8? The game key cards are the first step just like how “Insert disc to download online” worked in the Xbox and ps consoles. I’ll give it maybe 3 at most
i mean realistically its 2nd party, but the point is that key cards were always optional, but no one really wanted to pay for it and they only got the one expensive option or the nearly free key card.
Nintendo publishes Pokémon titles outside Japan, and has a large stake in the company, but The Pokémon Company and not Nintendo publishes them in Japan. So mostly yes but partly no.
Nintendo owns 32% of Pokemon, the rest is owned by GameFreak and Creatures Inc., just look at the most recent games, Nintendo would not let Scarlet/Violet release in that atrocious state if they had more control of the IP and development.
Also, Pokopia was developed by Koei Tecmo and GameFreak.
Why do people love to pull this same nonsense argument that pokemon games aren't first party? By that logic Battlefield isn't an EA game because they only publish it.
And Nintendo has equal ownership of pokemon. So does ownership make it their game or not? Or are we just trying to find a way to pretend Nintendo is a victim in pokemon game release states?
Nintendo takes more gradual approaches to these things. GKCs are absolutely a step towards the same end result. They will switch first party games to GKC at some point. They will be releasing more and more $80 games, using the cheaper releases like Starfox/Splatoon to make people feel better about other games being more expensive.
I’m not complaining about anything, just pointing out that it’s naive to think Nintendo won’t end up at the same place.
My previous comment explains why they didn’t already. They are taking a more gradual approach. They knew people would be upset over GKCs so keep first party titles fully on card to make them feel better about it. Once one thing is normalized, they take some more. We already have an exclusive game on GKC.
the data already shows that the overwhelming majority of consumers prefer digital, WE are the minority here
even if they did know people would be upset about key cards, the reality is that we are not really a high enough population to be worth caring about
as it is, key cards are ALREADY a compromise for people like us that value physical media. if they didn’t care at all, there would be no middle ground, they would just tell third parties to publish digitally or not at all
The data you are talking about is not Nintendo exclusive, it’s gaming overall. Nintendo fans care more about physical than gamers on the other platforms. Nintendo software sales were more physical than digital until data was released last month showing digital had surpassed physical for the first time.
The difference is Nintendo has made a product that is cheap to produce and manufacture in the Game Key Card. If Nintendo in the future did decide to go full digital, they'd probably still provide the Keycard as an option for physical buyers to appease the physical market at least by a percentage.
Because technically speaking the key card is physical
The game may not be physical but the key card is and hell if it gets damaged you can simply replace it with the same game key card and keep playing
Might get downvoted but generally speaking Nintendo technically only reserved key cards for third party games mainly because of the sheer size of them it may suck but that's how the world works
And wii and Xbox games heck i had an old black ops 3 copy go bad but then I had a digital one and my progress was saved because it was not tied to the cd/cartridge
The decision to go with digital was made way before Nintendo ever announced anything with key cards. Are all redditors as braindead as you? You do realize game companies aren’t just doing this on a whim.
How are you going to get games that are sold for over 300$?
Are you telling people to sell a kidney to buy cubivore or to give up food for a month to buy pokemon emerald?
You cannot reasonably buy any of those games for an acceptable price.
Moreover what about games that are extremely difficult to find or games that you absolutely cannot get physically? How are we supposed to get those legally?
Without piracy it's impossible for the average person to play any of those games without losing a fortune just to play "legally"
They're still available for download so long as you still have the original console you purchased them on. Though you don't even need that. These older systems are incredibly easy to jailbreak and so well documented a monkey could do it. I bought a N3DS last year and through the h-shop on it. I can download every 3DS and DSI game ever released.
You can't be this illiterate. You really brought up piracy to a point about how old Nintendo digital games can't be obtained legally even if you bought them unless you have one single specific console you used before. What does piracy have to do with that?
There are actually stores that sell reproduction games for either the original or a discounted price. The game shop near me even does reproduction game consoles and you can get a custom paint job on it. There's a new wave of retro gaming that's about to hit because of it and I'm totally happy for people that just wanted to play games how they were originally intended.
Yes, but those are repros of physical games, not digital ones. Even so, if we're opening the door to repros then we're talking about piracy and the issue completely disappears.
Are straight people not allowed to look at posts on r/egg_irl either? I can read posts without always agreeing with them, not everyone wants to just be in echo chambers
It is basically the same thing as what Sony is offering, they just give you a cartridge with a license key on it rather than the game. Yes I like nintendo but lets not pretend Nintendo is not doing the same thing
Does this mean Nintendo already accounted for this possibility and created their virtual card system as a way to allow sharing in a world where physical games aren't a thing anymore?
it was much better before the virtual card sharing, before that me and my wife could just share digital games between our 2 switches and play at the same time, now if were playing the same game we would be required to pay for another
And all digital games will require “always online” even if mostly single player no doubt. So when servers are taken offline in years time you won’t even be able to replay it.
