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Forums - Nintendo - Reggie hints at the future of Digital games on their platforms.

JWeinCom on 22 June 2015
spemanig said:
JWeinCom said:
I'm not sure how a download code card would fit Reggie's description.


An NFC card perfectly fits his description. It's not like carts save playing data anymore. They are effectively worthless now. They don't do anything that can't be done better digitally. The NFC cards would effectively do the same thing carts already do, which is basically nothing, but give the cards them selves the collective value that Amiibo currently have, but from launch.


No it doesn't.  

Reggie talks specifically about being afaid of losing access to the content.  How does a one time download code like you suggested address that concern at all? 

And NFC cards do not do the same thing that cards do.  A card has the game on it.  As we speak, I'm playing Shenmue on my Dreamcast.  I can do that because the data, which is far too large to fit on any NFC card by a degree of millions, is on the discs.  A one time download code on an NFC chip does not do the same thing.  If 40 years from now the eshop is a distant memory, or even in five years from now if I've forgotten my account information, the NFC card you proposed would be useless.  Since NFC cards hold a maximum of 1 mb, all those could provide is a download code that would still require the eshop.  Meanwhile, a hundred years from now, assuming my Dreamcast is stored properly, my great grandkids can still play Shenmue.  That is the security Reggie was clearly talking about, and your NFC proposal does not in any way provide that.



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Frogger on 22 June 2015
MohammadBadir said:
spemanig said:


PSP Go didn't fail because it was digital, so that's pretty irrelevant. 

It was a pretty big reason, lol. A lot of people who owned many physical games were pissed off.


No it wasn't. And even if what you're saying is true about pissing people off, launching an entirely new system digital only is completely different from launching a digital only iteration of an already successful system.



Proxy-Pie on 22 June 2015
spemanig said:
MohammadBadir said:

It was a pretty big reason, lol. A lot of people who owned many physical games were pissed off.


No it wasn't. And even if what you're saying is true about pissing people off, launching an entirely new system digital only is completely different from launching a digital only iteration of an already successful system.

Not if you want BC.



The_Yoda on 22 June 2015
spemanig said:
SuperNova said:

Reading through OP my first thought was Amiibo as game keys?

I don't really think that would happen though. Reggie shows at least a basic understanding of why people buy physical. It's not just about collecting stuff and having a glorious shelf to show off. They're afaid of data-loss, of actually loosing their game and not being able to play it anymore. Physical is safer because it wont just vanish off the face of the earth if a publisher says so (looking at you konami). His quote implies that he understands that. So an actual physical NFC key to a digital game is not very likely IMO since it would accomplish nothing to relieve those concerns. It's literally just a collectors Item.


He also makes it clear though that he thinks that thought is absurd. It doesn't happen. Digital games are more secure than physical games, not less.

How do you figure that? We don't know what the future holds for Digital games, how long will you be able to re-download them? HDD crash and burn all the time. If you have a physical copy and a machine to play it on you can play that game for decades.  I still have a working NES and all my carts from when I was a kid.  Granted some carts need the battery replaced, but outside of that they still work 30 some odd years later.  I just don't see any of these guys (Nintendo, Sony, MS) keeping download servers running for 3 or more decades for systems that they long since stopped making money on...