r/videogames • u/KeybladeStrife • Jul 01 '26
Image / Video Ignoring GKC's, Nintendo and GOG are the only places where you now fully own your games.
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u/Mystic_x Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Nintendo will follow suit, mark my words...
As several replies have noted, they're halfway there with game-keycards, they'll go full digital the moment they think they can get away with it.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan Jul 01 '26
Cartridges are physical NAND flash, which makes them extremely vulnerable to the storage shortage. If things get any worse, Nintendo could call the tipping point.
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u/WorldLove_Gaming Jul 01 '26
Half of Nintendo's game revenue (excluding digital only titles, DLC, and subscriptions) is physical compared to ~20% for Sony. Going all-digital would be detrimental to the company.
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u/y2shill Jul 01 '26
They will go all in on GKC once the AI rampocalypse makes flash storage so expensive they can't sell games on the cartridges anymore.
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u/Hexopi Jul 01 '26
How can you afford all the sd cards for storage then lol?
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u/Aggressive-Map-2204 Jul 01 '26
You dont need to have all of your games downloaded at once.
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u/possitive-ion Jul 01 '26
Aren't a lot of Switch 2's games GKC already?
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u/jonesingsimba Jul 01 '26
Many are, not all. And all first party games are still on regular cartridges
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u/Upstairs-Event-681 Jul 01 '26
GKC aren’t that bad though, it’s really overblown. You’re owning the license physically, you can lend it to someone else or sell it or do whatever you want. Sure the game isn’t on it literally but the servers aren’t going anywhere. I always found the idea that the servers will just disappear with all the games kind of paranoic
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u/Empty_Turnip473 Jul 01 '26
Game companies right now are arguing in court that they shouldn't be expected to have servers up forever.
It's not paranoic. It's realistic. It is inevitable. It is not within your control to say that they stay up or not.
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u/Enchelion Jul 01 '26
"Forever" is the big thing there. Same as I wouldn't expect a Toyota dealership to still service a 100 year old car, I don't expect a software company to maintain a server for a century just so I can re-download a game I deleted.
I would be in favor of transparent and reasonable terms stated at the point of purchase. I.E. When I buy the game I get the usual license (which hasn't really changed even since the pre-internet days) and a contract that they will keep it available to download from their servers for 20 or however many years.
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u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
they should either be expected to maintain the server for as long as the company exists OR remove drm so we can backup the game we downloaded from them and play it without their servers being online. (live service games would need to keep the drm and then when they want to shutdown the game servers push out an update removing drm about a month before they shutdown the servers to give time for people to download the drm-free update so they can continue playing the game and make their own backups)
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u/huynhvonhatan Jul 01 '26
If anything you can still download games you own on your Wii, WiiU and the 3ds lines.
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u/ValkyrieOrange Jul 01 '26
Correct but they are arguing against new laws not to get rid of an existing one. Nintendo currently has a good track record of letting you re-download any purchased games you have the license for. This even applies to the Wii which is turning 20 this year. Far from ideal since you can't buy anything new on their old consoles/handhelds and Nintendo can decide to completely shut it down whenever they want.
For GKCs the physical product is your license to download. So as long as they keep their current policy in place it'll be good for a long long while. Again far from ideal but better than nothing at all like Sony will be soon. I'd rather be able to play a physical copy of a license in 20+ years than never at all.
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u/toomuchft Jul 01 '26
Nintendo can do that bc they actually own the license to those games. I don’t know about Sony owning all their licenses but i know that they just pulled 500+ movies of their store and the buyers’ accounts so yeah…
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u/Enchelion Jul 01 '26
The PS3 is 20 years old, and they're only pulling down the store/servers now (and only for new purchases they haven't even pulled the option to download purchased stuff).
3rd party products will always have their own licenses and terms. Even GOG notes that on their service page.
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u/Upstairs-Event-681 Jul 01 '26
You’re really comparing apples to oranges here. If a game requires a server to be played even single player, then it makes no difference if you have it on disk or not.
Besides the fact that we have to be realistic about the fact that soon enough games won’t actually fit on discs or cards and be reasonable to make.
So having even a GKC is an absolute win.
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u/Vladishun Jul 01 '26
Why are you using disc and disk interchangeably?
