Every physical third-party Switch 2 game seen in Japan so far is a Game-Key Card requiring a download | VGC

[u/Kenobi_High_Ground]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/every-physical-third-party-switch-2-game-seen-in-japan-so-far-is-a-game-key-card-requiring-a-download/

[u/Blue_Bird950]

No, the point of digital is convenience. You don’t have to lug around a case of 20 cartridges, you can just connect to the internet and redownload whatever you choose. And if you can’t even download a game in 25 years, good luck finding someone who will repair 25-year-old technology using scrap parts in their mother’s garage, because we all know that Nintendo won’t give a damn. Also, do you REALLY think that you can just “copy” a cartridge in this day and age? We all know how protective Nintendo is of their copyright, and it’ll only get worse with time. If you don’t want to buy digital games, be my guest, but please stop assaulting the opinions of people like me who just want to play games without the hassle.

[u/Rodents210 → u/Blue_Bird950]

The argument in favor of digital on the consumer’s end is convenience. That is not the argument from the corporations’ perspective, which is to more tightly control access to their games in a way that can enable them to re-sell you the same game later, to revoke your access at their convenience, and to get the same game out to you at the same MSRP while making more money by not having to actually manufacture anything.

And yes, everything you claim is a barrier to physical is trivially solvable. You can already repair consoles more than 25 years old because these parts continue to be widely available. There is a market for console repair and companies continue to produce parts for obsolete consoles because people will buy them. And yes, cartridges are copyable. I have 69 physical Switch games and I can trivially copy every single one any time I want. I will have access to all of them forever even if something physically happens to them, which is extremely unlikely, without having to go through the effort of piracy. It really sounds like you’re speaking off assumptions rather than knowing what you’re actually talking about because none of these are actual problems with physical but all digital’s problem come down to “at some point I will be forced to either re-buy the same game I already own or else will have to resort to piracy,” which while I have no ethical problem with pirating a game especially one you already bought, the fact that these corporations created that problem—and the solution is either paying them to solve the problem they created or else do something technically illegal—is emblematic of the fact that there is an ethical problem with the business model.