Nintendo Wants Us To Download More And Move On From Discs

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
I’m out of the loop in regard to all the little ways Nintendo is incentivizing things these days, but this article suggests the company is making some effort to get people to go digital. If you prefer physical copies of games, what would it take to convince you to go digital?

When we broke down the My Nintendo economy - as it is in Japan so far - it was immediately clear that the Platinum rewards are more universal, engaging those that may dabble in Miitomo, for example. As mentioned above the Gold rewards require plenty of hard cash to be spent on games, be they smaller 'Nindie' efforts or full-blown retail titles. That's how loyalty programmes work, of course, providing occasional treats after plenty of commitment and spend, but the equivalent of around four retail downloads for a free $20 Wii Virtual Console game gives an idea of how much Nintendo wants us to shift to the eShop.
 
I haven't played on a Wii/WiiU in ages. Do they still tie your account to the console you own? That was the major drawback for me in investing any length of time in their online component.
 
Games coming with unique free content only when bought digitally is likely the only way to start pushing digital with consoles. That or the ability to play significantly early. They sure as hell aren't going to give a discount.
 
This coming from the company that actively discourages youtubers from playing their games and sells terrible consoles with limited memory capacity handicapped by unnecessarily expensive gimmicky controllers.

Honestly at this point I would rather see Nintendo be forced to drop their hardware division and sell their games on MS/Sony/PC platforms. They have really amazing games, it is just a shame they insist on handicapping them with stupid "innovation".
 
I haven't played on a Wii/WiiU in ages. Do they still tie your account to the console you own? That was the major drawback for me in investing any length of time in their online component.

Not only are the accounts tied to the hardware, you can't even use the same account on multiple consoles. I bought my daughter a 2DS then grabbed one for myself. Hard to make another Nintendo ID account just to use it.
 
First obstacle would be storage/harddrive space, 8 or 32 GB is far from enough if you are aiming for download only.

Second would be price. I don't know how it is in the states but here in Europe the prices on the Nintendo shop digital full price AAA can easily be $10-20 over retail discs.
 
This coming from the company that actively discourages youtubers from playing their games and sells terrible consoles with limited memory capacity handicapped by unnecessarily expensive gimmicky controllers.

Honestly at this point I would rather see Nintendo be forced to drop their hardware division and sell their games on MS/Sony/PC platforms. They have really amazing games, it is just a shame they insist on handicapping them with stupid "innovation".

Clearly you don't have a 3DS. An SD card isn't that pricey either. Digital makes sense because I don't have to swap cartridges but their account system is dated and confusing. If they make it Steam like and offer more/better sales, most won't bother with physical and used games.
 
Clearly you don't have a 3DS. An SD card isn't that pricey either. Digital makes sense because I don't have to swap cartridges but their account system is dated and confusing. If they make it Steam like and offer more/better sales, most won't bother with physical and used games.

I have a 3ds actually and it is the only good thing Nintendo has going for them currently. It is their console systems and the gimmicky bullshit and terrible limitations that I have a beef with.
 
The biggest letdown for me has been their virtual console. The Playstation classics selection for vita far eclipses what's available on the virtual console.

And the pricing seems off to me. $11.99 cad for a snes title seems a bit excessive.
 
I've been all digital on the PC for maybe 8+ years? Most of my games are on Steam. The risk with all digital is what happens if the company fails, removes something from the library you bought (because you own a license to use, not the actual media), slow internet, etc.
Still, I'm ok with all digital. I have kids - they ruin discs. Whenever possible, I try to get the digital version for them (Xbox 360, PS4, PC).
 
Step one:

Make downloaded games 'account based'.

Step two:

Allow users to play any game on their 'account' from any console as long as they are logged in.

Step three:

Invest in backwards compatibility so that purchased games can be played on future consoles long-term.


Until then, console gamers are going to be reluctant to warm up to digital media. PC gamers have been experiencing these steps for a while.
 
First obstacle would be storage/harddrive space, 8 or 32 GB is far from enough if you are aiming for download only.

Second would be price. I don't know how it is in the states but here in Europe the prices on the Nintendo shop digital full price AAA can easily be $10-20 over retail discs.

eShop prices are crazy in North America as well, damn near everything is $39.99 (3DS) or $59.99 (Wii U), organized horribly, and the sales are rarely more than a few $ off. Old NES and SNES games are priced outside of impulse buy price range and they never do anything like bundle games. I have dozens of PS4 games from PSN sales, never bought a single digital game on Wii U or 3DS.

Nintendo just doesn't "get it" with Internet connected devices. It's like a bunch of old politicians decided to setup an online service without ever having used anything but AOL.
 
Angry parents of their precious little kids busting their monthly data cap will only be the tip of iceberg for Nintendo's problems. With Comcast treating their customers like crap, good luck to those that try to get the overage charges reversed. Go TWC with no data caps.
 
Last edited:
Step one:

Make downloaded games 'account based'.

