Gaming Is the Switch future compatible with a new digital-only infrastructure for Gen 9th consoles?

[pedro702]

They have to. It’s not the studios responsible for distribution, it’s the distributors. Distribution is where the most money is in any entertainment. This is why Interscope gets 60% of income from a musicians sales. Let’s take Dr Dre as an example. Aftermath Records does a project, they’re the studio. They release an album and now it’s Interscopes job to promote and sell it. They’re the distributor. And no they don’t host it for free. You paid for the hosting when you bought the game, ie the distributors 60%.

If ubisoft goes bakrupt they are their own distributers and publishers, even on steam buying any ubsifot games just makes a shortcut for uplay download and launch and yes you cannot redownload it through steam it only links to uplay, if ubsisoft goes down they arent gonna keep hosting their uplay servers at all and steam cant launch the game without uplay at all or even download the assests since everything is redirected through uplay.

 

[brickmii82]

If ubisoft goes bakrupt they are their own distributers and publishers, even on steam buying any ubsifot games just makes a shortcut for uplay download and launch and yes you cannot redownload it through steam it only links to uplay, if ubsisoft goes down they arent gonna keep hosting their uplay servers at all and steam cant launch the game without uplay at all or even download the assests since everything is redirected through uplay.

Again, back to my previous point and one you’ve pointed out as well earlier I think, that the topic is the Switch, so Steam doesn’t really apply as no console mftr is going to allow a game to be published on its platform without exclusive distribution rights to that platform. Especially Ninty, they’re stingy since the Seal of Approval days. And again, this is all just gearing towards monthly access subs in the long run. The physical copies you want aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I still see GTAV on sale for PC at Walmart.

 

[pedro702]

Again, back to my previous point and one you’ve pointed out as well earlier I think, that the topic is the Switch, so Steam doesn’t really apply as no console mftr is going to allow a game to be published on its platform without exclusive distribution rights to that platform. Especially Ninty, they’re stingy since the Seal of Approval days. And again, this is all just gearing towards monthly access subs in the long run. The physical copies you want aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I still see GTAV on sale for PC at Walmart.

like i said nintendo closed dsi e shop you cannot redownload anything now, they annonced this is the last year for wii eshop and again no redownloads, wiiu e shop wont take long maybe 3 or 4 years at best, on consoles is even worst, when they close the shop everything you have is now gone, if your console dies or you deleted the title you can no longer download it.

so far it was original xbox,dsi and wii this year, in 5 or 6 years when they close ps3 and xbox360 shop you will see alot of people complaining, heck even dlc codes and such on ps4 games have an experation date of 2021-2022 so they have no obligation to mantain your download code after they expire.

 

[brickmii82]

like i said nintendo closed dsi e shop you cannot redownload anything now, they annonced this is the last year for wii eshop and again no redownloads, wiiu e shop wont take long maybe 3 or 4 years at best, on consoles is even worst, when they close the shop everything you have is now gone, if your console dies or you deleted the title you can no longer download it.

so far it was original xbox,dsi and wii this year, in 5 or 6 years when they close ps3 and xbox360 shop you will see alot of people complaining, heck even dlc codes and such on ps4 games have an experation date of 2021-2022 so they have no obligation to mantain your download code after they expire.

So buy physical copies if you think that keeping them open for 10-15 years isn’t long enough. And again, for the 3853578th time it’s gearing towards monthly subs being the norm. They don’t want you to buy the ride ticket, they want you to buy the season pass.

As for X360 folks complaining, you must not pay attention there. Xbox Live Enforcement Team has been banning accounts and removing access to all content for a looooong time and there have been maaaaany complaints about they’re arbitration choices. Somehow they haven’t been sued in a class action case.

 

[pedro702]

So buy physical copies if you think that keeping them open for 10-15 years isn’t long enough. And again, for the 3853578th time it’s gearing towards monthly subs being the norm. They don’t want you to buy the ride ticket, they want you to buy the season pass.

just the other day i played some of my n64 games and my n64 wasnt botting, i found out the ac adapter was fried, lucky for me you can remove the n64 ac adapter fine and replace it, n64 was digital only and i would need to get another one i was screwed.

well time will tell, all i think is when any of the big 3 makes a newer gen console that has no way to read media and its digital only it will flop big time imo heck microsfot is screwed this gen because of what they wanted to do on their reveal event, people were all pushed away and became sony users, this is why microsoft shoot themselves in the foot this gen.

