Nintendo blocks digital Switch game sales from all European retailers (Nintendo published games only)

Tomous wrote:This sucks. I've used ShopTo a few times to buy digital (Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing), and it's always been c£40, much more reasonable than the eShop prices.

I'm assuming places like ShopTo buy codes in cheaper territories and re-sell at slightly higher places in UK? I wonder if the volume of Animal Crossing digital sales was what pushed Nintendo to take action on this.

Animal Crossing is the most likely explanation, the digital sales were over 6 million.

Thing is I'd argue a not insignificant percentage of those sales were from people who only purchased because they were able to get a cheaper key and wouldn't have purchased digitally if they'd had to pay the full eShop price.

@Tomous: I think somebody even mentioned it higher up in the thread. AC(orporations)AB

The big problem is retail. Digital games cannot be allowed to be cheaper than physical games, because that will piss off games retailers who might retaliate and not stock future Nintendo consoles.

Then because Nintendo use (relatively) expensive cartridges rather than optical media the price of their physical games is higher.

This problem is compounded by Japanese consumers not liking download games in general.

It is frustrating that in every other entertainment market digital is seen as normal, but it is is weirdly the most technologically advanced one that seemingly cannot give it up.

Winckle wrote:The big problem is retail. Digital games cannot be allowed to be cheaper than physical games, because that will piss off games retailers who might retaliate and not stock future Nintendo consoles.

Then because Nintendo use (relatively) expensive cartridges rather than optical media the price of their physical games is higher.

This problem is compounded by Japanese consumers not liking download games in general.

It is frustrating that in every other entertainment market digital is seen as normal, but it is is weirdly the most technologically advanced one that seemingly cannot give it up.

On the other hand if this trend continues and those same retailers get blocked from selling digital download codes are they just as likely to retaliate and not stock future Nintendo consoles anyway?

Nintendo's official UK store (operated by The Hut, I think) also sells digital, so I wonder if that will continue?

Winckle wrote:The big problem is retail. Digital games cannot be allowed to be cheaper than physical games, because that will piss off games retailers who might retaliate and not stock future Nintendo consoles.

Then because Nintendo use (relatively) expensive cartridges rather than optical media the price of their physical games is higher.

This problem is compounded by Japanese consumers not liking download games in general.

It is frustrating that in every other entertainment market digital is seen as normal, but it is is weirdly the most technologically advanced one that seemingly cannot give it up.

Is there much of a market for downloading movies? I thought ownership was still physical dominated, it's streaming subscription services that have pushed digital. Game streaming isn't as mature so it then makes sense.

Also books are still wanted physically

I don't like digital anyway. Much prefer having a physical copy.

Drumstick wrote:I don't like digital anyway. Much prefer having a physical copy.

Disgusting

Dual wrote:

Drumstick wrote:I don't like digital anyway. Much prefer having a physical copy.

Disgusting

Why?

Gaming needs to either fully buy in to digital or actually find an effective way for both physical and digital markets to co-exist. Right now it feels like the two are fighting against each other and that is holding the overall market back from progressing

Drumstick wrote:

Dual wrote:

Drumstick wrote:I don't like digital anyway. Much prefer having a physical copy.

Disgusting

Why?

Too much clutter. Waste of shelf space.

Jenuall wrote:Gaming needs to either fully buy in to digital or actually find an effective way for both physical and digital markets to co-exist. Right now it feels like the two are fighting against each other and that is holding the overall market back from progressing

You can see the benefits in the PC market, which is essentially all digital outside of a few niche releases.

You’d hate my shelves...

I dislike buying anything digitally, especially when it costs more than the physical version.

Dual wrote:

Drumstick wrote:

Dual wrote:

Drumstick wrote:I don't like digital anyway. Much prefer having a physical copy.

Disgusting

Why?

Too much clutter. Waste of shelf space.

Especially so, now the games don’t even run off the disc any more. Physical copies are just a nuisance if you have a large collection.

Victor Mildew wrote:Please don't hit cdkeys. I bought animal crossing and xenoblade from them, saving £20. It got me in the all digital mindset, but if that's gone then I'm not paying full price for digital, so will have to go back to trading against physical games again.

This is all my fault.

I've been having a back and forth with Nintendo's customer service about the game save corruption bug in ACNH for months. The bug is only in the download version but since I bought a code from CDkeys Nintendo keep trying to wash their hands of it despite it being a fault in their downloadable code from their servers.

I keep getting crap like 'CDkeys arent an official Nintendo sales partner' and 'you should take it up with them' despite the fact that all I bought from CDkeys was a string of letters and numbers which wasn't faulty.

Carlos wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:Please don't hit cdkeys. I bought animal crossing and xenoblade from them, saving £20. It got me in the all digital mindset, but if that's gone then I'm not paying full price for digital, so will have to go back to trading against physical games again.

This is all my fault.

I've been having a back and forth with Nintendo's customer service about the game save corruption bug in ACNH for months. The bug is only in the download version but since I bought a code from CDkeys Nintendo keep trying to wash their hands of it despite it being a fault in their downloadable code from their servers.

I keep getting crap like 'CDkeys arent an official Nintendo sales partner' and 'you should take it up with them' despite the fact that all I bought from CDkeys was a string of letters and numbers which wasn't faulty.

Snitches get switches.

Another classic Nintendo move

I buy all Nintendo games as physical copies as they tend to hold their value for longer (plus they are cheaper on release day than buying digital)

Nintendo stop digital game sales at all European retailers

Only applies to Nintendo published titles, for now at least.

This wouldn't be that bad if their digital game prices took the complete piss.