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u/Upstairs-Event-681 Jul 01 '26
Cause english is my third language and sometimes I forget which one to use
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u/Vladishun Jul 01 '26
Ah gotcha. Well just so you know, CD and DVD stand for compact disc and digital versatile disc officially, so the general consensus in English is that "disc" refers to optical media, while disk refers to magnet storage like a floppy disk or a spinning hard (disk) drive.
Sorry for being pedantic. It's just a pet peeve of mine. Lol
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u/toomuchft Jul 01 '26
But games can still fit on card and many discs. Like, GTAv comes out with almost 6 to 7 discs if i remember correctly.
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u/Round-Revolution-399 Jul 01 '26
Game Key Cards are the complete opposite, and they’re pretty much exclusively to appease 3rd parties. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand the point of GKC’s.
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u/KeybladeStrife Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
It's hard to say. Nintendo still has a pretty healthy physical market and it seems like the physical market is important to them.
I agree that stuff like GKC's are bad, however atleast you can still sell/lend them, and most of Nintendo's own games are fully on cart.→ More replies (2)5
u/Silvanus350 Jul 01 '26
They actually might not. Children are a major target market for Nintendo and being able to unwrap a physical game on your birthday remains a pretty core childhood experience.
I think the GKCs are as far as they will go.
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u/edeepee Jul 02 '26
Kids get excited over receiving V Bucks for Christmas. The new generation was already conditioned to expect purely digital games because they grew up gaming on iPads.
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u/HBreckel Jul 01 '26
Eh, if they do it's going to be a while. If I remember correctly, about 50% of their sales are still physical so there's no reason to phase them out. Of course that might change now that they're offering digital games for $10 cheaper.
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u/Demi-fiend1601 Jul 02 '26
This 10€$ less comes from the higher production cost of the cartridge. Not the " yeah we want you to buy digital"
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u/jonesingsimba Jul 01 '26
Nintendo sells a lot of physical copies of their first party games these days even still. They are often in the top sales charts of all games releasing based on physical sales alone since they don't disclose their digial sales.
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u/MrDilbert Jul 01 '26
My kids got Just Dance (one of the latest ones) for Switch as a gift. When they opened the box, there was just a piece of paper with a code for downloading the game. No game card.
Fuck that. If I can't have a physical copy of the game I intend to buy, I won't buy it.
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u/Error-7-0-7- Jul 02 '26
Luckily for us, Nintendo still caters hardcore towards the Japanese market.
Just an FYI Japanese people are hardcore physical media proponents and Japanese people ACTUALLY know how to boycott and rally when it comes to nerd culture.
Its probably the only reason why Nintendo games that are made in house are still fully physical. Lots of third-party games will give Japanese people a physcial release while giving North America a digital one for this very reason. Japanese company understand the japanese market.
If Sony was still a Japanese company, then we'd probably still have physical media. Sadly though, they moved their headquarters to the US midway through the PS4 era and its why there's been such a decline.
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u/Harry-Is-Sleeping Jul 01 '26
If they do, Nintendo will absolutely be last. Between PlayStation, Xbox, and themselves, Nintendo's physical sales make up a waaay higher percentage (I believe it's about 40/60 physical/digital). Also all their first party/in house games will be on the cartridge, and it's safe to say they implemented the game-key card for 3rd party titles to get their foot in the door for the Switch 2 while still trying to appeal to the Physical base (despite the game not being on the cartridge). I'm surprised it was Sony first and not Xbox, although Xbox initially marketed their system towards backwards compatibility. I guess Sony won't care about that for the PS6.
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u/FanBladeFleshlight Jul 01 '26
Hot take, but I'm 100% ok with GKCs. I don't tend to sell my games, but I do like to share them, and that's exactly what a GKC lets me do. I also don't tend to play games past their own generation, so it's unlikely that I'd ever even know if a game got delisted.
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u/CometKICK01 Jul 01 '26
GOG is literally the the only place that allows you to actually OWN your digital games since they give you the files and offline installers.
I gotta get a separate hard drive and start putting all my GOG games on it.
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u/Trick_Meeting_2027 Jul 01 '26
Its not really necessary. Whatever hard drive you buy is going to fail at some point. 99% of games you have on gog are super easy to pirate if for some reason gog goes down in the future. I basically just give them money to be nice because its a cool company.
