As part of today's Nintendo Direct Mini, publisher 2K Games revealed a wonderful selection of remastered treats for Nintendo Switch. Bioshock: The Collection, XCOM 2: Collection and Borderlands Legendary Collection are all coming to the console on 29th May, bringing a total of eight games on one day.
It sounds fantastic - and it is, for the most part - but physical buyers will once again be upset to learn that not all of that content is being included on the cartridges. All three collections come with some irritating small print, spilling the beans on the download requirements you'll need to suffer through to enjoy the games.
Borderlands is the biggest offender; the physical cartridge will only include the first game - Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition - although even that needs an extra 6.6 GB download before you can start. Then, you'll need to download another 35 GB of data to install Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
The XCOM collection is also being put on an 8 GB cartridge, holding two base game missions. Everything else must be downloaded - 2K says this "will not exceed 24 GB".
Finally, BioShock will be placed on a 16 GB cart, but "later game contents and add-ons will need to be downloaded".
We've discussed the reasonings behind this problem at length in the past, but it does make the act of picking up a physical copy seem worthless. Why would you want to buy a physical game that doesn't actually include the game you're buying?
Aside from being part of a collection, one of the benefits of buying a game physically is saving space on your system for smaller eShop titles. In the case of the Borderlands Collection (and possibly BioShock, looking at the game's cover), buying the game physically would mean that you'd still need a microSD card to install all of the content - the Switch only has 32 GB of space to begin with, so there is no way of playing without paying extra for additional storage.
If you are thinking about buying any of these collections, then, you might want to consider picking up a new microSD card for your console.
Comments (165)
Well, may as well go digital then and have a big memory card.
Digital it is then, just the Bioshock collection for me though
The Nintendo way...
Wanted to buy all 3, won’t buy any in that case. Have them all on Both ps4 and ps3 anyway where the full games are put on a blu ray disc.
I’m glad there here but yeah. Defeats the object. But I’ll still probably buy... we are all suckers one way or another for bad business practises
@whizzkidd the 2k way. Nintendo knows how to compress
I’ll be getting Bio and BL, love those series! Been wanting these portable forever!!!
as opposed to any other switch game that has a massive file size... right?
That sucks, but do I understand it correctly that most of the Bioshock content is on the cart?
No way. It is not worth it. People will just buy it digitally. I hope no one buys the physical editions so those jokers could take the message and stop making them this way.
@Quarth No. You have only the opening acts of each game and then it is cut off. That means 20-30 minutes of each game and the rest is download.
I'm on the fence for all three and this is probably a deal-breaker. Bargain bin or not at all it is. Either use a 32GB cartridge to minimise download sizes and charge a bit extra or just don't even bother and make them digital exclusive and price them accordingly.
there is no point in physical if they require a download anyway, what is the point?
@Zuljaras That sucks extremely much.
Was planning on going digital anyway, I expect 1tb sd card prices to drop somewhere this year
Nintendo need to get that 64gb card out. If they are available to have digitally separately I will go for that over physical.
I miss the days where we got full games on cart/disc.
@whizzkidd No, it's the cheap ass third party way. Get your facts straight.
I'm only interested in BioShock Collection, and this isn't a deal breaker, but...Why even have a physical release at all in this case?
@Beermonkey they will be available separately on the eShop.
Well, that's a DEFINITE no-buy from me, then. Thanks ever so f-ing much, 2K, you m-f-ing cheap skates.
How come that a much smaller developer/publisher like CD Projekt Red actually IS able to put their game on a 32GB cartridge, but you losers still want to disrespect and ridicule the people that would want to buy these games physically by forcing them to download the bulk of them?
All the worst for you lot, bunch of scrooges...
@whizzkidd Yeah, like others have said, this is NOT on Nintendo, this is on 2K. If other people can put their large games on one cartridge, so can 2K, but they're just refusing to do so, because they want to go the cheap route.
Now, if they would release them separately with maybe a binder for them, that would be nice.
that's the issue with using carts as your consoles game medium i suppose
I fail to see the point of selling something physically when you don’t even spring for a 16 GB cart.
Well I had intended to preorder all three but what's the point now? No buy from me 2k.
@Zuljaras These are games I've wanted for ages as ports (just want batman Arkham asylum games now) so if I have to have them a couple at a time on my switch I'm happy. Plus got a 200gb as knocking about somewhere as a spare. Eshop it is then! Bring on burnout paradise as well.
Yeesh, might as well go digital. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I probably won't buy any of them now.
