cap. Would be nice if Nintendo could get the costs down on the carts so that publishers did not have to resort to this.

That kinda defeats the entire purpose of a physical edition.

The most I spend on digital only games is twenty bucks and then it has to be something I really want to play . Digital only is such a consumer rip off there are so many reasons why like you can't trade or resell or be forced into adding more memory to a system etc., etc., So needless to say if this is true I will be passing up Youngblood.

This is a whole lot of BS. They can put it on a cart and charge for it and we'll buy it. I think this is a mis-guided management and will come back to haunt them. If they make a Physical release later one buyers will do a charge back to them for cheating them out of it.

I'm still going to buy the game; I don't mind digital download titles (they are actually cheaper where I am as compared to the import taxes of physical copies) but this practice of releasing physical boxes with just a piece of paper inside seems ridiculous.

Not shocked TBH. The game will presumably be quite large and it only costs $30 rather than the standard $60 since if is just a spinoff.

@Jin15 not in the eyes of the people/companies who sell games. It’s more about exposure than providing collectibles/hard copies.

@Tendogamerxxx millions of gamers will stop buying games at that point. It will be felt across the globe for devs

I don't mind buying physical and digital games, and personally, I prefer physical for bigger games like this. Micro SD cards are pretty limited space-wise so I rather buy bigger games as a physical game card, and download an update if it's needed.

What I don't get is, why create retail packaging for a simple download code? If I wanted a download, then I'd just buy it from the eShop.

@Zuljaras actually the switch compresses data so the dls are way smaller. A 50gb game would be 10 on the switch. Also the fact that you are not required to do a physical copy on the switch which means you save that he space. I have a 400 gb SD and am only using 100gbs with well over 50 games on my system alone not including my physicals.

@BensonUii the fact is you are not purchasing a game if it is a dl. As for physical 20 years from now I'll still be able to play it period.

@Dirty0814 They must not be “gamers” then, they are just in it to collect boxes on a shelf so their non-existent friends can gawk at their marvelous, incomplete game collection. By incomplete I mean all the patches, dlc, and free context updates that aren’t on that cart.

@retro_player_22 it's called being stingy, they are too tight to pay the fee needed to use larger capacity cartridges en mass.

greed shows no bounds.

What's the logic behind this? No seriously. If it's "to save money" then you're not because they're wasting money on cases, cover art paper, and the codes to go inside. If they just said eShop only, yeah we would be upset (considering Doom, Wolf 2, and Skyrim are all physical) but at least theydt be honest. This is just sleazy at best and completely lazy at worst. Indie game studios can afford their games put on the carts, but a big AAA corporation (WHO HAS DONE IT BEFORE), can't?

Shame because I think the game might be great. Oh well...

Good. The game cards are stupid. Inconvenient to load/store, delicate and a waste of space and a waste of manufacturing cost.

I’ll be getting this digitally on the Xbox One most likely anyhow (assuming there aren’t any Mein Leiben achievements).

@CrazyZelda79 “It's still low life and wrong”

That’s very dramatic. There’s countless things that are far worse than offering a DLC code at retail and if you want to go down that path then it’s actually less wasteful to the environment etc than including the cart. It’s marginally worse than a physical gift card and it provides an opportunity to those that don’t have credit cards to buy via an eshop access to a title.

Again, I prefer the cart but using murder as an arguments clearly hyperbole.

Seems like a huge waste of plastic

Xbox One X seems like a good choice for me.

@JR150
Indie games don’t require 16-32gb carts. That’s the difference.

For a $60 game, makes a lot more sense to shell out 20% of your profit margin for a cartridge. For a $30 game, that sense starts getting called into question. That doesn’t mean I like it, but I recognize that it’s a real issue and I don’t necessarily blame them. It is most definitely saving money. Cases and a paper slip cost less than a dollar. A 16-32gb cartridge can cost 10x that amount, which for a $20-30 game can be 25% or more of total revenue, of which only 50% was profit in the first place, meaning they are sacrificing half their profit just to put it on cart.... Think about that for a second, digest it.

And this is not “dishonest”. It says right on the case that a code is included. Nobody is being conned here. This is just a matter of shelf presence. And yes it cost a little money to make the case, but the small amount of money it takes to make the case will return them a far greater profit from increased sales due to exposure in the retail market.

This is why you’re seeing so many digital games from Capcom in the $20-30 range. Shelling out for a 16-32gb cartridge for a $20 or $30 game is hard to justify. That’s why it’s so fantastic when we see games using large cartridges that still sell for $20-30. Like Darksiders. Go support games like that if you want to show support.

As for Wolfenstein, it is what it is. Digital games are not the end of the world. And a time is coming where all games are going to be digital. It’s not like streaming where you don’t physically own the game data. You still own the game data inside your house. You can back it up on multiple SD cards and store it on your PC. It’s not going to suddenly disappear when the eshop goes down like a streaming game would... so ya. I get that it’s not optimal but at the same time is it really that big of a deal?