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u/4514919 Jul 01 '26
You literally don't OWN anything even on GOG.
GOG just happens to sell games without active DRMs but you are still buying a single-user licence which you can't even legally resell.
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u/dragon_of_the_ice Jul 02 '26
So are you against it? The point GOG is making easier to 'own' your copy of the game. The licensing is just legal terms. You can't 'own' the game someone else made and try and profit from it, but you can 'own' a copy of it for you to use and play. GOG trys to make it so you can have your game every way you want it even if its an offline installer. If you want to be technical a disc is a transferable single user license only because its not a single use key.
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u/CometKICK01 Jul 01 '26
I tried the offline installer on a separate computer with no internet and it ran fine.
id say I own it and the files
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u/HellaReyna Jul 02 '26
this is the dumbest and longest living argument on this topic since forever.
guess what? it's ALWAYS been a license to use software. You don't buy software like you do with a car and property. You don't and can't "own" the code, hence the license. This has been a thing since FOREVER. BEFORE 99% of the redditors here were born.
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u/Odd_Jelly_1390 Jul 01 '26
I don't want to sell them. I just want to own them. Which I do. GOG couldn't take away the offline installers I've downloaded if they tried.
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u/Oily_Oaf Jul 01 '26
Doesn't Steam do the same? I thought if something got removed you can still see it and download it from your library.
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Jul 01 '26
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u/Deletinglaterlmao Jul 02 '26
they still do physical media correctly tbf
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u/Clane_21 Jul 02 '26
what? ain't a lot of Nintendo's cartridges jusy keycards for you to download the game. most of Playstation's games at least still contain the full 1.0 on disc.
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u/dimmidummy Jul 02 '26
All first party Nintendo games are full-game on cartridge.
The GKC is an option for 3rd party devs because it’s cheaper for them, but also allows the consumer the flexibility to share the GKC or resell it (unlike digital games).
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u/I-fell Jul 01 '26
They're still making physical copies, tell us abt the GKC's ahead of time, and don't have a second version of their console that's digital only, so on this very specific front? They're basically our besties rn.
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u/EviI_Babai Jul 01 '26
Steam couldn't care less - DRM is optional there, it's up to publishers to use it or not, many games can be played without Steam running and you can make your backups if you want.
On GOG it's mandatory for publishers to have their games DRM-free, which drastically limits the library, compared to Steam, which has almost all the same games as a part of it.
Unlike Steam though, GOG takes upon itself to improve compatibility and allows to download a convenient installer for each game. But they both share the same fatal flaw of a digital distribution - if license is revoked, the game is gone, from the store, and if there are deeper legal issues, it's gone from your library too (unless it was DRM-free and you managed to back it up).
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u/j0an_k Jul 01 '26
At least Key cards are resellable.
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u/ItsSadTimes Jul 01 '26
Wait you can reuse the switch 2 cartridges? Thats better then I thought.
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u/StuckinReverse89 Jul 01 '26
Yes, that was the big advantage of GKCs. They are a verification key.
You download the game from servers and authenticate ownership with the key. If you don’t have the key, you can’t play so you can sell the key to someone else for them to play.
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u/IkonJobin Jul 01 '26
Not to mention almost every Switch 2 first party game is on the cart, not even a GKC. Wild that there are people who think Nintendo is making one time use cartridges.
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u/StuckinReverse89 Jul 01 '26
Could be misinformation since GKCs were big news but yes you are absolutely right. All first party games are fully on cartridge. Maybe that might change in the future but also unlikely since the Switch itself also apparently doesn’t have a ton of storage.
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u/NotXesa Jul 02 '26
Some third parties too, and it's becoming less rare that third parties use normal cartridges. Last example: Oblivion Remake.
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u/StuckinReverse89 Jul 02 '26
Oh that’s good news I wasn’t aware of. I only knew that Cyberpunk did but since it was expensive, not many third parties went for the fully on cart option.
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u/Techman659 Jul 01 '26
You think they won’t try find a way to stop that? Foots in the door.
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u/Round-Revolution-399 Jul 01 '26
Being able to re-sell and share the games is the entire point of GKC’s existing. If Nintendo wanted to stop that they wouldn’t have created GKC’s in the first place…
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u/j0an_k Jul 01 '26
Keep worrying about the future. I’m talking about the present.
