Ittle Dew 2 Removed From Switch eShop Against Developer's Wishes

Another reason to NOT depending on digital download only games.
Stick on physical cartridge and you will be fine.

Nicalis being shady? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked!

@AlexOlney

Wow. This is a pretty well known and beloved game on the system as well. Nicalis is about get more than just shade thrown their way.

@Anti-Matter Ahh yes, those physical cartridges that indie devs cannot afford to get printed! They already need a publisher like Nicalis, and we’ve seen how that turned out, to even get on the eShop and I, for one, would rather a game came digitally to the Switch than didn’t arrive on the console at all.

@Anti-Matter You mean all those physical games you buy that still require you download new versions and patches digitally? I buy physical games too, but let’s face it- very few are all on the cart.

Digital only future looks great, guys!

@RupeeClock There needs to be proper unionisation in the industry, not just with individual workers but with smaller devs too, to ensure they aren’t being taken advantage of and so that these publishers like Nicalis cannot get away with playing God with other people’s livelihoods.

@Anti-Matter But for those of us who did purchase digitally, those customers would still have the game on their Switch, regardless of the game being delisted from the eshop or not. Nothing's changed for anyone except those who still hadn't bought the game but were intending to.

Well I’m really disappointed in this publisher.
These shady practices are going to wipe them out together with all the games still attached to them!😔

This makes me sad to hear, Nicalis has so many awesome physical copies and published games. I only blame the head of Nicalis, as im sure not everyone there are terrible people. I hope they can eventually get back to 100% because their releases are awesome. Hopefully theres good news for Ludosity as well.

@Anti-Matter you do realise the development team would need to find a publisher who is willing to put the game out on a physical format right?

Developers can't do it themselves.

Read about Nicalis on Kotaku recently and now this... doesn’t look good at the moment!

@AlexOlney You tried, Alex, I'll give you that.

I even chuckled. But it was more of a pity chuckle, if I gotta be honest

***Quietly saves it for the dad joke list***

That's a bit sh*t for the developer, hope it works out. This is also enforcing my fear of an all digital front

@Anti-Matter You can still download Wii games you already purchased.

You can even still transfer them to Wii U.

You just can't purchase them any more, which is not a real issue in any sense. Mild annoyance I admit, but nothing more.

If there is a Wii game you haven't purchased yet, you can't pretend you care about it now.

@PorllM
No... the Wii Shop is gone. Finished. Ceased to be. You can't buy or re-download anything you've bought in the past there. If you get a new Wii console, you also won't be able to do a system transfer anymore since that software was, you guessed it, only available on the Wii Shop.

EDIT: I was wrong! See below.

@PorllM The Wii Shopping Channel has been entirely disconnected at this point. You can’t even re-download software you previously purchased anymore.

EDIT: Someone beat me to it, haha.

If I have bought the digital version and deleted I could re download it?

Glad I own it on cartridge.

I still can't wrap my head around what I've recently found out about Nicalis. I thought they were the cool publisher that included physical goodies in their digital games and I loved that.

Played the game through Gamefly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely check it out if you haven't.

Glad I bought Cave Story+ pre-owned. I love Pixel's work, but Nicalis does not deserve any money from me.

Sheesh, this is not okay. They straight up removed it, and I am not sure how difficult it is to get a game on the eshop. This is a horrible time for this sort of thing since Link's Awakening will probably spark some interest in Zelda clones.

This game is a gem, one of my favorite experiences on the switch.

What if they made the software auto-delete from the Switch of anyone who had purchased it? I would demand a refund...

Why do indie devs even need a publisher, Like Nicalis to get their game on the eshop or other store fronts in the first place? What does the publisher actually do for them that they aren't able to do themselves? Assuming it's just a digital only release.

@Anti-Matter This isn’t a digital only game.

@Lynas Marketing and distribution, even on digital platforms, cost money, plus Nicalis most likely financed some aspects like the physical version on Switch.

@ThatNyteDaez Actually this affects people who already own the game also, since they can't re-download it. This could come up for someone buys a new Switch, has deleted the game to free up space, or has the "Quick Archive" feature enabled, which allows the Switch to automatically uninstall games that haven't been played recently to free up space for new games.

hopefully the people casting doubt because of kotaku or whatever on the other article get the picture now

@Anti-Matter if you already own the game you can download it already

this has nothing to do with it, can physical media people stop being annoying?

