Why Are Game-Key Cards So Controversial?

[firebush03]

IcaroRibeiro said:

firebush03 said:

You never explained the “What difference does it make?” part. I still don’t understand in what (meaningful) sense is a GCK any different than a game with the full game on cart. You can loan the game to others, the key card will almost certainly still be fully usable well after the servers go down, etc.

When the game is on cart they are playable as long you have the console, no matter whether the digital storefront is up or down

Imagine you have a DVD, as long you have the player you can forever watch your movie. But it's different if you buy them on YouTube or Google Play, because once the store closes you will will have your to watch license revoked 

The GCK works like if you purchased something digitally, but the license is not tied to your account meaning you can resell them, but you still need the service to be open to play your games 

You see, that’s a solid explanation— that makes a lot of sense to me. That said, to maybe fight back a little bit… this would only make sense in the event that Nintendo is no longer running a digital storefront/service which provides games: If Netflix shuts down, for instance, and Netflix no longer runs any form of services to provide you their films and such, then yeah, you’re out of luck. In the case of Nintendo, the equivalent of this would be Nintendo essentially going out of business or completely departing from the gaming industry. So… while you do have a solid point, we’re talking about a highly unlikely hypothetical for the next few decades minimum.