Physical Version Of Untitled Goose Game Won't Include Multiplayer On The Cart

Ow, okay.
At least the game can be played by Solo

Too bad. I'll be getting it anyways.

Unfortunately this is the case for the majority of physical releases nowadays. What's really stupid about this though is that this is already a delayed physical release. Would it have killed them to have delayed it just a little while longer to ensure the best possible physical product?

@Silly_G I fully agree with you, this is getting out of hand, in the beginning I bought many games on my Switch physical, first party as well as indie games. But most of the time a indie game still gets updates even after being released on disc/cartridge.
If you want to play that game again in a few years it will either miss the biggest updates or it can be broken/ still really bugged.

I know (some) games will get taken off digital stores sooner or later but there also is almost no use in going physical.

I regret not going digital only on the Switch. It also would have saved me a lot of money.

This sounds like a case of the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
One part of the team is like "let's work on adding this to the game" while another team is working on making a physical release, unaware that there'll be added content.

Eh, not a deal breaker at all, but it still stings a little.

For me the physical versions are just for making it easy to share games with the kids rather than buying multiple digital copies. Not that bothered what's actually on the cart as long as it makes it playable without buggering about swapping primary consoles and all that gubbins.

@BrintaPap physical still saves a lot of space over digital. Plus all big name physical titles will generally be found cheaper than their digital counterparts.

Witcher 3, for example, takes up 3.6GB of space on my Switch due to going physical. I purchased it for $69 AUD. The eShop price is $80, although it has been as low as $56 (at the cost of about 32GB of storage).

I really do hope they'll figure out a way to let us update the games even after the official servers are down years from now.

I'm no expert on this but how it's this handled on other consoles with dead servers? Have fans provided download options for the patches instead (at least for a portion if the games)? Or did the console creators still make an official way to allow games to stay updated?

@Yosher I don't think we have concise examples yet. Maybe for individual games. The only console that had its store shut down is the Wii, but digital games weren't really a thing on the Wii, since you only had Wiiware games. Best bet is to hope that some will be able to hack the system and keep it running on a private server after its dead. But given the scale of such undertaking, I don't know if that's possible. Best case scenario is classic ROM files, and downloading those to your system. And maybe setting up private servers for online play.

Preordered mine on Amazon, can't wait. Having the coop as a download is fine as it was a nice surprise to find out they'll even add it

@Yosher Hopefully that will happen... Imagine the poor person in the future who buys a physical Animal Crossing New Horizons and can't update it... what an empty game they'll get...

@Octane Yeah I figured that was the case. I wasn't sure whether or not the original Xbox had download games + patches or if that wasn't introduced 'til a generation later and/or if those servers had been shut down now so I was hoping that would at least be an example. I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this matter.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Exactly. That is precicely the problem with the digital age. If anyone gets a game after the servers were shut down, it's not gonna be an enjoyable experience if the game is missing either crucial patches or a lot of content. Or both. Even if you have already downloaded the games and/or patches fully before the servers shut down, who's to say things won't happen to your console somehow and you'll lose all the patches (or games, in case of digital purchases)? Honestly, this stuff will always make me prefer the pre-digital era. At least in those days you knew you were getting a complete product.

Well rhen why didn't they just delay the physical release? Doesn't make much sense.

@Coach_A yeah they both (digital/physical) have their downside and upsides. I have a 32 gig sd card in my Switch and never had trouble with storage space since I have almost all games physical on my Switch. Also physical can be bought for cheaper most of the times. But sometimes digital games (especially indies) are cheaper.

@BrintaPap I have a full 400GB SD card in my switch and over 100 physical titles. I get the appeal of both, but when it comes to big games I always go physical first

It's a lot easier to print som new blurays than these rom-cartridges the Switch uses. When Mario+Rabbit got a Gold Edition with all the DLC, it was just a digital download I think.

Some developers are planing for this limitation though, which is why Cuphead won't come physically until the DLC is ready to be included.

My two favorite words on any physical release are COMPLETE EDITION. When physical games are not plug-n-play it kind of defeats the purpose.
C’mon publishers/developers,, when a game has been out for like 8 months, this is truly unfortunate news

I don't quite get the cold reception to this. Like, it would be nice if it was all on the cart, but it's not even going to be a big download - unlike some other
"physical" Switch games.

@Yosher I hear what you're saying.

Is raise as a counter point that, most likely, a new version of said game will be out and most people will probably be playing that instead of the old one.

@Clyde_Radcliffe yeah. Massive oof on Nintendo's part. Also, the people playing Smash couldn't get Joker. That would be unfortunate because...
JOkEr HAs A GuN!

@Kalmaro New versions coming out does not mean old versions should be forgotten though. I'm someone who enjoys playing old games now and then, and in x amount of years I'll probably also still enjoy games which are new today and will be old at that time. It's not just about enjoying the new, it's also about preservation.

@Yosher Oh absolutely, just playing Devil's advocate a bit.

It's hard to compare this to any old games I play since mine are all self contained games, not stuff that needed patches and updates.

@Yosher I've seen this in a lot of PSP and PS3 games, but dedicated official websites to games provide files to download the dlc or patches. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo might do when the Wii U finally shuts down cause they're behind Sony and Microsoft in terms of these things
This is also why rereleases are important as well. Most people find the "deluxe" ports of Wii U games lazy, but they can be extremely valuable in game preservation.

@Kalmaro One day, however, the new games you will play will be old games, and what if you feel like playing those after patches/updates have become unavailable? ..exactly.