Step two:

Allow users to play any game on their 'account' from any console as long as they are logged in.

Step three:

Invest in backwards compatibility so that purchased games can be played on future consoles long-term.


Until then, console gamers are going to be reluctant to warm up to digital media. PC gamers have been experiencing these steps for a while.

I am actually quite surprised that, given the big name that is Nintendo, hasn't actually implemented this.

Still, while I am all for digital downloads, I wonder how this will sit with the crowd that sells their games. I personally couldn't care less as long as I have access to the games I want, which usually means digital.
 
Its the pricing that sucks the most. If I want to play smash bros with my son I need two copies of a $39.99 game. There are never any sales or discounts in the eshop.
 
I sold my Wii U and games months ago. Nintendo is going to have to make it a great deal for me to buy an NX. This isn't a selling point for me.
 
My family can't even share a Nintendo game unless we go physical at this point. I can't have a small and XL 3DS for my own purposes. Nintendo has no cross-buy, even for Virtual Console titles.

Nintendo needs to leave the stone age behind long before they talk about this BS.
 
So you can spend $60 on a story based game, play it, resell it for $30 if you buy a physical disk. Alternatively you can purchase it for the same price and never be able to get any cash back by selling it, while having exactly the same experience as the physical copy. Outside of some mild convenience there's zero reason to buy Nintendo digital titles.
 
Nintendo is the LAST company that should be pushing downloads. They can't get their online connectivity anywhere near PSN and XBL.
 
So you can spend $60 on a story based game, play it, resell it for $30 if you buy a physical disk. Alternatively you can purchase it for the same price and never be able to get any cash back by selling it, while having exactly the same experience as the physical copy. Outside of some mild convenience there's zero reason to buy Nintendo digital titles.

This.
Plus the fact that Nintendo's eShop is not account based, and they don't have decent prices on the downloads.

I can wait and buy a used disk for much less than the cost will ever be on the eShop.

With Xbox live, I get free games every month, and discounts on other games. If I want I could buy another Xbox, login with my account and play the games on it.
Only downloadable games I've bought for any console has been on the Xbox 360 we have, because the download was about the same price as a used disk.


So, to answer the question: I'd need much lower prices, even if it's a discount months after the games was released. Otherwise I'll wait and buy used games.
 
I have 3 issues

1. The onboard storage of the Wii and wiiu only fits like 4 games. Yes I can add a sdcard but not all games work from it...
2. Bandwidth caps if I need to download a 15-40 GB game there are alot of data caps out there a few 40gb games would wipe out most of them.
3. Rentals and I want to play now not an hour from now after the console finally installs it if I wanted that experience I have a pc for that.
 
I've already been downloading most of my Wii U games. I was getting Digital Deluxe credits in my Nintendo account that were adding up to free games for a while. I happened to have a 500GB external I'd been using for ripping Wii games via a USB port so that I wouldn't have to have the disc ready. So I just reformatted it and hooked up to my Wii U. Now I'm downloading legitimate copies of games to that drive, and it didn't even take up more space than the Wii I had there before. I also don't seem to have any bandwidth caps with FiOS (yet).

I mean, let's face it. You might as well use that bandwidth for something other than Netflix. In this day and age, there's not a whole lot else you can do with it except maybe play MMOs.
 
Before long you won't have the option of physical copies. It costs companies a lot of money to manufacture the discs and ship them to stores. From the point of view of the publishers going all digital is a no brainer. You never run out of stock, there are no used copies mucking up your pricing and you get to decide how a game gets marketed in the "store". My bet is that inside of a decade no one will be selling physical media anymore, which is going to suck for some folks.

I personally prefer the digital downloads. I don't need a ton of discs laying around taking up space and I never need to worry about losing one.
 
Before long you won't have the option of physical copies. It costs companies a lot of money to manufacture the discs and ship them to stores. From the point of view of the publishers going all digital is a no brainer. You never run out of stock, there are no used copies mucking up your pricing and you get to decide how a game gets marketed in the "store". My bet is that inside of a decade no one will be selling physical media anymore, which is going to suck for some folks.

I personally prefer the digital downloads. I don't need a ton of discs laying around taking up space and I never need to worry about losing one.

True, but until they fix the accounts system to be portable between consoles, or offer me a massive discount, I'm not interested. The only games I buy on eShop are exclusives you can't get anywhere else. And still some of those first-party games are still way overpriced.

Most of the time there's a $10-15 discount on older cartridge games versus the eShop. At least 3rd-party makers sometimes have the decency to actually lower their prices as game gets older.
 
Last edited:
Before long you won't have the option of physical copies. It costs companies a lot of money to manufacture the discs and ship them to stores. From the point of view of the publishers going all digital is a no brainer. You never run out of stock, there are no used copies mucking up your pricing and you get to decide how a game gets marketed in the "store". My bet is that inside of a decade no one will be selling physical media anymore, which is going to suck for some folks.