Give it up, people. Give up your precious physical games and accept an all digital future. You cannot win.
The only reason I would go physical for these versions is that Walmart often sells games at a discount now days.
Gotta go digital, physical is a joke with downloads this big. Can't stand physical in these cases, like, what's the point? Physical is just stupid.
This is what I hate about PS4 and Xbox, always having to download massive amounts of data before I can even play the game.
Just go digital. Third party games in physical form is a joke on switch
Mr. Craddock, a question: you mention that the first Borderlands game requires a download before you can start. I had understood that Nintendo's policy disallowed this - that a game must be playable, at least in small part, from the cartridge alone. Was I incorrect?
Not the end of the world, looking forward to the BL collection though probably going to wait for a sale on it.
I could write a paragraph moaning but I'll buy them regardless. :L
@1UP_MARIO CD Projekt Red, and proper English grammar, bid you Hello. I bid you Goodbye.
Why do these third party’s expect Nintendo to take a cut. Don’t they understand that Nintendo is one of the stingiest companies in the world.
@COVIDberry oh ok. That’s great to know. Any other 32gb games fully on cart games you know after over 3 years of being on the market. Give me at least 5 games you know.
Nintendo might want to consider finding a game card provider that can do high quality, high capacity cards at an affordable rate. It's only going to get heavier from here.
@Yorumi While I am not a giant fan, saying it 'doesn't work out of the box' is kind of silly - plenty of N64 games required a memory card purchased separately.
Dammit 2K is pulling a Capcom. However I will still buy the “Physical” versions, because this is better than nothing, I guess..
The point is @huyi that you can trade in or sell your game, which is a biggie for me. Although i'm not to happy about the huge download sizes. This is why i won't be buying any of the games.
@ferryb001 that’s what I’m waiting for I need a 1TB card soon, too.
So... Ok... I will buy only bioshock collection...
@FullbringIchigo No, that's the issue with developers/publishers being f-ing cheap skates. The whole "expensive" cartridge myth has already been more than debunked, and the best example of that is CD Projekt Red, buying up thousands of 32GB cartridges, to put their ENTIRE game on.
And they're a mid-sized developer/publisher, so compared to 2K, they're basically dwarfs, and nobody is going to try and make me believe that a large company like 2K wouldn't be able to bear the weight of that initial investment, especially knowing that it WILL see a return on investment, because their games are still popular, so besides their budget being FAR bigger than CD Projekt Red's, the risk for them is also FAR smaller.
And yet, they STILL consciously chose to cheap out on cartridges...
I truly hope that sales for all of these titles are completely going to bomb, because they deserve it. Some people buy physical games for a reason, and that's NOT to still be forced to download the majority of it, to be able to play them....
Suddenly I'm more in favor of getting the PS4 versions.
Luckily for me I don’t want these games. But what a piss take.
At this point I don't care, I have to have those games.
Personally I don't care about the required downloads. The deal breaker for me is just whether gyro aiming is supported.
@COVIDberry You can probably only go into the menu. The game boots up and into the selection menu, but the games would all be grayed out.
Not buying physically so not bothered. To be completely honest, some part of me even regrets buying The Witcher 3 on a card - some three months before finding myself with a 512 Gb storage unit and an unlimited mobile data plan.😅 That said, even with the latter factors in mind, it would be a bit of a hassle if the aforesaid 35 Gb and the bulk of Bioshock Collection only came as monolithic packages - I do prefer installing such entries one at a time.
@Yorumi Yes, all great points. I do think it's pretty goofy at the end of the day. I'm sure I'd be more pissed off if I lived rurally, that's for sure!
@darkswabber I may be petty, but same! I want to try and hold this off for as long as we can!
I have a 400GB SD card so this doesn't upset me at all, however I do agree it would have prob better a better PR move to just release these digitally only.
Oh well, cannot wait to play all three of these collections for the first time!!
This is another example of why I go all digital with Switch. I don’t need to carry around carts and still download 20-30GB worth of the same game.
Here is something interesting about borderlands on the Nintendo site.
You can see that there is physical for the legendary collection but there are other 2 physical for the goty borderlands 1 and the handsome collection.
The Bioshock games are in smaller squares because they are digital. And there is no sticker on the Borderlands images except for the legendary edition. The Bioshock collection has its sticker but those 2 don't.