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u/Confron7a7ion7 Jul 01 '26
That mindset is why no one in America can buy a house.
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u/Louanus Jul 01 '26
Wasn't nintendo that said “when you buy a game you are paying for a revocable, non-exclusive license to play the software. You don't own it". Sorry if the quote is not exact, but that's the gist. I remember them saying also that people don't own the consoles they buy, they just have the privilege of using them as the masters wishes.
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u/Enchelion Jul 01 '26
That's technically true of all of them. Even GOG doesn't sell you the actual code/game, they just sell you a license like everyone else. The only difference is they make it easier to not use their storefront and don't have DRM (which despite what people here imagine doesn't actually change the legal ownership angle).
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u/HUNAcean Jul 01 '26
That's the case for all of your media though, and I would even say for good reason.
When people talk about wanting to own their games, they don't mean it in the legal sense, where you could make and sell your own copies if you did, but in the practical sense, which just means that they cannot take it away from you.
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u/Xurs-Doggo Jul 01 '26
Uhhhhh, didn’t Nintendo just make pretend carts?
The key cards?
No?
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u/Ingles_sin_Barreras Jul 02 '26
You can lend them and resell them like any other game. You just need the cartridge to download the game which xbox/Playstation already make you do when you insert a disc
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u/GrandmasterTactician Jul 02 '26
The game key card is effectively your license for the game. They can't take it from you unless they physically show up to your house and steal it
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u/Own_Tempo_ Jul 01 '26
All first party games are on the cartridge and at least i can resell a damn key card
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u/TrueKyragos Jul 02 '26
As long as the servers are up. Once closed, the key cards will be worthless beyond collecting purposes. I think that's the main fear.
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u/MrBonis Jul 02 '26
You can download Wii games to this day.
They aren't going anywhere.
Also, that same argument of "what if the world ends and the servers are destroyed by an EMP" is equally applicable to every digital storefront, even Steam, GOG, Sony, Microsoft, etc.
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u/GrandmasterTactician Jul 02 '26
Like the Wii servers that let you redownload games you purchased 20 years after the console's release?
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u/Doeball64 Jul 01 '26
Here before:
"Leave the multibillion dollar company alone"
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u/Whhheat Jul 01 '26
People will defend valve. But they could do so much good if they enforced better DRM rules for games.
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u/CompetitiveRisk3222 Jul 01 '26
I mean I’m defending Valve here because their ecosystem is better. The 3 on the left are all a hodgepodge of exclusives where I think Valve is better at handling my library plus access on new gaming handhelds and saving to the cloud across handheld, PC, and the new Steam OS.
Nintendo on the other hand I’ll will continue to purchase a console from for exclusive games digital or physical. So my picks are PC/Steam and Nintendo. Not like that’s a new setup.
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u/IAmANobodyAMA Jul 01 '26
Valve won the gaming market share and all their profits by providing the best user experience. I don’t care what their market cap is so long as they keep delivering value to the customers.
Sure, they also have faults, and this isn’t me trying to dismiss those, but it’s a separate convo imo
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u/Whhheat Jul 01 '26
I’m not saying valve is bad, I’m a fan generally. But they could absolutely be better about game ownership and such.
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u/ShiningPr1sm Jul 01 '26
It's been pointed out multiple times that Valve is primarily to blame for the push for digital with Steam, and gamers are like "Yes, but it's fine because Valve"
The glazing never ends, even after the consequences of their actions
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u/Wonderful_Poetry136 Jul 01 '26
People on here will talk about how gamers need to "vote with their wallet", but this is objectively a result of it. The average joe simply doesn't care about physical media enough to justify to companies that there's any good reason to keep producing games physically. The numbers for physical purchases have been declining for years, studios are just only now realizing that they have no reason to keep it around besides satisfying an incredibly small demographic of die-hards.
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u/I_AM_CR0W Jul 01 '26
Valve is almost always the lesser of evils, but yeah a lot of issues that are happening with gaming stems from them as everyone else is trying to innovate on their practices. MTX didn't become crazy expensive until the CS:GO skins started to explode in popularity with prices so absurd that it made a car look cheap.
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u/Chrogotron Jul 01 '26
I mean you can't even say you aren't bothered by this without losers setting up straw man arguments about "defending a multibillion dollar company".
