Why Are Game-Key Cards So Controversial?

[Darwinianevolution]

firebush03 said:

Darwinianevolution said:

Why would I want a physical cartridge that does not have the game on it? If I want physical, I want the game on it, I want to own it. If not, why wouldn't I just get digital, when it is at least tied to my account (hell, even if the servers go down, I can make a backup copy and store it somewhere). Game Key Cards have the worst of both words. It's e-waste of the worst kind.

In what sense does the physical cartridge “not have a game on it”? Yes the literal game files on directly implanted in the memory of the cartridge… but what difference that make? As far as I’m aware, there’s no such thing as NS2 emulation— meaning that whether you can upload the cartridge contents to a PC is entirely useless for the time being. (And in the long term, both digital and physical will likely be able to have their files extracted to PC, so still no difference there.)

Unless you literally just want to that comfortable feeling of having a file on a cartridge…which, again, why? What’s the rationale in getting worked up over your game booting up via hardware accessing files versus via triggering a download to the system?

GCKs are about as much of e-waste as your standard cartridges, though with (supposedly) longer lifespans (so technically less waste in that respect).

The game key card does not have the game. It is a glorified link to a digital copy, which still needs the cartridge to launch instead of the convenience of a fully digital copy that you could open immediately. If the servers ever go down (which they inevitably will, they always do), a cartridge is still playable, and it will be playable so long as the materials last. A game key card will be lost unless you have a backup copy, just like digital.