Buy physical and you can trade in
@ThanosReXXX that was my point, with cartridge being more expensive it's more likely that publishers will "cheap out" and go for whatever is cheapest which in this case is going for the cheapest versions and putting the rest as a download
and i agree people buy physical for a reason, for me as a gamer and a collector i buy physical to not only have a collection BUT to also have a product i can see and touch
not to mention legacy, i know in the future a physical copy of a game i don't have but might want will still be around but that can't be said for a digital one, once it's taken off the storefronts it's gone for good
now i get digital has it's pluses (although mostly i just hear "it's so convenient not having to get up and swap a disc" which just strikes me as laziness) but to me it will always be physical over digital
Gonna buy them all.
A minor query. Why 8 games? Which one is the eighth? Unless you consider X2's expansion a game.
@ThanosReXXX
Can you just snap 2K out of existence?
I’m gonna buy them all. Love every one.
I don't mind going digital only with Borderlands and Xcom 2, I have a 400gb memory card for a reason and I knew 2K would go the cheap way anyhow.
Plus why would I mess with a physical cartidge with these, if a game was fully on cartridge that would be fine but with this it's a waste of resouces.
I'm going digital anyway and i'm only interested in XCOM2 but god sake 2K you're taking the p*ss with this.
Wow, way to make it so I no longer have any desire to get these games on the Switch. It just feels really lame how they are cheaping out on the physical game cards, especially considering how games like The Witcher 3 managed to release the full game on a 32GB card. There is no real excuse for this anymore, they are just being cheap at my expense.
Digital only here. I started out buying some physical but its damn annoying having to swap games. On PS4 I have quite a bit physical but stopped buying around a year ago. Next gen it will be digital only, I will NEVER buy another physical game. The amount of wasted physical space, the wasted materials making boxes and discs, its a complete waste. I don't buy games to share with friends nor do I buy games to then resell them for pennies on the dollar later. Physical games should be killed off. Next gen consoles should have been designed without drives. It is going to happen eventually.
@Spoony_Tech Yeah that's how I feel. I would have liked to get Bioshock or Borderlands if they released the full collections on a physical card, but with this approach I just don't see the point anymore. I already got these games on my Xbox One X and if I need to dedicate a huge portion of my storage to these games on the Switch it's no longer worthwhile for me.
@whizzkidd Seems to me that the pubs could spring for the bigger cart (e.g., Witch3r) and that this isn't a nintendo problem.
Physical buying is pretty well pointless. You're almost always going to be missing something or other.
I buy physical when I can. There are the obvious reasons: collecting, resale, posterity, but everyone seems to be overlooking the biggest one to me: Sharing.
My household has 3 Switches. Someone else can play my copy of a digital game on their Switch, but only on my profile, and it completely locks out my entire digital library! Physical carts serve as a license key. Whoever has the cart installed gets to play, with no detriment to anyone.
@FullbringIchigo Well, MY point was that there simply is no valid reason for publishers to cheap out on cartridge sizes, as per CD Projekt Red's shining example. If they can do it, then literally EVERY big name publisher can do it, and with a lot less risk too.
@Kang81 Ah, if only...
Physical is so inconvenient. I have to keep track of the tiny cartridges and switch them between games. So much much easier with digital, just get a huge memory card, problem solved. And you can always re-download down the road.
So Bioshock seems to be the best option... but can someone maybe clarify, is it all games on the cartridge or just the first one? I would like to purchase at least one of these.
Sucks that the developer saved some cash at my expense. Borderlands is still a buy for me, as long as it's just downloads and not a download code.
And they'll have the nerve of putting them high price tags while on other plataforms they're sold for small change...
@Kalmaro You betcha having a 1tb sd card is awesome.
The fact that everyone is surprised is a crack up at this point. I’m pretty sure every publisher has done this but CDProjektRed. I so didn’t expect them to be all on the cart.Thats pipe dream.
If they're going to do this crap, at least have the decency to put one of the games fully on the cartridge! Geeze
@Yosher Most games on the Switch are the full game on the cartridge
@SuperWeird Physical and Digital should coexist regardless of which one you prefer. This allows for more competition and better pricing. I never understand why people want a digital only ecosystem when not only are there a lot of people who buy physically but it also causes digital prices to be lower.
@TDRsuperstar2 None of them is all on the cart. You will have only the opening act of each game and the rest is download. You can play 1, 2 or Infinite only for about 20-30 minutes at most and the rest you have to download.
These are last-gen games.. They aren't really big.
We just got so used to the countless indies taking up virtually no space that we forgot that AAA games in this generation are usually taking up around 50GB of space - on the other consoles, because we mostly only get last-gen remasters from this generation games...