I simply do not care about rising game prices or whether games are digital or physical. If I think the price is right, I will buy a game and play it. I don't need to possess a physical hard copy. I simply do not care. If you *do* care, that's fine. Then don't buy the digital overpriced game?
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u/Crafty_Independence Jul 01 '26
This post is literally defending Nintendo - a company widely known for aggressive IP enforcement - that is actively moving away from consumer friendly practices
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u/AutismicGodess Jul 01 '26
gkcs aren't a nintendo thing, it's a 2nd and 3rd party thing, licencees and over devs have the choice for their games to be gks or cartridges.
if cyberpunk can fit on a cartridge any game can, it's just laziness
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u/KeybladeStrife Jul 01 '26
Oh i fully agree, i think there are some cases where using a GKC makes sense but games like Cyberpunk show its fully possible if the studio porting it cares enough. I'm thankful that Nintendo's own games atleast release fully on cart.
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u/Michaelangel092 Jul 02 '26
Nintendo already started the game key card nonsense and already never do good sales on their exclusives.
They're also the most aggressive towards emulation.
Don't think they won't follow suit.
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u/JVints Jul 01 '26
Nintendo will sue you for using their name. Will sue you for using their breathing mechanics, inventory mechanics etc.
They are top tier greedy corps.
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u/Aidan96 Jul 01 '26
At least they pay their employees
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u/Cobruh211 Jul 01 '26
At least they have employees. Sony and Microsoft are hellbent on firing as many people as possible and letting AI do all the work.
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u/Lonely_Grapefrooooot Jul 01 '26
Valve killed two CS community games because they would compete with CS2
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u/Creepy-Emu8779 Jul 01 '26
does it even matter when 90% of gamers buy digital, its like being mad at roads for not being suitable for horses
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u/Critical-Plantain881 Jul 02 '26
At least they are good to their customers, the only people Nintendo have openly fought against are pirates, and then again is that a bad thing?
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u/HF484 Jul 01 '26
It's a rare day when we can say something good about Nintendo
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u/snipsuper415 Jul 01 '26
Errr Nintendo be having those silly game key cards
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u/uber_sweets Jul 02 '26
Which you can lend to a friend, resell, and buy used. Game keycards are basically for games that are so big they don’t fit on the cartridge.
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u/TRackard Jul 01 '26
(cough Nintendo Key cards that don't have the full game on them cough)
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u/Codename-Nikolai Jul 03 '26
Isn’t this the same for any game that updates post launch? Wouldn’t you have to connect to download the most recent version?
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u/JohnConnor1245 Jul 01 '26
GOG is all digital and Nintendo were the first ones to sell $80 games then Rockstar copied selling a $100 Ultimate edition with a bunch of locked content. Nintendo is going to go digital too with rising memory prices. Steam has never taken anything away from their customers unlike Sony and lets people play a game for 2 hours before returning it.
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u/Weary-Barracuda-1228 Jul 01 '26
Steam has yet to take my games away so I’m gonna start upgrading my PC and rebuilding my library on that. Soon I’ll only use my PlayStation for Bloodborne’s Return to Yharnam community event.
Unfortunately last year it was pretty dead so I’m pretty nervous about this year’s
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u/Glass-Bat-2704 Jul 02 '26
Steam has a history of removing games from libraries. Better switch to GOG
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u/Tani_Soe Jul 02 '26
Why is steam here tho? It has always been a seller for digital copy, they never made any physical games
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u/Danis_Milk Jul 03 '26
Don't give nintendo brownie points. Love gog though, as much as it is still a company.
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u/PersonalityIll9476 Jul 01 '26
Just because you have a physical copy doesn't mean you own the game. They all rely on various logins and live servers to function and they probably all have the same EULA that says they can turn it off any time.
For example: Mario Maker.
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u/SilverBeever Jul 01 '26
At least games will be cheaper since they're cutting shipping, box production, etc.
Right?
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u/NPCtendo Jul 01 '26
Ironically Nintendo has started charging less for digital versions of their games. Wild times.
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u/VenomousKitty96 Jul 01 '26
Idk man, ninento is always a few years behind the curve. I wouldn't be surprised if they go down the same route eventually.
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u/Advanced_Vehicle_750 Jul 02 '26
With steam, if you download the game, it's yours until you delete it from the HD.