Weird that you see games get physical releases from much smaller publishers/distribution companies than that of Bethesda.And they don't seem to have a problem with using the cards. Heck, THQ used a 16GB card for Darksiders.. If Bethesda didnt want to use 16 GB cards on a game that's only $30, why not either a) use an 8gb and put the leftover data as a download or b) just make the Switch version $40? I know option B would warrant the "Switch Tax" arguement, but look at other games such as DOOM, Skyrim etc. on Switch, they cost more than the other versions, but still sold well.

What's even crazier is they bothered with the distribution costs of a "physical version" but didnt just put the game on a card?Okay, Bethesda. It's very likely I'll be downloading this anyway on Switch, but I prefer physical so just slightly disappointed by this.

My mother and I have been playing Nintendo games for 25 years and I’ve never been so insulted.

@JaxonH
Meh, I suppose. I'd just rather them come out and directly say why they're doing this instead of leaving everyone to guess. Because that's what we're all doing right now. It may as well just have been eShop only if there's no good reason for it. But I guess we'll never know until they actually communicate why they made this decision.

@JR150
I agree with that. Clearly communicating with consumers is always the best approach.

That said, there’s a lot of benefit to still selling it in a case, and not just for them with shelf presence but for us also as consumers. I can now buy at 20% off with my GCU discount, and another 5% off using BestBuy credit card. And others will be able to get it on sale for less if they opt to wait.

I can tell you now why they made the decision though. When you release a game at retail you only make 55% profit. There’s a 30% royalty fee and 25% “physical distribution” charge. Whether some of that is the retailers cut or if the retailers cut is above and beyond that I’m not sure. But I’ve seen the data for each of the three major platforms and it’s basically 50% across-the-board for releasing a game at retail.

So they’re looking at a $15 profit margin for each copy of the game sold at retail. If you then have to pay out for a 16 or 32 GB cartridge it’s going to eat up half or 2/3 of that profit margin, it’s just not worth it. $5 profit per copies sold? That’s highway robbery for them. And as gamers we should be a little more empathetic towards situations like this. It’s unreasonable of us to expect them to only make $5 profit per copy sold.

Sounds like they are trying to make some good profit. Can't blame developers for wanting to get some extra money for their hard work.

@Zuljaras I understand that completely, personally I was never a fan of the CD format and have always preferred carts to optical drives, they break rather easily and disc can get scratched. My nes games every single one of them from 1985-1990 still work no problem.
The option now is buy a cd download the entire game onto the hard drive or just download the game digitally.
It makes no sense to buy a physical version of a ps4 or xbox one game with the exception of maybe selling it down the road which I never do. I rather just download the digital version on those systems
The best option is having a cart format of the entire game imo.
The whole DRM issue is what is pushing me away from my gaming hobby, which leads to day one patches and everything else

Those of you complaining that carts cost more than disc are crazy, at the end of the day these companies aren't buying 100 or so carts or discs but in the 100s of thousands possibly more so the price is always going to be lower the more you buy. Carts will last longer and are a much better investment than discs which can get scratched, even the mighty bluray isn't immune to scratches.

@huyi Cartridges because why would you want a disk thingy on the Switch with its design? Plus Nintendo respects the Physical Community still.

@JaxonH
$5 X 100,000 copies sold is $500,000. Don't forget they also get money from the digital sales as well so they could easily get well over several million dollars.

This console generation is a long, slow, transition from physical to all digital. We're kinda in the "in-between" and it's a little bit jarring.

For fans of physical games, options are fewer and far between, with the rise of small-time outlets like "Limited Run Games" supplying the (steadily declining) demand for physical games. I expect this corner of the industry will be gone if/when the next round of consoles come to market as digital-only devices (no disc drives, etc.).

I don't expect Gamestop to be around in 5 years. They're hemorrhaging money and struggling to stay relevant in the world of gaming.

Not a fan of putting codes in boxes. Seems half-baked.

When you look on Amazon to preorder it says there is no cartridge included in both standard and deluxe editions.

It still comes with a friend code, right?

@GameOtaku
That's akin to saying they should sell new cars for $100 because its millions of dollars theyd still make.

When profit margins are so thin, eating $10 of your $15 profit makes no sense. When physical is an option, typically only 10% buy digital so that's not gonna help. Even if they lose half their physical sales, making $15 on 250k will net far more than $5 on 500k, to the tune of $1.25m, or 150% profit.

Guys should study calculus and economics and how to maximize profit. Cause unless your education is in the ballpark of the gents running these businesses you'll never hope to understand decisions made

@JaxonH
Profit is still profit. If they are going to make a physical release they may as well go all in afterall making the box and printing the box art insert and DL code are going to eat into profits as well.

Physical games aren't going anywhere, digital may be more profitable but having options for the consumer is also important.