@GilbertXI Well, that does show that it is at least not outside the realm of possibilities for them to keep a server up for these DLC or patches in the future. Whether or not Nintendo will do this though remains to be seen, but yeah, at least the deluxe ports (or really, any rereleases) are good to have in this sense even if they are 'lazy'.

And on the same topic, I would love to see an addition to NSO of Wii-ware games, but I don't know how well some of the games will transition in terms of motion controls. That would definitely make the service much more valuable.

@Yosher I'm still waiting for a Xenoblade X port, almost given up hope.

@Yosher The Devil's advocate in me would say I would be too busy playing newer games to play older versions.

Realistically speaking though, you have a point. That's the danger of the digital age and it's why I don't mind people hacking their Switch to backup games anymore. I'm trying to do it myself.

I buy physical and probably always will, but even I have to admit it's a passe concept. Unless you purchase the game after the final update or patch has been made, it will not be a true version of the game. I won't be able to drop in my Super Mario Odyssey card 20 years from now and play the game, as I can drop in my Super Mario Bros. 3 cart and play that in its full glory. The updates and patches won't be available any longer. So I'm merely buying physical for the attachment to something I can place on a shelf.

Beyond that, though, is a bigger issue that concerns me. Digital has moved us to a mind set of games not needing to be complete upon release, and that to me is hurting the industry. I understand patching glitches, but a game should be 100 percent complete when it's released; not pay full price now and get half the content later. Or pay full price now and we'll fix the resolution later, after you've completed the game. If I order a meal at a diner, I don't get the burger now and the fries to take home. What other business works this way? I think developers see digital as an opportunity to do things in a half-baked manner, which in the end will be a bad thing for the industry. Right now it doesn't seem so bad, but at some point I can see it being, "Let's release what we have, and if people like it we'll add more content. If they don't, we'll just cut it off and save the rest of the development cost." As consumers we have to speak with our wallets and show that, digital or physical, we won't buy something unless it's the full package.

Thank goodness, I thought you’d need to pay for the update with physical edition. Quite frankly, I don’t care about this difference. It’ll update ASAP, so why does it matter?

@Burning_Spear My thoughts exactly. As an amateur collector of games who already missed out on these last two generations,(except for a Wii with like two games and my switch) I can't play some of the greatest games of all time cause some bug couldn't be patched years later. Fortunately we have continuous platforms like steam, but that still means the physical versions on the consoles are reduced to being paperweights. My preference has always been physical, but In the future I might be forced to go digital so I can actually play the damn game.
Edit: apologies, I'm typing on a phone.

@BrintaPap I'm sympathetic to those who prefer physical, but the alternative (apart from more expensive QA) is you might get bugs that are found later and uncorrected.

It's disappointing that the multiplayer won't be available on the cart, but as for other physical games and updates, isn't that how all consoles were not that long ago? If a developer wanted to add a feature or bug fix in after the publication, there wasn't a way to do it.

At least games GET updates now. I have a clear memory of hitting a memory leak in a Mario Sunshine level. The game slowed to an unbelievably slow crawl and became unplayable, I had to restart the console. I don't remember how I triggered it, but Game Cube games didn't have an update mechanism. That bug is still there today.

Your physical games will still work several years from now. They might be buggier than they ought to be, but they'll still load. If it's a game that you care about and there are updates, you should try to download the updates to your system while you can, but fortunately there are few truly unplayable games without updates.

Remember the good old days when the full game used to come on a cartridge and there was nothing in existence called a “day one patch” ... good times

This is a deal breaker. Already have the game digitally, and the price of the cartridge is more than double the original price without including everything. I rarely buy digital, and I hate to double dip.

I mean, it kinda does. You get the multiplayer mode for purchasing the game, having it as an update doesn't mean you don't get the multiplayer mode? Maybe I'm missing the point, but I don't get why this would affect anyone's decision on whether or not the buy the game. You could say the exact same thing with 'Already own Untitled Goose Game? You don't have the multiplayer mode!'

Idk, headline seems clickbait and deliberately misleading.

@PikaPhantom
Requiring any download at all to fully enjoy a game purchased physically just lessens the value of your purchase. Nobody knows how long content or features or patches locked away in impermanent servers will remain available to download.
It’s just some consumers, I’d venture to say us old kranky relics from the pre-dlc pre-EULA era when game releases were finished products, recognize the value of hard copies.

I think a carefully planned out physical release is worth the wait because it allows those of us who care to buy software, not just a temporary license to use software.
Ah well, us old people will age out sooner or later - things will go all-digital and nobody will really care. There are bigger things to worry about in life...

@Clyde_Radcliffe Exactly. Here's hoping there is a "welcome Amiibo"-esque rerelease cart somewhere down the line after everything has been added.

Imagine going to a car lot and buying the "luxury package" of your chosen vehicle only for the dealer to tell you you have to wait for the radio and heated seats..... That's what we are dealing with. Excuses are just that. Don't rel3ase games that lack their full experience. Don't release broken games. This is why retro gaming has skyrocketed in value. All the smart kids have realized that this generation is the beginning of the end for most retro gaming(especially triple A titles). I called this when the original Xbox came out. Stop buying their ***** on launch day and wait for "delux" or "game of the year" editions. And if it doesn't have the full game on the physical media.... Gulp... Don't play it. Heaven forbid you miss out on the newest bragging rights to a game that you've most likely already played the crap out of.... Super smash fans....

Who cares? you can update a game right?