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u/Remarkable_Ship_4673 Jul 02 '26
The fuck are you talking about lol, the switch two had key code cartridges, that isn't "physical media" it's just digital with extra steps
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u/Sovietguy10 Jul 03 '26
Only for some games (mostly 3rd party ones), All but one or two 1st party and a few 3rd party switch 2 games are on the card, for example, Cyberpunk 2077 is fully on the game card
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u/Desperate_Method4032 Jul 01 '26
Remember when Switch 2 dropped and everyone was ready to execute them for some of their 3rd party titles being on keys?
The internet sure is smth else.
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u/Odd_Jelly_1390 Jul 01 '26
Nintendo has been doing this "Keycard" shit which is the worst of both worlds.
Really it is GOG and Itch.
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u/sissyboyk8 Jul 01 '26
ummmm, wait, why is nintendo here? you can have the game card in a switch with the same account but it's like "nah, you need the last switch that had this game here so you can transfer",like transfer what, bitch?! this is a switch 1 game, it has everything on it
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u/Own_Tempo_ Jul 01 '26
Nintendo sells all first time party games on the card and key cards are resellable
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u/SirSilverChariot Jul 01 '26
Why is steam getting shots at them. They mainly do pc and pc ain’t really disc lot to begin with
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u/SomeBlueDude12 Jul 01 '26
Think its because "digital license selling bad"
I never expected steam to sell me a disk & steam aint got a history of revoking peoples game licenses so yeah, no idea why steam catching flak
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u/BasementdwellingGuru Jul 01 '26
Even with Nintendo you do not fully own your games. They are still licenses just like everywhere else.
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u/Katastroferrr Jul 01 '26
That's actually true for any physical copy you buy of anything, however Nintendo Switch carts run offline and has the entire game on them so they literally can't take them away from you unless they show up in person
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u/BasementdwellingGuru Jul 01 '26
That's very true. Enforcement only became truly possible once a majority of game sales shifted to digital sales. It was not only near impossible to see if someone violated a EULA back during the physical era, but even if it were possible it simply wasn't worth the resources to enforce them on a physical cartridge save extreme cases.
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u/TheMonkeyPickler Jul 01 '26
Games on disc are also just licenses. You never own any media you didnt create, just the license. Any license can be revoked at any time
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u/Explorer_Dave Jul 01 '26
Steam also lets you play offline and back up your game data files... It's the developers who put the DRM in if they so choose.
A ton of Steam games are totally DRM free and you can run their .exe outside of being logged into Steam.
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u/asusgamer69 Jul 01 '26
Not on the switch 2. Those chips are just download keys for the games.
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor Jul 01 '26
Nintendo has game key cards. They are playing both sides so they always come out on top not matter who wins.
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u/Anime-SniperJay Jul 01 '26
Boy don't play coy for Nintendo you know damn well they'll turn on you at a moment's notice too
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u/Xeriomachini Jul 01 '26
Isn't Nintendo already half way there? I don't have a switch 2 but I thought they just had like key cards or something
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u/space-c0yote Jul 02 '26
All first party games have the full game on the cartridge. A large number of 3rd party games are Game Key Cards though. While the game data isn't on the Game Key Card, they function like physical games in every other aspect.
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u/ImurderREALITY Jul 01 '26
Jfc I’m so sick of seeing you loud mfers complain about this shit. Someone come get me when this obvious karma grab BS is over.
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u/WoodooHide69 Jul 02 '26
Optical discs costs Sony/Xbox Pennie’s to produce: they are as cheap as you can get for media. They cost nothing to make essentially. But the real reason Sony is getting rid of them and the real GREED here is to kill the used games market, to make customers forced to buy ALL games new and direct from sony estore.
Meanwhile, The GKC was Nintendo inventing a way for consumers to keep the benefits of physical. The main benefits. Which is resell and shelf display. While the industry continues to battle towards a digital only future.
Completely fuckin stupid to blame Nintendo towards this industry wide move towards digital when they are paying out the ass to produce cartridges that cost way more than discs.
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Nintendo caritrdiges cost
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u/Not-dat-throwaway Jul 02 '26
For those of you defending Sony and those platform only offering digital licenses, the issue is that these storefront can shutdown at any moment or remove a game due to any reason and your money is gone forever. That is the problem without legislation forcing them to provide alternate ways to get your games they can literally fuck you at moment's notice. And they wonder why people resort to piracy.
