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Forums - Gaming - How To Make a Digital Only Gaming Market Work For Consumers?

Zkuq 5 hours ago
SanAndreasX said:
CaptainExplosion said:

Well there need to be laws in place to prevent that bullshit.

And I thought Game Key Cards were only able to be used once.

No. The license is tied to the GKC, not the console or the account holder. So it's fully transferable, just like an on-cartridge game is.

Once you finish Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2, you can hand it off to your friend, or sell it. The recipient/buyer can plug the GKC into their Switch 2, download the game, and play it. Once you no longer have the GKC, you won't be able to play it. 

In that respect, GKCs are at least superior to code-in-a-box, which is tied to the account it is entered into and is not transferable. 

Of course the issue with GKCs is that you still depend on the online service and having a system that supports physical media. Those might or might not become issues in the future. Pick your poison, as usual.



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SanAndreasX 4 hours ago
Zkuq said:
SanAndreasX said:

No. The license is tied to the GKC, not the console or the account holder. So it's fully transferable, just like an on-cartridge game is.

Once you finish Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2, you can hand it off to your friend, or sell it. The recipient/buyer can plug the GKC into their Switch 2, download the game, and play it. Once you no longer have the GKC, you won't be able to play it. 

In that respect, GKCs are at least superior to code-in-a-box, which is tied to the account it is entered into and is not transferable. 

Of course the issue with GKCs is that you still depend on the online service and having a system that supports physical media. Those might or might not become issues in the future. Pick your poison, as usual.

I already mentioned that. That is a possibility. Yes, you are still putting your game library in the hands of a billionaire - whether it’s Furukawa. Nishino, Nadella, or Newell. 

That said, 20 years later, even if I can’t buy new games, I can still go and re-download every game I bought on the Wii and DSi eShops, and Nintendo has given absolutely no indication thus far that they are ending this. Same with Xbox and PS3. So I’m pretty confident that the GKCs I bought will still work at least that long, by which time I will be close to 70 years old. 

GKCs are likely the closest we’re going to get to resale and transfer of digital games. 



Zkuq 1 hour ago
SanAndreasX said:
Zkuq said:

Of course the issue with GKCs is that you still depend on the online service and having a system that supports physical media. Those might or might not become issues in the future. Pick your poison, as usual.

I already mentioned that. That is a possibility. Yes, you are still putting your game library in the hands of a billionaire - whether it’s Furukawa. Nishino, Nadella, or Newell. 

That said, 20 years later, even if I can’t buy new games, I can still go and re-download every game I bought on the Wii and DSi eShops, and Nintendo has given absolutely no indication thus far that they are ending this. Same with Xbox and PS3. So I’m pretty confident that the GKCs I bought will still work at least that long, by which time I will be close to 70 years old. 

GKCs are likely the closest we’re going to get to resale and transfer of digital games. 

Ah, I didn't read every post carefully, so I must have missed that.

Personally I'm not confident in the future of old systems, even if they've been well supported historically. If enough issues arise, e.g. related to security (and that's an increasing concern due to AI), they might just decide to drop support for those old systems altogether. I'm not saying it's going to happen, I'm just saying that personally I'm not very confident due to the low value old systems bring to the console companies. Having adequate backwards compatibility would, of course, largely make that point moot, but sadly so far only Xbox has a long history with that.