Nintendo do what Nicalisdont

@Faruko yes if you buy them.

@Faruko and if you don't?

It is commonly known that Nicalis is one of the worst publishers and has been so for a long time.

Wasn't there some sketchy stuff going on with Nicalis way back in the WiiWare days?

@Anti-Matter what has it got to do with the digital format? They are removed from ESHOP not from your SD card, not like they have the ability to do so.

This is like worrying about not able to play box copies if retailers stop selling them.

@Anti-Matter you know, I'm old school, I like carts, however I've discovered with the Switch, downloading is so convenient. It's so easy to jump from game to game. But I'm thinking carts still may be better. I own the copy, and I can share the game as well. In defense of digital, "the cart reader can break" but in the end, I have a copy of the game to play on another switch if I go physical. I was torn about getting DQ XI on cart or not. I think I'm going cart.

@puddinggirl right, but box copies can be resold, making them perpetually available
having a digital copy means only those who bought it (or, depending, have uploaded a copy for pirates) will be able to play if the marketplace/license/etc goes kaput, and even then when it does if its uninstalled theres essentially an icon with no way of redownloading

@Anti-Matter you will not be fine as most games nowadays rely on patches

Nicalis are also the reason why we haven't seen 90's Arcade Racer release.

@Anti-Matter bruh

@Dr_Corndog Yeah, they shipped the wrong version of Cave Story+, they dropped contract with La-Mulana developers for greedy reasons, 1001 Spikes and Cave Story 3D took ages to release outside of the US, 90's Arcade Racer is the new Duke Nukem Forever, and generally tons of delays. I wonder how they were able to get great games like Ittle Dew 2, The Binding of Isaac, Cave Story, or Ikaruga in the first place.

Dang, I wanted to get this game at some point. Hope it gets rectified, the publisher is pretty crappy for doing that...

I played (didn't get too far) the first Ittle Dew on Wii U. It was ok, but nothing special. So I didn't even bother with Ittle Dew 2.

@Anti-Matter @somebread which would be fine in the case of bigger titles but indies would never find their way onto the Switch if it wasn’t for digital. Hollow Knight couldn’t do a physical initially. And even if the indie title could find someone to print physically who is going to stock it? Stores have limited physical space; they are going to want it for their bigger known games. Not to mention developers make a lot less on a physical copy because cart cost and The “middle man”. The fact is the best way to support and indie dev is digital not physical.

Again I understand about physical I get it but indie titles are a completely different than even a AA title. It’s be nice tho don’t get me wrong.

@mousieone yeah but the nice thing about indies is they're usually multiplatform, so it's not as harsh; it's just always a case of "it sucks but we kinda gotta deal with it" in my book
i'm not sure how applicable the second half of that argument is when you can go to best buy right now and get a copy of undertale, windjammers, and some nicalis titles etc. (in america at least)

I lost my trust in them when they screwed me over. I bought cave story on the 3ds, and lost access to redownload when they took down the original for a while, after they posted the updated version. I did eventually get my rights back to redownload, but I had a bad taste in my mouth from them since.

Time to boycott all Nicalis games and show them some pain in the wallet

For what it's worth in the physical/digital debate, Ittle Dew 2+ is one of those rare games that went quite a long time without any patches at all so the base physical game should still hold up. That said, I apparently have a 695MB update on my SD card so they sure did SOMETHING eventually, long after I finished the game.

Nicalis has published multiple games that never got updates at all, although I now question if that was lack of need or just couldn't be bothered. Sigh

@Stuffgamer1 It's been reported Nicalis are too cheap to test the developer patches that have been forwarded to them by developers, so they rarely get released.

@Jack_Goetz Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I miss thinking they just made sure the games were done.

@Anti-Matter

Unfortunately, Switch physical copy games will no longer work after the publishers and Nintendo take the DRM check in servers offline. So it really does not matter.

Consumers need protection against this.

So, basically, the Victory Records of video game publishers.

....Not a huge fan of rogue games, but this is still stupid. wtf Nicalis?...

@Lynas I am sure they have more resources, connections with legal teams, knows how to navigate different platforms in regards to posting games, funds to make the games physical. Developers make games, publishers you know publish.

@StephanDLW my friend was literally talking with Tyrone the owner of the company about getting funded to release his indie. Then I showed him all these backlash articles.