@SHULZ021 mine is 500 GB or so and I've never even got it a third filled. I tend to delete games I'm done with and just keep the save files.
I was excited for Bioshock, never played any of those games, but I’ll probably pass unless I get a great deal.
Price will be a bigger factor than download size for me. Looking forward to Bioshock and Borderlands.
@Zuljaras i don't think there is a lesson, don't they prefer digital sales?
@ancientlii so they should stick to them instead of making physical copies that are not ... physical.
Plastic with attached download is not physical release.
@Zuljaras oh then this is a hard pass for me. Thank you for clarifying
I was going piecemeal with these (except Xcom 2), unless they were mostly on cart, guess my decision is made. Just really want Bio2, and BL2 besides Xcom. Glad I have over half my 400gb available still. None the less this practice is getting old.
It's so annoying that the game companies are doing this stuff.
I really do want to give XCOM2 a shot, it's a game that would be a better fit for physical but clearly that's not an option here so I guess I'll just have to go for the digital version, it's a good thing I bought that 512GB SD card recently.
Yeah I’ll still be getting XCOM, it’s absolutely brilliant.
@SucoF26 I wouldn't expect any less from 2K games unfortunately, it's a shame they can't do budget versions of the games separately
@ThanosReXXX
Nintendo Is not free of guilt either. My physical copy of Bayonetta 1 + 2 required a sizeable download to enjoy "half" of that package. The decision on this matters is game dependant, not company dependant.
This is dumb and will prevent me from Surefire purchases. 2K needs to stop being cheap. Witcher 3, Alien Isolation and BOTH Metros, all with DLC, on one cart says this should never happen.
@Yomerodes Well, if CD Projekt Red can do it with their medium budget, then so can all these far larger companies. Excessive cartridge expense is a myth that is debunked by CD Projekt Red's actions, and it's not on Nintendo, seeing as they actually DO have all these sizes of cartridges available, so the choice of which capacity cartridge to use, most definitely IS up to the publisher/developer.
What game it is, has literally nothing to do with it. Bayonetta could also have been released on one cartridge. Both these games are considerably smaller than for example Metro Redux, another good example of full games on cartridge.
I might be wrong here as I very rarely use my PS4 and XBox One ... but don't both of those systems require game installs rven if you buy the disc? I feel like every game I bought required some amount of downloading or installing ...
@ThanosReXXX
I get your point, but the game have everything to do with it. The projected sales will dictate the cartridge expense.
The Witcher3 original release on current gen consoles was a sales success, it was recent (no old gen version to begin with) and was still selling well even by the time the Switch edition appeared, and what is more, the Netflix series (which was a hit) was just around the corner. The expected sales were high, and CD Project Red went with it. But speaking of the same company, where is the physical version of Thronebreaker Witcher Tales? Is a small spinoff, if the expensive cart was such a myth, they surely would release said game at retail...but instead, they obviously believe the projected sales are not worthy of that.
It's the Same with Nintendo, Capcom or 2K...if they bring decade old ports that pretty much anyone interested can play on half a dozen of systems, the sales projected are far lower than the ones with the Witcher. Nintendo thought the same with Bayonetta, and so and so.
I.E., you can see how a game like BioShock trilogy is already expected to sell more copies than either Borderlands or Xcom, because it gets the 16 GB card, instead of the smaller 8 one. If the games themselves were not the deciding factora, the three packages would get a 8 GB card.
Not something that bothers me TBH. If I like a game I’ll buy it, and often these days that will be digital.
But this....’ Why would you want to buy a physical game that doesn't actually include the game you're buying?’....is an odd question. Resale would be the obvious answer. Collecting another.
Was thinking of getting Borderlands on my switch but at this rate, might skip upcoming games like this, way too big
These kind of releases are stupid.
It's like someone selling cars with no wheels...
Sure, it's cheaper for them. But it just screws the customer.
Really? Might as well buy digital which I am sure as heck am not going to do. If they are doing it this way so they can sell this for a cheaper price whilst still making a profit, then why bother bringing your game at all? It clearly isn't worth your investment. More third party games is a good thing, but I am getting sick of these half-baked efforts. Put the whole thing on the cartridge, or split the games onto separate cartridges.
@Yomerodes But there was no indication that the Witcher would land well with a Nintendo-only audience too, so that statement isn't nearly as simple as it seems. There's a lot more factors involved here, and the simple truth of it is still what I said earlier: bigger companies have bigger budgets and can therefore run bigger risks, so when a middling company like CD Projekt Red does it, then so can all the others.