 

[brickmii82]

just the other day i played some of my n64 games and my n64 wasnt botting, i found out the ac adapter was fried, lucky for me you can remove the n64 ac adapter fine and replace it, n64 was digital only and i would need to get another one i was screwed.

well time will tell, all i think is when any of the big 3 makes a newer gen console that has no way to read media and its digital only it will flop big time imo heck microsfot is screwed this gen because of what they wanted to do on their reveal event, people were all pushed away and became sony users, this is why microsoft shoot themselves in the foot this gen.

They will, agreed. They keep doing anti-consumer shit and it’s just a matter of time. Unless they change course. I doubt it.

 

[Nama]

I don't think we'll ever go digital entirely for a few reasons. The broadband cap. is a big one but quite frankly if you really want to stymie graphics moving forward make it digital only. For Indies they will always work on the digital end as they're behind in terms of needing large storage; however, AAA games will get bigger and bigger and the infrastructure isn't there to handle HUGE downloading all the time with Gbps connections. This works fine for passive media like movies but with games imagine if so many people with Gigabit connections are constantly downloading 500 gig. games and bigger. With physical it's a quite press and done.
The infrastructure isn't there yet and may never be there for digital only unless they completely compromise the product. A case in point in trying to force all digital and compromising the product is Apple putting all their iTunes music in the cloud, from what I've heard Lossless ISN'T part of that plan. So again, for the digital push that all these publishers they want it's about compromising quality.

Oh and for some of these comments about the service possibly being gone there's a reason why I buy most of my games on PC, specifically through GOG. No DRM, I can easily download and back them up on a physical copy too.
Unfortunately there's a number of MS Indie games I need to figure out a way to back up I have bought..."EvilQuest", "Shoot 1Up", "Arcadecraft" and "Vorpal". I should've bought "Protect Me Knight" but hadn't. Those games I would like to still be available far in the future but "EvilQuest", "Shoot 1Up" and "Vorpal" aren't available on any platform and "Vorpal" is fantastic.
There are other games probably but those come to mind of being lost. I'd say "GameRoom" but those are arcade rom's and if I can't access them again I can just find them to download online since I paid to use them for my personal use.

 

[pedro702]

They will, agreed. They keep doing anti-consumer shit and it’s just a matter of time. Unless they change course. I doubt it.

i mean look at nintendo, they actualy make money everytime a third party user releases a phisical games since they need to buy the cartriges from them, so why would they drop the cartriges when they are on a win win situation? xD

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

People already do the majority of their purchasing digitally, which is why physical is dying in the first place. I'm not sure where you get the "decade" figure from...Gamestop is the only brick and mortar store in my area and they mostly sell figurines and collectibles rather than games now.

That's a huge generalisation. I have known plenty of low-income console gamers who can only afford to game thanks to the second hand market.

Publishers are probably dismissing those as not making money off them, but that isn't strictly true either as they do BUY DLC and if its a game they REALLY want they will often trade in a load of old games to buy a new release.

Once they go download only those gamers will be unable to buy as many games, or may turn to piracy.

That is without even considering people stuck on slow broadband and/or small data caps, overage charges.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

i mean look at nintendo, they actualy make money everytime a third party user releases a phisical games since they need to buy the cartriges from them, so why would they drop the cartriges when they are on a win win situation? xD

Nintendo profit either way as they are getting a cut via the eStore. The only thing cartridges are doing is inflating download prices due to wanting to keep price parity across both formats. There has been plenty of complaints about this resulting in Switch games costing more than other platforms.

 

[Xzi]

That's a huge generalisation. I have known plenty of low-income console gamers who can only afford to game thanks to the second hand market.

Publishers are probably dismissing those as not making money off them, but that isn't strictly true either as they do BUY DLC and if its a game they REALLY want they will often trade in a load of old games to buy a new release. So I can forsee them complaining of a drop in profits once they go digital only as those gamers will be unable to buy as many games, or may turn to piracy.