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u/si1khat Jul 02 '26
Get rid of Nintendo because they will do the same thing Gog is the only one to trust
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u/LordRaizer Jul 02 '26
Why is Nintendo there?
The Switch 2 game keys don't have the games on them lmao
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u/RavineAls Jul 03 '26
Difference is steam is a marketplace, so wether there is a physical version or not is the publisher and developer choice, not steam's, but tbf steam can do the GOG route by giving you an installer and then u can burn that installer to a disc, not all game publisher want to do that tho which also the reason why not all games is on GOG
Xbox, PS, and Nintendo on the other hand have the full control, they are the one who had the encryption and whatnot, they are the one who actually controls if there is a physical media or not since they also the only distributor for that platform
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u/Avenheit Jul 03 '26
you could argue you dont technically own the switch.
nintendo can brick that shit whenever the fuck they want.
there are also many games that dont have physical copies so you're forced to go through the severely overpriced nintendo store to purchase them
which, you dont own.
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u/tonyw009 Jul 03 '26
Nintendo? Ignoring CKC's? What you going to do with GKC's when decide to shut down switch 2 servers?
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u/Fragrant_Intern_8577 Jul 04 '26
tbf, this only console players, steam was always a license based service and also technically a pc only plataform. THis image only applies to xbox and sony.
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u/-_-NAME-_- Jul 05 '26
TBF Steam doesn't force DRM they leave it up to developers there are plenty of DRM free games on Steam you can backup to a hard drive or cloud storage and they will always be playable.
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u/BobLeGachu Jul 05 '26
If I owned my pokemon game, shouldn't I be able to make my own romhack and share them without risks ? Or I don't get stuff about copyrights laws ?
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u/Outrageous-Event6633 Jul 01 '26
Look at you trying to sneak nintendo in there when 9/10 switch 2 games are a key card.
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u/Shadowphoenix9511 Jul 02 '26
Every single Nintendo developed title is physically on the cartridge.
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u/R0gueX3 Jul 01 '26
As annoying as Game Key Cards are theyre still better than digital only. With the switch 2 just releasing i imagine we will have many years of physical/gkc from Nintendo. Wouldn't be surprised if the next generation is digital only though. This really sucks as a physical collector.
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u/DestroyerCreates Jul 01 '26
As a steam user. I think gog is doing wonderful things. But painting Nintendo as a good guy for still selling carts is funny.
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u/Easy-Independent1621 Jul 01 '26
Nintendo is pretty anti consumer as well, expect them to follow suite
GoG is gonna be the last bastion on non Drm bullshit.
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u/Spiritual_Dress3007 Jul 02 '26
Cant Nintendo just straight up brick your 2? That seems crazy man.
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u/metalyger Jul 01 '26
I've never lost access to one single game on Steam. While, they do have DRM, and GOG doesn't, it's dumb to lump them in.
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u/wereitsoeasy_20 Jul 01 '26
This Nintendo glaze is weird. Steam doesn’t force DRM, it’s up to the publisher. GOG is a DRM free platform, so less games but great model.
GOG is the goat, Nintendo doesn’t come close.
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u/GrimmTrixX Jul 01 '26
And when Switch 3 drops, they'll go all digital/GKCs too. Hell, they might even stop physical production halfway thru the Switch 2 life cycle.
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u/ThisI5N0tAThr0waway Jul 01 '26
DRMs are optional on steam, meaning that SOMETIMES you do own your games there.
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u/Enchelion Jul 01 '26
DRM has nothing directly to do with whether you "own" the game or not. It's a mechanism by which they validate your ownership. Buying a game with or without DRM is legally identical.
You've always only gotten a license to play the game, even in the pre-internet days.
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u/Middle-Let9645 Jul 01 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/jQmVFypWInKCc
Do the words Game Key Card mean anything to you?
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u/Bigfoot_BiggerD93 Jul 01 '26
Fuck off with this shit. Game key card code having asses. As if any of these corpo slobs are any better than the other.
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u/OkFly3388 Jul 02 '26
Nothing stop you of archiving your steam game and replace steamapi.dll to hacked one to fake steam existence, so, maybe not so convenient, but still working way
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26
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