And besides, Borderlands, Bioshock and X-Com definitely aren't niche series, so they already knew that these would be well-received, otherwise they wouldn't even have gone through the trouble of converting and/or tailoring them to the Switch in the first place.
So, no matter which way you look at it, the practice of publishers doing this, is highly despicable and no one in his or her right mind should have even the slightest bit of understanding for it.
@electrolite77 It's really not such an odd question at all if the cartridge only contains a third of what you're buying, or less...
Where's the collector's value in that? And there's no resale value either, since the download part of these half-baked products are a one-time only thing. Someone would have to be crazy to buy these kinds of efforts from a previous owner or from a used game shop, because you'd never be able to play the entire catalog that's supposed to be included.
Very annoying yet again, however can still trade them in once complete. I hate the physical editions where they include the download code, they are ridiculous
@darkswabber well, on those systems you still have to download the entire game to the hard drive. The Switch is bigger deal since microSD cards storage sizes haven't jumped up to match 2.5" hard drives or externals.
Indeed, sacrifices will have to made to install Borderlands and BioShock. I wasn't really playing Resident Evil 4 again anyway... or even 5.
Let's not forget, aside from The Witcher 3 not needing to install a massive file, Metro Redux doesn't either.
Mind=BLOWN.
2K Bringing 7 AAA category masterpieces on 1 day ?
My wallet isn't going to be happy ...
This isn't ideal at all, but I still prefer going physical, even with mandatory downloads. Why? Because so far, 1tb micro SD cards have still been prohibitively expensive, and at least if some of the data is on the cart, you're still saving a few GB of space as opposed to having to download all of it to your SD card. So far, I've been able to survive on one 400gb SD card and buying physical whenever possible. Yeah, some of my games have got mandatory downloads (ie. Mortal Kombat 11, Spyro, etc.) but if I were to buy all of my games digital and had to download all of the data for my games, I'd likely have had to have bought at least one or 2 more SD cards by now (or one of the hella-expensive 1tb ones) so buying physically is still the cheaper option long term.
@progx only on ps4, not on ps3, ps3 still reads the disc. Also when the servers are shut down I can still play the games on ps3 and ps4 was my point, not that it doesn’t take up storage. The switch version becomes unplayable when the servers shut down.
Late to the party here in the comments. Never played Bioshock, and I'm so excited it's coming to the Switch.<333 Heck yeah.
Hey @ThanosReXXX, what' the deal bioshock and physical? Is it going to be download only?
Considering that all three releases are collections and not releases of individual titles, surely they could have sprung for 32/64GB cartridges while charging more than the standard US$60. They could also release a cheaper edition of the first game in each series on a smaller cartridge for US$40 for those silly beavers who may be reluctant to pay US$60+ for THREE AAA games that have no further storage requirements.
Hmm, I guess in the case of Borderlands an optional download was inevitable if Borderlands 2 and presequel are over 35g. With that being said they could have put Borderlands 2 on a 16g card since that's everyone's favorite or possibly 1 and 2 on a 32g card but that would be too expensive for the cheapskates at 2k. Regardless, a download was going to happen here.
@darkswabber um, you do realize that once a game is downloaded you can still play it even after its been removed from a digital storefront, right? Look at PT and Scott Pilgrim for example. Yes, a publisher could put something in the code that disables the ability to play the game after its been removed for purchase but they can legally do that with physical media as well. So no, purchasing the games physical or digital does not in one way or another prevent you from playing the games sometime in the future once the servers are shut down.
Cool, digital it is.
thats a damn shame, guess theres no sale from me
I have Handsome Collection on ps4, so the first game being the one on cart is exactly what I wanted. Will sell my code for 2/Pre Sequel though.
I only buy physical, so I can always give a game to my friends or family in exchange for other games to check out. With physical you can play on infinite Switch consoles, give em away, or sell em, with digital you can only play on one Switch and it's glued to the system until the server's down and your memory card fails - then it turns into vaporware. However, I'm more inclined to buy physical if the whole game's on a card, so the hype over these otherwise amazing collections cooled down quite a bit. But still better than digital only.
I think I'll spend money on buying a microSD with more space, then maybe buy some of the games digitally if they ever go on sale. I have other ways to play the BioShock Collection.
