Two NWR staffers pit the virtues of discs against downloads. Who wins? You decide.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/36550/physical-games-vs-digital-games-the-face-off
For some, it is a case of 'old habits die hard.' For others, the new technological era cannot come soon enough. Chances are that those of you reading this have gravitated towards one of these two camps since Nintendo took the plunge into the digital age with the 3DS and Wii U eShop, offering full retail games in download form in addition to their traditional physical media.
As it turns out, the Nintendo World Report staff is quite evenly divided between the old and new schools. Therefore, in an effort to make sense of the endless argument over what media is best, we asked one advocate of physical games and one proponent of digital games to make the five-point case for each.
Once you have read and digested what they had to say, we encourage you to join the discussion in the forums and let us know whether you prefer to buy your games at retail or download them instead. Long may this debate continue...
On the 3DS I am digital all the way. Imagine having a handheld with every first party Nintendo game ever created for the system on it and a ton of awesome indie and 3rd party titles. That is one heck of a handheld to have and own. Game sizes on handhelds are still small enough to make that a reality.This would be great if it were true. But Nintendo isn't going to publish 75% of their first party content on the VC. I think that's pretty evident by now.
I see there is no argument for what digital is better than physical.
Why can't we have both? Why can't we all just get along?!
Why can't we have both? Why can't we all just get along?!
I don't understand all this talk of inability to transfer purchases when all downloadable games on Wii and DSi could be transferred to their respective successors. All my Wii downloads transferred easily to my Wii U, and my DSiWare went from DSi to 3DS, and then transferred again to my 3DS XL along with my many 3DS eShop titles.
As for Ian's claim that there's some kind of remote kill switch, that may be true of some other services, but with Nintendo's systems, as long as they're still on your system and the system works, you will be able to play those games regardless of anything Nintendo does.
Does Nintendo's eShop infrastructure need to be improved? Absolutely. They need to expand their account system so that you can move between systems without jumping through a ton of hoops, and tweak a few other things, and I'm confident that they will. Nintendo has steadily improved their online offerings over time, and while it's happened far more slowly than it should have, I don't doubt they'll get to that point in time.
I think the physical side of the debate tends to be more enthusiastic about their choice. For me, having to switch cartridges repeatedly during heavy StreetPassing at Pokemon nationals a few years ago convinced me to go digital.
I think the physical side of the debate tends to be more enthusiastic about their choice. For me, having to switch cartridges repeatedly during heavy StreetPassing at Pokemon nationals a few years ago convinced me to go digital.
Digital all the way. Physical is for people who sell their games regularly, share them, or collect them. None of that applies to me and the convenience of it trumps all. Plus sales are steady and regular for what I want.
They are the only side with something to lose (more to the point, something that almost certainly will be lost eventually).
On handhelds, what I've started doing is either buying games on sale - Atlus is quite good at this - or using retail discounts to make sure I *want* to keep a game, then I'll buy it digitally and trade it for what I've paid after I move the save over. I can usually get close to what I paid for it. (Example: I bought SMTIV on launch day for $33, bought the eShop version a couple of weeks ago for $30, and traded the physical in for $19. Net cost: $42.)
The storage solution isn't so bad for Nintendo people since they use existing standards - USB hard drives and SD cards. I paid $5 for a Y cable to use a little 500GB pocket drive I picked up a few years back for my WiiU, and I got a 64GB SD card on sale for $40 for Boxing Day. I'm about to drop $110 on a similar sized card for my Vita and will be doing it with teeth gritted so hard they'll snap in half.
On handhelds, what I've started doing is either buying games on sale - Atlus is quite good at this - or using retail discounts to make sure I *want* to keep a game, then I'll buy it digitally and trade it for what I've paid after I move the save over. I can usually get close to what I paid for it. (Example: I bought SMTIV on launch day for $33, bought the eShop version a couple of weeks ago for $30, and traded the physical in for $19. Net cost: $42.)