No physical = no buy.

They lost my sale.

@Medic_alert The Xbox version is worse, can't even use it on an airplane.

@GrizzledVeteran Then I am out.
I have enough old games to play for the next 4-5 decades. I am not going to lose all my games every console generation when they shutdown the service.

@GameOtaku
Profit is absolutely not profit. Profit per copy sold =/= net profit after expense.

In fact, its not "profit" per copy sold at all, its net revenue, and for clarity's sake I should have described it as such from the start. I try to speak on ground level where people can understand, but that's clearly backfired.

That $5 per copy sold is not profit, it's net revenue per copy sold. Costs must still be accounted for.

And more profit is always better than less profit, so profit =/= profit. All profit is not equal.

Furthermore, profit is not the name of the game. Profiting the most is the name of the game. And with net revenue at $5/copy, theyd be lucky to clear any profit at all, and even if they did, the opportunity cost would be extreme. They could have made far more profit investing that development time elsewhere. Meaning no Switch games for us.

Just because you dont like an outcome doesnt mean you have a reasonable argument justifying what you wish were true. I wish it were physical too. But that doesnt change the hard economic truth of the matter. Ignorance makes it easier to believe "they could just do XYZ, might as well". But when you start educating yourself, you realize no... no they couldn't.

@JaxonH
Apples and oranges. The physical box and DL code are still costly and hurt their profit margins. It's not like where I work on a factory floor with lots of overhead. You can negotiate the price of a car at the dealership (unless your plain crazy to pay sticker price) I've not seen anyone go to a store and try to negotiate a new games price.

Oh and by the by we try to ship out quality products not half finished ones that won't work. In my industry that's suicide! But tech companies can get away with lackluster efforts.

I don't quite understand the whine. I've been buying digital only for the past 5 years and won't go back.

I usually only keep around 10 games installed on each as that is way more than enough games to cycle through and keep me busy. When I get bored with 1 I switch it out and redownload another one of my games.

I did this because trade-in values for games is utterly low crap and you can't lose, scratch, or break a digital copy.

@GameOtaku You're absolutely right! And I laugh when I hear people saying "I'm going to get it physically for PS4 or Xbox One instead of Switch", that's even worse, you only use the disc to install the game! You have to use it afterwards to enter the game, it's like buying a download code anyways. I'll get Youngblood day one retail, because, even if it's a download only game, It will install faster than on the other consoles.

@GameOtaku
Incorrect. Physical box is potatoes cost-wise. 25 cent range. And the ROI on that cost far exceeds the investment. The additional sales generated by shelf space visibility justify the cost (obviously, or they wouldn't be doing it).

And the quality of the product is the game itself, not the package it comes in. Quality of the product has to do with resolution, framerate and bugs, not the medium by which its played.

@JaxonH
I don't think we'll agree on this. If they nitpick over not including a cart for it cutting into profits a box will also cut into their bottom line. Think about it a consumer is buying a box! Just a box! You not only wasted your time buying a box with no game but now you have to deal with yet another storefront just to play the dang game. I've seen several of the fortnite switch physical games returned because the kid couldn't play it and tge parent was complaining since it only had a DL code. Not everyone has internet at home I don't, my phone may have one bar of service at home so yeah the struggles of living in a rural area!

@WarVision78
You can lose digital copies. If you have to clear up space on a card then you face a hard decision. And if you wanted to redownload it later it may not be available. I have a pretty large switch library of physical games but I know I'm not going to play all of them so I keep a small selection with me and the others in cases.

Never again...

I was recently burned by the MegaMan collections.

The 1st one only has 300MB on the cart and you must DL 3GB.

The 2nd one has 3GB on the cart and you must DL 6GB.

These two 'physical' release cost me nearly 10GB of system memory.

@OorWullie genius. This is how I feel at 39 years old. I have the Atari Classics collection on my PS4 hard drive,as well as Dig Dug,etc. I have the NES and SNES classics,may buy the Genesis one,and a plug n play Pac-Man (for the joystick).

Anything else I can play on Switch online,or DL on the PS store. In the future,most stuff I want will probably be on whatever the new thing is. I DL a lot of today’s games,because quite frankly I won’t care much about Overwatch in 10 years. Heck, after I beat Mario Odyssey I hardly touched it again.

No, no, no, I want a big card, without a download requirement

Imagine if you bought a vinyl and inside you found a link to download a .wav file of the album. This is the exact same thing. Not acceptable.

@GameOtaku
I understand your frustration completely. I dont like it any more than you do. I'm simply offering the reasoning behind it. And whether or not we like it, theres validity to their approach.

@Medic_alert I am glad you have unlimited time at home alone to play video games. Not everyone is so lucky.

@Medic_alert So not playing at all is better than playing at slightly lower graphical detail?
That's nuts, but to each their own. I will keep playing, you keep dreaming.