Honestly, unless the console is truly incapable of doing so, I don't know why Nintendo doesn't just make the non-Lite Switch compatible with an external HDD via the ports on the dock.
All those of you claiming there's "no point" now really don't get the benefits of physical to begin with.
1) You can loan out the cartridge to friends/family, or share a single game cartridge among multiple Switches
2) You can re-sell the game later if you beat it or stop having fun playing it and would rather recoup some money to put towards a new game.
Regardless of patches or extra downloads, the physical cartridge allows you to do these things. A digital download does not. Yes it's annoying to have to download and use space on the MicroSD card, and devs really need to stop this BS and shell out for the larger-capacity cartridges. But it's only a trivial nuisance compared to the main benefits of buying physical.
@darkswabber when the servers shut down...? I’m not quite following. You can play a game on the Xbox One and PS4 without an update, same on the Switch as well.
I don’t disagree, why can’t 2K go the extra mile for BioShock to be playable entirely on the cart. Or XCOM 2. Even Borderlands 1 & 2 on the cart and download the Pre-Sequel.
@SuperWeird ok boomer
one of my dream is playing Xcom2 on my Nintendo Switch.
It will be done.
and I wanna Test Drive Unlimited (1st) for Nintendo Switch.
Give Me Please.
I’m happy enough to have Bioshock trilogy on the go, y’all. I have a few beefy memory cards for my Switch so I think I’m content with purchasing these digitally.
Do you need to download a whole collection? For instance, if I buy Borderlands, can I install just Borderlands 2, or do I need to download all three games?
I LOVE Bioshock soooo much but NO sale!! When are they gonna figure this out?? What the hell is the point of buying the retail copy if the majority of the game/s has to be downloaded?? THAT means one day in the future when Nintendo closes the Switch Eshop down, these games will be of no good use unless you DON’T ever delete!!! Terrible!! That said I wonder which Bioshock Game is on the card...🤔
I also think a sequel of Dragon Ball Fusions would be nice on switch it could have more story more characters as well as DLC you could remaster the first game Dragon Ball Fusions put it in a collection there are so many worthy games for the switch and I think this is one of them ( If anyone disagrees just put thumbs down if you do agree put a thumbs up I will put this on Twitter that way Nintendo can see this
@Mountain_Man
I was just checking these out on the eShop upcoming releases. They have the whole Bioshock Collection...but they also have each game independently. Also, with Borderlands, they have the Legendary collection, and then Borderlands GotY Edition on its own, and the Handsome collection (Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel) as 2 separate purchases if you wish. Xcom 2 is just all one big bundle of game and a ton of DLC, it looks like. So...if you just want Borderlands 1 and Bioshock 1, you can just get those 2 and none of the others if you don't want (or so it looks like so far from what the eShop is showing).
I even suspect (read:suspect) the gamecard technology nintendo uses can not go higher then 32gb.
Maybe it has something to do with the read/write speed, wich change above 32gb.
Its like sticking a usb 3.0 into a 2.0 port.
Sd formats change too above 32gb.
Nonetheless get used to the digital era, even if you bought a game physical, you need big updates, the bluray system is also useless within a couple of years.
Most of the collectors seem to be saying they want something they can see and hold in their hands and this is exactly that.
I don't understand the complaints. You're always told when they discontinued service and you're free to download all the games before then.
“Why would you want to buy a physical game that doesn't actually include the game you're buying?”
Because a physical cartridge is a TRANSFERABLE licence key!*
I’m glad to see a couple people like @chronicles and @sremick also talking about this.
Back in the fall I got really jazzed up about going all digital. I picked up a big new SD card and was ready to embrace the brave new world. At that point we had three Switch gamers in the family, but all on one console. Buying digital games on my account was all good. Then it hit me that we were probably headed towards buying a second Switch pretty soon. (And we did.) With carts everyone can play on their own account, on either system, no problem. With digital games that’s a big nope. So I’m back in the physical game camp for as long as possible.
(*Large caveat: That’s assuming all the games in these collections are tied to the carts, and not included as separate download codes.)
@ThanosReXXX
I see plenty of Collectors who still just want to have the cartridge or even just the box for their shelves. You can download the missing content to a card for preservation if you wish.
And Games shops will still give you Trade In for games that need a download (and that’s without saying that if you included patches and updates that’s pretty much every game ever). I bought and sold Wolfenstein 2 Used. CEX in the UK will give you £20 for Wolf 2 and £28 for Doom.
@Quarth a couple of missions. For all of them you still have to download some GBs.