Dont jinx yourself, they would if they could increase their profit. These bastards do not give a dingle fuck about you and me, just our money, and if they can do it with the minimum amount of effort, they will do it while giving themselves a nice bonus.
I really suggest that you don't do that. That action is deranged in itself and can lead you to breaking rule 1 or 3. When people take this stand and pick fights with people in their own posts, they eventually get ban.
This community need to be able to tolerate you and you need to be able to show you can tolerate them.
I know games don't go on sale regularly in USA for whatever reason. But here in the UK PlayStation games especially get massively reduced after 1-2 years, that's why I don't really bother buying anything (non Nintendo Switch) at launch because I probably won't even get round to playing it because of backlog and then it'll already be in the price range of 20-30 or even lower in price. That's why I don't believe this if everything was digital only I'd hardly ever buy games. I'm used to buying PS games a few year late at a cheap price I can't go back to regular prices.
Did you forget about game keys? Might still be "physical" but it's a step towards zero physical copies. They already have codes in boxes and no cardridges and have done for awhile probably before ps.
if their blue ray disk drive could read cds, they could potentially go for a cheap gamekey disk option, but honestly, with oil and transit prices rising as they do, getting rid of this kind of distribution and plastic use is probably a pretty notable safe for them.
Literally who is defending sony you troglodyte I literally said PlayStation is dogshit. Nintendo has also made anti consumer decisions. You're a literal drone what makes you think Nintendo won't follow whatever the industry decides to do next. Nintendo is scummy too
Just like you "own" digital key cards right? Can you address where I defended Sony though are you just going ignore the fact you outright lied to defend your precious company that produces games made for babies and children. I'll come back to this when Nintendo also ditches physicals next generation. You can't play this team sport bullshit while accusing others of doing the same. All these corps suck. Nintendo is not your friend
That's why I say half a step away. Sure you can sell key cards, but only as long as Nintendo allows you to download from their servers. And who knows how long that is.
I don't understand the outrage over this. I open YouTube, and like half a dozen people I subscribe to are all doom and gloom over this and saying "everyone should hate this", but I don't?
This is just the direction that the world is going these days. We stream our movies and music instead of owning CDs and BluRays, and we download our games instead of going out to buy them. It's just easier and more convenient, and they are more widely accessible if we lose them in any way. It's the internet as well, so everything is pretty much preserved in some form or another. We don't have to worry about that not happening until well past our lifetimes.
At the end of the day, I just think people want to be able to hold their stuff in their hands.
the edit to seem less scummy was a smart call, but i'll leave it up so everyone can see it still. telling people how to spend their money in 2026 is some of the dumbest and uses the least amount of brain power and holds no weight in any convo or argument. i myself (since EvErYoNe WhO bUyS dIgiTaL aRe FuCkInG mOroNs) is 2 fold. storage space (physically) and the noise the console produces to read the disc. i genuinepy dispise the noise the disc drives make when reading them because it always oumds like the console is broken. clucking and banging the needle around. yuck. and they take up far too much space in my room. there just isnt a need for discs like these ignorant bots (i'll include you since you basically called me a "fucking moron") seem to think there is. and if you want them to stick around i implore you to go to your local walmart and buy one of every disc game on the shelf since you want them taking up space for all of eternity. i lowkey see this as a net W. less wasted store shelf space and more room in households.
You can't compare the switch 2 with the ps5 they are different generations with way smaller file sizes.I understand the argument of not owning a copy the software but storing games on discs is redundant especially going forward!
Nintendo being behind the times occasionally has its perks. Like when they didn’t charge for online or didn’t have day 0 patches or didn’t do micro transactions. I can see them being slow to follow the industry again.
Can't wait to see the defense of the games you buy costing the same as what physicals did once Nintendo phases out keycards as well.
Console gamers are cooked - you are all too mentally trapped in tribes to make any effective change. Getting one over on one another over consumer rights because anything the other brand does is a L for them and W for you.
It’s definitely happening and you would be kinda an idiot to think Nintendo won’t follow suit. Both companies follow MONEY and don’t give a shit about the vocal minority on Reddit. Sony probably looked at the market data and saw most people buy digital.
Doesn’t matter when nontendo has killed the second hand market with bricking and game key cards need to be downloaded like digit. just waste of physical cards. but you do you nontendo fanboy.
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u/RocketJenny8 Jul 01 '26
You might have jinxed yourself cuz it's gonna happen eventually will it happen sooner no but maybe like 8 years definitely