Man, Nintendo's Wii U event is almost here. So many questions to have answered! The excitement is killing me! Let's just get this damn Wednesday out of the way so the real fun can begin! See you in a few, short hours!
There was a time when Nintendo didn't really seem to get the online world when it came to gaming. Nintendo always marches to the beat of their own drum, sometimes a few steps behind other companies in certain areas. While that might not sound like the greatest trait of the company, I think it lends to their charm. They get things oh-so right and oh-so wrong, but they always do them their own way.
That legacy is continuing on with the Wii U and 3DS. These two systems are finally showing that Nintendo understands online, especially when it comes to shops. The 3DS eShop is leaps and bounds above what Nintendo did on Wii and DSi. The Wii U will hopefully continue this trend. Nintendo is taking online distribution seriously, all while keeping with their unique style.
One of the big pushes Nintendo has with online shops comes from their retail/digital push. Nintendo has started distributing their first party 3DS titles on the eShop. You can pick whether you want to go retail or download Nintendo's next, big titles. The same is going to happen with the Wii U, with both platforms eventually expanding to third party retail titles as well.
With Nintendo embracing this strategy, I thought I'd ask which approach you like to take. Did you get NSMB2 at retail or through the eShop? Are you going to stay retail as long as possible, or are you looking to go the digital route from here on out? Does the title itself have anything to do with your decision? Hit us up in the comments and let us know!
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I like the idea of digital, but I like to buy games used or on sale so retail is the way to go for me. Eventually I may buy more Wii U games digitally, but for handhelds I can't see that happening for one major reason: the game is locked to one system. I have 3 boys and a wife who all play Nintendo handhelds, and the inability for me to share games I bought with those other systems is a total deal-breaker for me.
I buy retail whenever possible because I usually can actually get a better deal than thru digital. I only buy digital for digital only games like on eShop, Xbox Live, PSN and back in the day, Wiiware.
I'm retail on Nintendo's consoles (full priced games where there is an option) because they have no account system to protect the consumer and their transfer process is cumbersome.
With the execption of NSMB2 and my Steam account, I am retail all the way!!!
I prefer digital for smaller games. I will always go retail if given the choice
If I have the choice between retail and digital, I'll take retail any day. For some reason I don't feel like a digital copy of a game is truly "mine" like I do with a retail copy... I prefer something physical.
As i live in Brazil im now am a digital guy, starting from super mario bros 2 and now on the Wii U, cuz a game at retail here goes on sale for up to 100USD where on-line i can get it for 40USD...
i purchased nsmb2 digitally..i plan to do the same for luigis mansion.
certain games such as paper mario i will most likely go retail....but lately im not to sure after a response by NoA i recieved.
--- Original Message ---
From: <monoxzide@yahoo.com>
Received: 9/10/12 3:22:16 PM PDT
To: <nintendo@noa.nintendo.com>
Subject: Webform: Nintendo 3DS > General Information > Other
hello,
with recent rumors about of super mario 3d land and mariokart 7 eventually coming to the eshop as digital downloads,im curious if nintendo plans to implement a system thaT allows consumers who have already purchased these titles to download the digital for free.
obviously this is something fans want the freedom to do..but i understad how there is issues with piracy or just consumers who purchased used copies to have the same freedom and such.
so does nintendo give thought to allowing those who have registerd those games thru club nintendo the option..that to me makes sense as you can only register a product once,an additonal option of ( do you want to recive a digital code for this title) upon doing so..makes sense to me
Hello,
Thank you for writing with your question about the pricing of Nintendo eShop full game downloads. To be clear, the Nintendo 3DS will not have any special pricing or discounts for full game downloads if you already have them in game card format. To explain why, I'll draw a parallel between our industry and the music industry.
For example (although the analogy isn't perfect), let's say that years ago I bought an album on 8-track tape. Later on, I bought a car with AM/FM and Cassette, so I bought it again on cassette. Today, however, I listen to everything on my mp3 player, so I decided to pay to download it directly to my PC. In each case, I didn't get any discount on the purchase because I had previously purchased the album in another format.
I appreciate your taking the time to share your comments. Rest assured that they will be forwarded to the appropriate department for further review.