@setezerocinco Yeah, someone mentioned it above. It sucks.
Anybody that knows anything about the Switch 3 years later knows it doesn't have enough onboarding memory. It's quite obvious you need a micro sd card by now. I mean, in my opinion. Just by a nice size micro sd and stock your games. There are plenty cheap options that are of great quality these days.
@Kalmaro -opens case to reveal several 200GB micro SD cards- way ahead of you, pal.
Oh well, guess they've saved me quite a bit of money. I probably would have bought all three eventually of they were full physical. Now I'll just wait for Xcom in a sale. This practice shouldn't be allowed with the issues of plastic we have going on, shame.
Well ya. There's 3 huge current gen versions of last gen games.
There's no possible way to fit that on a cart.
I am so tired about all this ports of old games. Where's new games?
I really was considering Bioshock because of the physical, but now i see that its just a download cartridge, you might as well just not bother and download it, therefore lost interest.
I was exactly the same with the Resident Evil collections.
Releasing as physical pushes up the price of both the physical and digital game. I won't pay 59.99 for a download. It is really annoying when the physical needs to be downloaded anyway.
@Anvold "I am so tired about all this ports of old games. Where's new games?"
There are tons of new and original games for the Switch.
If these had at least one full game on a cartridge that you could play without downloads, I'd have bought all three. This "we'll put part of each game on the card" is just ill-conceived idiocy.
I'll probably just get Bioshock instead of all three as I've been waiting to play that again and wanted it for the switch.
@Mountain_Man tons? Where this tons of original games on Switrch? When I see a new Direct, I always see a old games mostly. I already own many of them on other platforms. I bought only one game in this year for Switch - Tokyo Mirage Session #FE, but it is not original new game. I gonna buy Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, but it is only remake. I am interested in SMT V, but I not heard about it anything new since 2017. It is boring.
I know, that I'm not nintendo fan, I not want buy all Mario and Zelda games. Pokemon is too easy and boring for me, and I don't like grinding games or farm games like Animal Crossing. But what about third party games? There's nothing new for Switch and this is sad.
@Woomy_NNYes Well, as the article mentions, Bioshock seems to be the least of the offenders, seeing as that comes on a 16GB cartridge instead of on an 8GB, like Borderlands and X-COM, but it is a bit unclear for now what they mean exactly when it says "later game contents and add-ons will need to be downloaded", because besides the obvious DLC, that can mean just about anything from entire chapters to crucial parts of the game itself.
Either way, it sucks...
@electrolite77 Well, that just sounds weird and totally useless. Who would buy a used game without the ability to download the rest?
I sure wouldn't...
And from what I've understood so far, you'd only be able to play the first half hour of several of these games without downloading any extra content, so that's all you'd get if you'd buy these games second hand.
I truly wonder what CEX or any other trade-in company or game shop is doing with all these gimped games, because reselling them seems highly unlikely.
@ThanosReXXX Oh yeah. Look at that. 2/3 of the article expaining what you just said 🤔 haha. Sorry about that. I was really rushed yesterday, didn't see that. And I was so certain the article didn't answer that, for some crazy reason. Thank you Thanos for being so damn cool. 😎👌
None. I’m going 100% digital. I’m tired of swapping carts.
Next time Dark souls, Diablo 3 and Zelda go on sale, my transfer will be complete.
@Woomy_NNYes No worries man, I can vividly imagine that almost nobody's head is currently where it's supposed to be at, what with the whole world being all Corona-focused.
@JudgeMethos don't confuse "memory" (RAM) with "storage". They aren't the same. The Switch has 4GB of memory, and 32GB of storage.
@Anvold "Where this tons of original games on Switrch?"
So you're a troll. Okay, on the ignore list you go.
@sremick I'm not confused. I never mentioned the 4 gigs of RAM. I said 32 gigs of memory. Maybe I should have said storage but my point was you can buy extra storage on the micro sd card. That part was simple enough, I think.
@ThanosReXXX
Anyone who has the cartridge can download the extra content. As many people, as many times as they want. It isn’t a One-off code like Bayonetta or so much DLC. It’s the same with the Assassins Creed Collection as well.
At some point in the future the servers may go off and that will be an issue but for now it’s fine to pass the games around and resell them.
@electrolite77 Ah, okay. My bad, then. I always thought that these "code in a box" things were a one-off. Still worrisome for downloads later in the console's life cycle, though. You never know when they'll stop supporting those servers.