@Chunkboi79 I was thinking purely about digital only releases. Not physical. I understand that a publisher is required to put up the money and sort out all the logistics behind actually having a cartridge on a shelf. It makes less sense to need a publisher when you're going for a digital only release but there's obviously more hurdles to overcome than I would assume and a publisher jumps them for you.

@StephanDLW I used to be a pro reviewer, so I made a lot of contacts. Some devs are just nose to the grindstone and don't pay attention to news, they see a publisher that netted some games that people hear of and that helps them sucker in new developers.

@Joeynator3000 ...isn't it a zelda-like?

I dunno then, last I heard it was rogue-like...>.<

so did they contact the other store fronts or just looked to see if it was a option on the platform's interface?

With the update, sounds like a communication failure on both sides. :/

On the JP 3DS eShop I remember several games switching publisher, and they usually always mutually arranged a switchover date, published it in advance, then past that date, you wouldn't be able to buy the old one, and the new one would show up instead.

Nintendo seems to consider the publisher an integral part of a game app, which needs a completely new edition published to be changed for some reason, so hearing there's no way to transfer doesn't surprise me.

Edit 9/10: Apparently not a month later Stardew Valley managed a transfer without changing pages at all, so I was wrong, they do have a transfer system in place. -.-

@Piyo It's pretty cut and dry Nicalis' fault. They had six months to get it sorted out but didn't bother. The rights should go to Ludosity free and unconditionally.

@nessisonett being misinformed isn't a good trait of yours. Physical will always be there to play if you change or loose console and get a new console. So you missed the point by antimatter already.

@NotTelevision you also are misinformed. Tell me how would you get a eShop once they remove it? Like the one in question. You don't. Physical regardless if you update or not you can still play it eShop removed gone is gone.

These two seems to think they can get a eShop once gone will have rude awakening here.

Another case of the business side of the industry getting in the way of enjoyment.

@Anti-Matter "Another reason to NOT depending on digital download only games.
Stick on physical cartridge and you will be fine."
Right on. Alot seems to not notices this but when a publisher or other party removes eShop game it's gone no do-over. Sure some studios can't get Physical Publish but then again that is called Business 101. One has to learn to hardball negotiate so they can insure the game survives.

Wow, what a bunch of douche canoes

@puddinggirl
"...not like they have the ability to do so."

Sometimes I wish things were that way, but we have to remember that they CAN do it with just "push a button"... sigh

There are two sides to every story, particularly in social media spats. I think Nicalis has done a great job with physical releases for the Switch. So the distribution contract ended? Where would Ludosity have been in the first place without Nicalis? This is not a big deal. The game will be back.

@SwitchForce My point is that we all rely on digital downloads, and that doesn’t change when you buy games physically. You can play Version 1.0 if you want, but considering how many improvements/content are being added post launch for these games- who’d want to do that? I bought the physical for Smash, but that has already been updated numerous times, and can you even imagine how much they are going to release for Animal Crossing post-launch. No point going physical for that one.

Even indie games with physical releases do that. Look at Dead Cells. That game plays a lot better than it did at launch, with a ton of extra content.

I’m just debunking the whole argument “if I go physical, I’ll be fine”. No you are just as reliant on digital as everyone else.

As for the other post you were commenting on, I have no idea how they are misinformed. Indie developers I’m sure would really like to have a physical release for all their games, just as a band would love to have all their albums pressed on vinyl. But it’s hard to find a publisher to distribute physical copies of their games. It also probably doesn’t make much profit for them or the publisher since of the high cost of the venture.

Ultimately it benefits the developer and customers more when buying the game digitally. It saves them the cost and effort and I get a game at a good price.

Thank you developer and yes I’m happy to give you Sd card space for your awesome game.

Edit: I’m not excusing publishers like Capcom and Squaresoft for not putting all the games on the card. They are just cutting corners and they have the money and resources to put the entirety of the game/s on card. But indie devs are a different story.

Some of us still remember when games ran on floppy's and still have the drives to run them...

It kinda sounds like Ludosity was supposed to be ready to re-publish the game as soon as it was de-listed, but that they just didn't do anything even though they knew when the contract was going to run out.

@Lizuka general argument is "more expensive is better than not able to get a hold of period"

Thats why I buy physical whenever possible.

@NotTelevision If they remove it from the eshop, and for some reason removes your ability to update said game, an unupdated game is still more game than no game at all.