If sales are generous enough, like those on Steam, nobody misses out on any game for very long. Though I agree it will be a while until M$ and $ony decide to really compete in the realm of digital sales and not just half-ass it.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Problem is it can be too late by the time they decide. Once people have hacked their console and start pirating games, there is no incentive to stop doing it until the next console comes out.

That said, PSN has started having some half-decent sales, Nintendo are a little behind (as usual). But that still doesn't solve the problem for people with slow broadband and/or have a data cap after which they are charged per megabyte. This problem is unlikely to go away any time soon for people not in a major city, and even some that are but the ISP is a monopoly.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Once people have hacked their console and start pirating games, there is no incentive to stop doing it until the next console comes out.

Sure there is. They just need to get their heads out of their asses with MyNintendo and start dishing out physical rewards so that longtime loyal members feel like they're getting rewarded with something useful

 

[RyanAnayaMc]

Eh, I prefer digital, especially on my Switch so I don't need to bring a bunch of game carts around. Then again, I am against companies ditching physical media entirely - let people have the choice of physical or digital versions of games. Especially with Nintendo, as the Switch has what, like 32GB of space? I can't even hold some of my Steam games on that...

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Sure there is. They just need to get their heads out of their asses with MyNintendo and start dishing out physical rewards so that longtime loyal members feel like they're getting rewarded with something useful

Which is NOT an incentive to start PAYING for games when you can get them for FREE. I was one of those people in Xbox days with sod-all income and downloading everything. The only games I bought were Burnout so I could play online.

Granted if I hadn't pirated those games initially I would never have known they were worth buying, but in all honesty if it wasn't for Xbox Live I would never have bought them.

Today I have very little interest in online gaming, the main reason I buy games is I moved primarily back to PC gaming where things get cheap enough to be able to afford to, with the odd game on Switch where its worth the premium. Plus as I said, PSN are finally having some decent sales. But I'm in a lot of debt so the temptation is always there (hello WiiU hacking scene).

Its certainly not helped by how few games have demos these days, or the demos are a poor representation of the full game. So the only choice then is to risk buying a physical copy of something and treat it as a rental, if you don't like it, trade it in for something else. Remove that option and piracy becomes the ONLY one.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Which is NOT an incentive to start PAYING for games when you can get them for FREE. I was one of those people in Xbox days with sod-all income and downloading everything. The only games I bought were Burnout so I could play online.

Granted if I hadn't pirated those games initially I would never have known they were worth buying, but in all honesty if it wasn't for Xbox Live I would never have bought them.

Today I have very little interest in online gaming, the main reason I buy games is I moved primarily back to PC gaming where things get cheap enough to be able to afford to, with the odd game on Switch where its worth the premium. Plus as I said, PSN are finally having some decent sales. But I'm in a lot of debt so the temptation is always there (hello WiiU hacking scene).

Its certainly not helped by how few games have demos these days, or the demos are a poor representation of the full game.

I dunno man there were some pretty dang cool physical rewards, and they were almost all rare above a certain point redeem value

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I dunno man there were some pretty dang cool physical rewards, and they were almost all rare above a certain point redeem value

Sadly the UK/EU never got those good rewards, but even if we did its not a priority when you are on a low income. Just being able to play the game is top priority.

Like I said, I have been on both sides myself and know people who only moved from piracy thanks to the second-hand market.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Sadly the UK/EU never got those good rewards, but even if we did its not a priority when you are on a low income. Just being able to play the game is top priority.

Which is fine. I don't think Nintendo is going to be chasing down the profits of low-income individuals, really

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Which is fine. I don't think Nintendo is going to be chasing down the profits of low-income individuals, really

My point is I think there are more of them then they think. A sale is a sale, there is no record if that sale was from a low-income individual thanks to trading in old games.

There have been many many occasions where I have traded in used games to buy something unrelated, and thanks to that saving I could buy a new game from a store that doesn't do used sales at all. There is no way for them to have statistics of how much the used market is actually inflating new sales.

 

[CitizenSnips]

I would certainly hope physical media stays, not everyone has the bandwidth to download large games (such as myself being limited to 50gb a month on my home internet, that'd barely be enough for a single game in certain instances)