But in general, even with their own specific deterioration rates, discs and cartridges do last a lot longer than online support for a system or game, as we've already seen happen several dozens of times, and then some...
Don't do it like the Resident Evil bundle (1/2 on card and 1/2 download) ... rubbish
@Mountain_Man you can read only first line and call me a troll? You are bad troll yourself, man. If you want, that I ignore you - I can. I will not see your meaningless comments anymore.
@ThanosReXXX
Yeah it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens. Pretty much any game disc/cart from the 360 on is going to be useless or highly diminished they get that many updates.
@electrolite77 Haha, yeah. I get reminded of that every time I spontaneously decide to dig up one of my older games and it gives me a pop up about an update. I suppose that now with the stay at home order I should take some time to try them all out and get the updates while it's still possible.
That's only valid for the Xbox 360 itself, though. As you may know, the Xbox One downloads any necessary patches and/or free add-ons automatically, if there are any available, so I'm at least half sure that the same will go for the new Xbox Series X as well.
This why I love the Switch. It is what I only ever dreamed the Vita could be. A sequel to an ugly, yet still enjoyable, version of a game released late in the vitas life. Then you got all that borderlands, presumably running better the 12 fps Borderlands 2 ran on the Vita. Finally, Bioshock, a game that was cancelled for, or never existed on, the Vita.
Is put in cart, then download or put in cart redeem code and download. I like the option of selling games once played. I hate that "license to play" crap. Its my game. I play it then I sell it. Then I don't have it anymore. Someone else does.
It’s frustrating that 2K are using only an 8GB card and making players have to download the rest. But I’ll tell you why I would still go with the physical copy:
Resale.
I know it sounds crazy, but there may come a time when you want to sell your Switch. I can’t foresee it myself, given how much I love playing on it. But I did sell my Wii U (which was just gathering dust) before I bought a Switch, and it was when I went to sell it on that I realised nearly every game I had was digital, and so I couldn’t sell them on as well. I ended up not getting an awful lot for it - much less than I would have if I had a good selection of games to go with. And of course it meant that I couldn’t recoup the cost of any of the games.
Hell, you might not even want to sell the console, but maybe you want to sell a game you’ve 100%’d and have no desire to go back and play.
Almost everything I own for the Switch now is physical. Same for my PS4.
@MrMichaelJames
I buy digital on switch due to the fact that Nintendo’s card cover is fragile as hell. I’m scared I’m going to break it just pulling it up. I have two physical games (Links Awakening and Smash) only because they were on sale for a price I couldn’t resist.
But on the next gen consoles they need to still have physical drives. There are millions of people like me who live in rural areas and have pretty slow internet access. The Switch isn’t an issue; I just pack it with me and use public wifi, plus most Switch games aren’t very large. But it’s a bit harder to pack up a PS4. And PS5 game sizes are going to increase; 100+ gig installs will be the norm in this upcoming generation.
I would support going all digital for home consoles if they would allow us a secondary method to download our games. For example, if I could buy the game on the web through my MacBook and download it there, put it on a flash drive, and then copy it to Playstation/Xbox.
@ThanosReXXX Since the PS4 version exceeds the max cart size, I'm not surprised. Also, this is a budget release. So I would be surprised if it even got a cart larger than the minimum for Borderlands ( heck maybe not even that with it having a key portion of code on cart but required downloading for assets).
I wonder if the games can be re-downloaded in separate consoles. If so, then buying the cart will be make sense, as the cart is resalable and full content are kept. Not like the resident evil triple pack which you used up the download code, and RE 5 and 6 can't be played by others.
Has any one of those moaning about downloading not played a game in the last 3 years? They nearly ALWAYS need a download.
I really don't get the bad attitude, you buy the physical for the box art, it has no bearing on the actual game inside that so many claim to enjoy.
Sorry guys and gals, but you is ridiculous
@TheRedComet I always thought that stores should have a download station where you put in a proprietary memory card, select the game you want to purchase and it transfers the game to your memory card for installing at home for this very reason. It would allow people to enjoy the browse of a store and walk away with a download game
@chrisjfinlay do you remember when people moaned about lack of profiles on the Wii?
"waaah, its tied to the console and not me"
"my purchase doesn't feel like I own it"
Guess what?! I sold a Wii with tonnes of installed games (legit purchases) for a LOT of money because said downloads were tied to the console and not me. I felt like I moreso owned the games because I could freely sell them with my console.
And yet everyone moaned and moaned and now we are stuck with profiles.
Well done.
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