@NotTelevision Physical is still better cause that's how the game originally exist. Anything added after are either extras or just changes that makes or break the game. Heck I could make a hack right now and put Tails in Sonic 1 and that wouldn't matter cause the existance of Sonic 1 will always be known about Sonic and not Tails.

Nintendo and Sony could add as much contents to their games later after release but as long as a physical copy exist, the original existance of that game could be preserve. Anything that were release later on through DLC or by publishers could always be added back by hackers later on in the future. There are hackers everywhere now and those who create them DLC could always preserve their work online somewhere which hackers could find and restore to the physical copy.

Having digital sucks cause once a network close down, that game goes down along with it, if it's a game that could be re-download and you deleted it and the origin network to which you normally would download the game doesn't exist anymore then you're out of luck cause then that game won't be able to be re-download anymore, this include things like indies, demos, and freemium games too such as the legendary Untitle Goose Game, the awesome Contra Rebirth, the horrifying P.T., and the boring virtual world Home.

@Anti-Matter i got the physical so I'm good. Always buy physical if it's a choice. I'll even double dip for it if the game is worth it

@retro_player_22 you are correct. I don't understand why companies just don't make dlc part of a sequel. Most he's get a sequel anymore as it is.

@Lizuka wrong as they would be publishing new cartridges under the new publisher and the old publisher would still have cartridges out there not sold. They don't just recall them.

@NotTelevision wrong you are not as reliant as everyone else with physical. Physical gives you the game and most games release later with all content on them anyways. So it's the you got a game or not period.

Got the physical. Shame Nicalis are shady. All these companies that make money from others work in the gaming industry are a blight.

@Anti-Matter I wholeheartedly AGREE!

Thank goodness I have it already (and almost finished). Its a pretty fun game, even if it is ugly. I hope that for everyone who still wants it the game returns soon!

@SmaMan @thesilverbrick you absolutely can still re-download any game you purchased digitally from the Wii shop channel. I literally just did two days ago.

@somebread To each their own, you can't get back the box copy if you lost it too.

Both formats have their distinct pros and cons. There's no need to trash one over the other.

@SakuraHaruka They can't.
Saying they can delete contents off your SD card is like saying the world can end. Sure, it CAN happen, everything CAN be an illusion but it also makes any further discussion completely pointless.

Woah. Really lucky I found the physical version of this. Great game. I guess it's now a collectors item!

@joezilla83 Pretty much. At least the Nicalis version with the map and booklet will become a rare item in a couple years from now. They aren't selling this game phisically anymore, the section dedicated to Ittle Dew 2+ on their website now leads to a 404 error.

EDIT - here's the link: https://store.nicalis.com/products/ittle-dew-2

It is now history.

Yeah I was really surprised when I saw it sitting used at a GameStop and the map and booklet stayed intact! I def hold on to this one, it's a great game and has potential to become a rare item. I mean I don't think it will ever go on another physical run

@jahasnell
Huh. I stand corrected. Looks like Nintendo did a last minute about face on some parts of the Wii Shop going offline.

Still, this is only available "for the time being." One day, probably sooner rather than later, if your Wii Shop purchases haven't been downloaded, or those downloads get lost/corrupted/etc., you'll be out of luck.

@jahasnell I honestly didn’t know this. Thanks for the heads up.

Ittle Dew 2 is really really good. I have the physical cartridge, so I'll have it for as long as the cartridge functions. Ludosity is a great developer, I hope they can get it back on the eShop on their own terms as soon as possible.

@nessisonett they can afford it but you actually sell more digitally now on average in most cases.

This is one of those rare cases where Kotaku actually did a fantastic job in their expose of Nicalis. Sounds like that shop is a giant stinkhole, and between the expose and "word of mouth" negative image among potential clients at this point, I can't imagine they're going to be around much longer.

Note to self: never buy Cave Story. EVER.

I bought the game on one of those 50% off sales, and was rather dissapointed in it, wish I never bought it... you guys aren't missing out on much to be honest. It's just a zelda rip-off, that's mediocre at best. Wish I did buy physical, so I could now re-sell it and get my money back.

I never opened my retail copy. Another Devils Third? Lol

@puddinggirl
Well, at that point it is correct, nobody should interfere or modify the information that each one has on their memory devices (SD, Hard Drive, etc.), however, there are patches, and there, if they want to "erase" a game, just block it using a patch in a "forced" update, and unfortunately this would be valid even if we don't like it ... and nobody really likes this.
And as you mentioned, it can happen, but we wish it didn't happen.