RolStoppable said:
So what do you think of Nintendo's strategy? Supposedly the games will cost the same at retail and as download. Looks like Nintendo doesn't want to piss off retailers which is a smart strategy. |
From a business perspective, it makes sense. For all the clamoring some folks like to do re: digital distribution, it's clearly still a minority of the console market. I remember the guys who made Shadow Complex complaining that for all the marketing it got, its sales were still too small to pull in more than just a modest profit. But this still lets smaller games games get published, while giving them some (probably very limited) exposure at retail. And there's always the off chance that the console market will follow the PC market in a decade or two; lord knows consoles now seem to be more and more like neutered PCs.
From a personal perspective, I'm mostly into it. I already use the USB Loader for my Wii, and while I have to hang onto all the discs in case something goes wrong I certainly can't argue with the convenience. Plus the niche games are more likely to still release this way. On the flipside, there are probably going to be more games which will never get a physical release. As someone who prefers the boxed copy, that's unfortunate. I'm already wondering what's going to happen to all my WiiWare games once the service dies down, although with luck that won't be until at least another generation.