One point I should have made in the editorial, but didn't, was that as the proud father of a 2 year old girl, I don't have a need to have any EXTRA plastic in my house. I have plenty of plastic toys that belong to her. Any action I can take that prevents more plastic stuff in my house is a success.
(or Y cable using up both of your USB ports so you can't charge a pro controller).The Wii U has four USB ports, so if you use one Y cable then you can still charge two Pro Controllers at a time.
So we all believe that once something gets put on the internet (a photo, documents, whatever), it's there forever. But then we turn around and think that there's some magical kill switch that will send all digital versions of games into the ether after a determined amount of time, forever lost in a digital sea. What?
It's a bit naive to think that there aren't digital preservation efforts going on to match what we have with books, films and optical media.
All forms of physical media decay over time. When it comes to video games, companies don't have long term preservation strategies because it didn't dawn on them that people will still be playing these games 40-50 years into the future(and that's still short term thinking).
It's not there forever (well maybe that unfortunate picture is). I'm a big fan of NR2K3. There have been thousands of thousands of things made by the community for the game. Most of the sites that host things are ran by enthusiasts on a paper thin budget. Most of those sites have shut down and there is no way to get that material today. Archive.org is full of broken links for those old sites.
I think too, we need to differentiate between what's on the internet and what's on the eshop. That's what people are talking about the content being removed (or never re-released) on the eshop which is likely to happen. Especially if one decides to not buy the new Nintendo console. Nintendo won't support eshop functionality for longer than 10-15 years for the Wii U. Then you are cut off. That's not a difficult thing to understand.
This is certainly not legal and if Nintendo still exists in the video game industry they will sue that website into oblivion if they publish 1 Nintendo title.
Most companies don't have long term preservation strategies because they don't see the financial viability in re-releasing their games (especially when alot didn't sell much the first time around). Many developers actually went bankrupt so 40-50 years down the line wasn't a concern to them at all. Nintendo doesn't put effort into VC because they don't believe there to be enough money there. I pretty much never expect a VC to ever have most of Nintendo's game available for it.
There are tons of advantages to digital and physical. I tend to lean towards physical when it's available. As others have mentioned, I like having the physical game and feel I'll have a better chance of being guaranteed to play them in 20 or 30 years. But that's not to say I don't see the advantages of digital. I would *love* to be able to load all my games up and play them whenever I want.Luckily nintendo seems to have the opposite idea or Mario All Stars would be on virtual console
I would like to say, one downside to digital - often, if there's something changed or edited in the game, the download version is "updated" and the older version is no longer available. Imagine a world where the DX version of Link's Awakening is the only version of the game you'll ever be able to play. I like the DX version, but there are some things I like better in the original version - and the screen warp glitch is always fun. :D
One argument that could go either way is the time it takes to acquire the game itself. Depending on how close you live to the store, the speed of your internet connection, and the scarcity of the game, either one might be faster. As it stands, right now I'm looking at a 17+ hour download time for DK Tropical Freeze, a game I could get on disc in less than a tenth of that.Another one could be made for how much you would want to replay the game 10 years from now.
It's not that hard to find a working NES, and those things were notoriously flimsy. I don't see why everyone's assuming current hardware won't work in 30 years if cared for properly. I'm not sure about Bluray, but I know there's a good chance DVDs will have degraded significantly in that time span as well.
If you keep your Wii U with all your games downloaded to it it won't matter if you can't connect to the eShop, they'll all still be there.
Having a shelf full of games is nice to look at, but it's a massive pain in the ass if you ever want to move them.
Having a bunch of digital games is nice to play, but it's a massive disappointment if you ever want to roll around naked in a giant pile of them.
Having a bunch of digital games is nice to play, but it's a massive disappointment if you ever want to roll around naked in a giant pile of them.
Having a bunch of digital games is nice to play, but it's a massive disappointment if you ever want to roll around naked in a giant pile of them.
Please never sell your games.
Having a bunch of digital games is nice to play, but it's a massive disappointment if you ever want to roll around naked in a giant pile of them.God dang it now I have to rearrange my signature.