Sincerely,
Brian McFarlane
Nintendo of America Inc.
....
Retail:
Physical copy that isn't going anywhere, like if someone smashes my 3DS I still have it so there's no loops I have to jump through to get it back
Saves memory space
Get to put them up on my book shelf all purdy like (I hate kindles too btw)
Box art.
What I'm hoping for (and probably won't happen ) is that GC games will be downloadable, but also previously purchased Cube games will be downloadable for free or very cheap. I own about 30 GC games and some of them were kind of pricey.
I don't want to re-buy games I bought recently and seeing how Nintendo puts games on the VC at a snail's pace, I might have to keep my Wii and Wiiu hooked up just to play my old games and my new ones as the mood hits. Undoubtably someone will mod the Wiiu to play GC, and I might go that route. Or Nintendo could just let the thing play GC games.
I'd have to go with the physical copies of a game, because you can score some pretty good deals most times. I got Zack and Wiki for about $17, Spyborgs brand new for $10, Ivy the Kiwi for $10, Link's crossbow training for $3, etc. That said, I paid about $40 for Super Mario Strikers Charged almost three years after release, and I think about $24 for Excitetruck, a launch title I bought a year ago. Physical stores have to clear shelves to get in new inventory and make money; E-shops don't have the same concern and so prices never go down. I bought Red Steel 2 and No More Heroes 2 at full retail price because I got the first games as a shelf-clearing bundle - $30 for the both of them. I guess what I'm getting at is I'll pay full price for something I KNOW I'll like, but something unknown might need a price cut to get me interested. E-shop prices rarely drop, so I'm not comfortable with.
BTW, I bought Fishing Resort a couple of weeks ago based on the the article on XSEED and it's a lot of fun. XSEED delivers quality, always. I would have bought it sooner but I wasn't aware of it. It looks like a shallow party game but there is a lot more to it. Think Harvest Moon plus Animal Crossing plus Endless Ocean and you've got the right idea. EA, Capcom, Activision, pay attention, this is how good games are made.
XSEED, thank you for Sky Crawlers, Xenoblade, Fragile, The Last Story, and Fishing Resort.
@Monoxzide I don't know how that makes sense (the cross play analogy)
why not both? steamworks ftw.
man, this response from nintendo really got under my skin. the only format of music i pay for is vinyl... and guess what?!... pretty much every new album i've purchased in the past 10 years (including re-issues/re-masters of a few classics) came with a one-time-use DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE
their analogy frustrates and confuses me (because its illogical).
[quote="Monoxzide"]
--- Original Message ---
From: <monoxzide@yahoo.com>
Received: 9/10/12 3:22:16 PM PDT
To: <nintendo@noa.nintendo.com>
Subject: Webform: Nintendo 3DS > General Information > Other
hello,
with recent rumors about of super mario 3d land and mariokart 7 eventually coming to the eshop as digital downloads,im curious if nintendo plans to implement a system thaT allows consumers who have already purchased these titles to download the digital for free.
obviously this is something fans want the freedom to do..but i understad how there is issues with piracy or just consumers who purchased used copies to have the same freedom and such.
so does nintendo give thought to allowing those who have registerd those games thru club nintendo the option..that to me makes sense as you can only register a product once,an additonal option of ( do you want to recive a digital code for this title) upon doing so..makes sense to me
Hello,
Thank you for writing with your question about the pricing of Nintendo eShop full game downloads. To be clear, the Nintendo 3DS will not have any special pricing or discounts for full game downloads if you already have them in game card format. To explain why, I'll draw a parallel between our industry and the music industry.
For example (although the analogy isn't perfect), let's say that years ago I bought an album on 8-track tape. Later on, I bought a car with AM/FM and Cassette, so I bought it again on cassette. Today, however, I listen to everything on my mp3 player, so I decided to pay to download it directly to my PC. In each case, I didn't get any discount on the purchase because I had previously purchased the album in another format.
I appreciate your taking the time to share your comments. Rest assured that they will be forwarded to the appropriate department for further review.
Sincerely,
Brian McFarlane
Nintendo of America Inc.
I'd probably still buy nintendo first party games and leave 3rd party to downloads. why?
