Why Are Game-Key Cards So Controversial?

[Zippy6]

Darwinianevolution said:

firebush03 said:

What evidence do you have of this? Precedent shows that these companies will honor a digitally purchased copy even after servers go permanently down, so it would make sense for this practice to carry over to GKCs. Do you have any reason to reject this?

Do you remember the Wiiware digital store? Do you remember the DSi ware store? They were primitive and the games they had were very small, but they existed. And now, if I want to redownload "Megaman 9" for my Wii, I cannot. The WiiU and 3DS stores cannot purchase new games, so being unable to download anything anymore is coming.

Digital services go down, it happens. That's why physical ownership is so important. You cannot honor a digital purchase if the servers are down. Unless you have a backup, you lose access to the game forever in any official way. 

Pretty sure you actually can still download Wiiware and DSIWare titles you purchased in the past, just not purchase new ones, similar to the X360.

Friendly reminder that you can still download all your games from all the mainstream digital storefronts. Including old ones like DSi and PSP. | Famiboards

It won't last forever, one day the ability to download your digital DSi/Wii/PSP games will end but so far we're still going strong. I think Original Xbox may be the only console where you can no longer access purchased titles (but I can't 100% confirm this.)

GKC and Switch 2 digital games won't be redownloadable forever but hopefully they manage the 20+ years that previous consoles have and possibly longer.

It's worth noting physical media also has an expiry date, it may be many decades but eventually they will no longer work too.

Last edited by Zippy6 - 14 hours ago