I personally prefer the digital downloads. I don't need a ton of discs laying around taking up space and I never need to worry about losing one.

Which is exactly why we need gamers to send a message NOW that we aren't willing to pay full price for digital goods. If you are paying full retail for a digital copy that you lose all right to resell you are not only screwing yourself, but the rest of us as well. If we let them get away with selling copies that cost them essentially nothing for full price while there is still a physical option, we lose all possible chance when physical goes away.
 
I predict right now that NX won't have a disc drive. Hopefully it supports expandable storage somehow, be it USB or SD.
 
Which is exactly why we need gamers to send a message NOW that we aren't willing to pay full price for digital goods. If you are paying full retail for a digital copy that you lose all right to resell you are not only screwing yourself, but the rest of us as well. If we let them get away with selling copies that cost them essentially nothing for full price while there is still a physical option, we lose all possible chance when physical goes away.

And that's exactly why Nintendo wants it: Control. What you/we view a s a negative, Nintendo as a business views it as profitable. You have limited YouTube, you can't resell, etc. all means more money for Nintendo, theoretically. How this works in reality is a different question. Will gamers revolt? They did for the Xbox One being online only. The PC on the other hand has transitioned successfully. Valve somehow managed to have PC gamers give up their rights to games, so to speak, and we thank them for that. We claim, oh it's because of all the sales, and maybe that's true. It might be Nintendo doesn't put games on sale, at least not to the extent we as gamers want them (i.e. dirt cheap). But if Nintendo could pull a Valve via a Trojan Horse to get us to love digital games, while slowly removing the physical copies, well, it's been known to happen.
 
Really though, Nintendo is just catching up with the times. Why be wasteful and make disks? Those days are fading fast. The console game industry can't afford to wait as long as the music industry did, especially Nintendo.
 
Maybe they should let Xfinity/Comcast know (who is about to go back to capped data)
 
Cut out the middlemen, retailers, resellers and physical production and shipping = $ PROFIT $ (psst, don't let the public know or they'll demand you drop the price)

it's all about the money
 
You sad, sad people that have data caps. I wouldn't be able to ever use a connection that restricted to me a data cap. Me by myself in the past 4 weeks rewatching most of Daredevil season 1 and then watching most of season 2 (both in 4K), plus all the games I have purchased as digital copies and all other normal video watching and surfing... 281.5GB of data. Think that is 6 games I acquired this month as digital copies.

I haven't played on a Wii/WiiU in ages. Do they still tie your account to the console you own? That was the major drawback for me in investing any length of time in their online component.

I think they slowly moved toward this recently where you can import an existing account into a new system.

Step one:

Make downloaded games 'account based'.

Step two:

Allow users to play any game on their 'account' from any console as long as they are logged in.

Step three:

Invest in backwards compatibility so that purchased games can be played on future consoles long-term.


Until then, console gamers are going to be reluctant to warm up to digital media. PC gamers have been experiencing these steps for a while.

So then right now Microsoft is really the only person close to this then. Been slowly installing my digital Xbox 360 games on my One as they become part of the list.
 
Clearly you don't have a 3DS. An SD card isn't that pricey either. Digital makes sense because I don't have to swap cartridges but their account system is dated and confusing. If they make it Steam like and offer more/better sales, most won't bother with physical and used games.
I just wish they has snes games for the virtual console. NES games are nice, but they are a little too dated for me, and if a phone can play super mario world fine then surely a 3ds can.
 
I just wish they has snes games for the virtual console. NES games are nice, but they are a little too dated for me, and if a phone can play super mario world fine then surely a 3ds can.

They just recently introduced SNES games to the New 3DS virtual console. Apparently the original 3DS was too underpowered to handle SNES emulation (for whatever reason). Still, they're $11.99 CAD, not exactly cheap.
 
This sux.. I know thats were things are going, but its nice to have the media and the console for years. Meh... Get off my lawn.
 
The only Digital Model I am comfortable with is GOGs.

I download my game, and it runs without any DRM or internet connection, on any PC I own.

My GOG account is nothing but a backup of games I own, not a DRM tether.
 
Clearly you don't have a 3DS. An SD card isn't that pricey either. Digital makes sense because I don't have to swap cartridges but their account system is dated and confusing. If they make it Steam like and offer more/better sales, most won't bother with physical and used games.

Clearly you don't have a WiiU, where they want you to buy a usb hard drive with a separate power supply because their USB ports can't supply enough power to run a 2.5 enclosure without potentially having issues.
 
I think the number of Smartphone apps and the success of digital stores have paved the way for this. Even with PCs the physical copies are more of a niche product and now favor collectors over the average consumer. We will likely see this ongoing migration to digital throughout the remainder of the decade. I am not as worried about data caps since I think the market will migrate away from them, just as they did in the dial up days. And the convenience of a digital library far outweighs the risks for me.
 
Back
Top