Nintendo games always seem to hold their money. 3rd party titles generally dont. Plus 3rd party games are generally more throwable than nintendos games.
I sold a boxed LTTP a couple years ago for £92!
its nice to buy the prepaid cards in advance and being able to download it right when it releases, but i still prefer retail
I prefer digital - for convenience, no extra supplies to throw away/collect, and to have all the games readily available, and ease of use - but if both versions are going to be priced the same, there's really no reason to not get the extra stuff. And I love manuals, so there's that.
Definitely wish there was a 'both' option, as mentioned before. Best of both worlds, and it's not like they're losing anything.
I downloaded NSMB 2 and don't feel ripped off or anything, I feel like downloading a game will depend on the title. For Wii U games, I think I will leave the downloads to actual download only titles to save memory, but as for the 3DS, there are certain games I'll want with me no matter if I have the cart in or not, games like Brain Age and Animal Crossing.
I feel 2 ways about this. I love having boxed copies of my games and I love getting special additions with the art, music, and extra swag. With that said, I hate having games that are unplayable physical problem and I hate having to find a place that sells that obscure hard to find game that appeals to me.
Huh? Not sure why you would think Nintendo would give away free digital copies to owners of the physical game. Everyone would just buy the physical game, dowload the digital copy then sell the physical one.
Sony cross play doesn't give you the free digital copy of a game you buy at retail. It gives you the Vita version of a game that you buy for the PS3. Completely different. Sony is doing it to try and spur sales of the Vita which is struggling by pushing this idea of cross platform play which 3rd parties haven't embraced.
i would say retail , i don't know how many games i got , but that's a lot more than the 18 that i got on gamecube and at that time i got any game that interested me . Now of course i could not resist the opportunity , while needed a new desktop pc i added the cheapest graphics cards possible and i got access to the digital games . Theoretically at first , just demo but that was enough , and then steam sales came along four games for 8 bucks including the latest burnout . Then after that bundles that allowed to rebought the wii games world of goo and toki tori not specifically just as a part of . And now as years go by , the pc community doesn't make effort to port their games on pc , ironically the japanese are better at them binary domain runs great , sf4 is the poster child , demos are light in size . Compared to that the us games with their special one lighting effect that makes the whole game bug .
Bottom line is , i would continue on pc IF possible , but the lazyness doesn't allow that .
On the other hand after those few marvelous wiiware titles , i got pullblox and that's so fantastic i nearly bought five others games on the system just because .
I'll buy digital games because they are cheap , that's it . And on steam , to me , it gives the guarantee that i could redownload them at any time . That guarantee of not losing everything when the systems is stolen , which happened to me quite a few time , would be the major reason for me to go digital . Now if i could share one account with my friends , oh yeah that's a sure thing . I mean one account one game could played at one time in a limited number of systems . no game sharing , just a digital way to lend a game , because lending a game mean you can't play it .
For home systems , i mean platform holder system , no wait Nintendo systems i'll consider any nintendo release for sure , and now with games like trine u any MAJOR digital release especially since it's Coop and/ or Online .
For instance trials evolution wii u , will buy otherwise just the pc . Trackmania 1 wii u cross platform pc ,also , heck even the trackmania² wii u even solo i did it with the wii game. High profiles game like the cave are a sure thing .
In fact it's pretty stupid for them to think so little of their own brands, FF , GTA , MGS all of these would sell great anywhere and that include wii u , that's the same with Digital games . Don't spout audience, casual kiddy , cactus, chair , no those are major products for a reason : their success and that success make their next games a success too .
I'm a Retail person and I still don't see digital as worth it still.
it works with pc games.
100% Retail. If I have no choice, 9/10 I wont buy it.
They have nothing to do with that game.
I'd be lying to you if I said I was just digital only when I'm not. When it comes to full retail games, I always get a physical copy. Having said that, I really do own a lot of digital games through XBLA, PSN, and Steam. Through PS+, I've also received a full retail games in their digital form and let me tell you, it is quite nice having a full retail game in your HDD because you don't have to get up and switch discs.
With Wii U, I don't see myself going digital. Same goes for 3DS.
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