As far as the 'Average Joe' on the high street is concerned, the physical games market is practically dead and buried right now. Store shelves are emptier than ever, the usually reliable supermarket chains often no longer stock them, and we're rapidly heading into a future in which the majority of Switch 2 carts won't have any significant data on them.
Yet for the hardcore crowd — those whose ion for the physical article has yet to waver — there are thankfully still a few avenues to investigate. Limited Run Games, Super Rare Games, iam8bit... All of them have stumbled at some time or another, yet they remain some of the last bastions of physical games media.
But what if there was something even better? Well, The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow on Switch, and Immortality on PS5.
Transparency is the name of the game, and to find out more, we caught up with Ryan Brown, marketing director at Lost in Cult and the head of its new physical games label.
Nintendo Life: So, first of all, what made you want to start this initiative?
Ryan Brown: For myself and all of us at Lost In Cult, preservation is a huge topic that's important to us. We're all collectors, we all view video games as a serious art form, and we saw a way to not just apply the , high-end design and art touches that we're known for, but to fix some of the issues we saw in the space and hopefully build a better precedent for physical games.
For example, we're not locking games away behind our fancy limited versions. Those exist for fans that want to collect them, and we've put a lot of love into them, but standard retail editions also exist for availability options, and we're working with DoesItPlay? to test our games are full on-cart/disc before production.
You mentioned that someone compared your EDITIONS products to The Criterion Collection – were there any similar brands that you looked to for inspiration?
Yeah, we've seen that comparison made a lot, which is a huge honour; being the video game equivalent to what Criterion is doing for films is absolutely brilliant. We of course looked to our own design principles with what we've applied to our Design Works books, first and foremost.
Our Design Director Rachel Dalton, and Art Director Stephen Maurice Graham have really led the cause on how our EDITIONS look and their incredible artwork and design. The likes of Criterion, A24's films, Penguin Random House and Folio Society's book all were comparison points we hoped to reach, but naturally our design and art teams are creative forces entirely of their own and we wanted to be distinctive in our own right.
Can you talk about what the process has been like from the initial conception stages to your recent announcement?
Yes! I don't think people have really any idea how much work goes into something like this, especially in the way we've done it to try and offer the best case for collectors and gamers.
We've been working on this for over a year - in some way or another, since I ed in late 2023, but things really kicked off in early 2024. Conceptualising what we wanted this to be actually came first - so, what principles we wanted to stand on. For example, we knew from the start that we wanted to focus on preservation, and we wanted to make any game we worked on easily available, so partnerships like with DoesItPlay? and our distribution partner PM Studio came early on.
We actually started talking with many developer and publisher partners at the same time as we worked out our design identity - our first few titles, which you mostly see before you as our launch titles, were signed a year ago and largely entrusted us based on our prior experience and quality books, which is a real honour for us. As you can imagine, we've been speaking to a lot of partners, so we have a lot of exciting games in the pipeline already, and we have intentionally waited to launch until we were truly ready - we have our launch game builds in hand, they're final builds, they're tested by DoesItPlay? already, the art is all in hand, and we've test-printed EDITIONS already.
So, the process is really entirely different to how Lost In Cult has worked in the past, because we didn't want people to have to wait too long for these games to go to print and ship.
How did you decide what goodies to include in the EDITIONS products, and why is it important that these remain consistent?
We almost worked backwards, so the consistency principle came first and we worked back from there. It was vital to me, as a collector myself, that these could remain a consistent collection that looks good next to each other on a shelf without anything looking amiss. I can't stand boxes of all different sizes, with different design looks and contents.
While the collector mentality reason came first, there is a production benefit, in that the tooling has to be done once, the design templates done once, which massively speeds up our print timing. We don't want people to wait a year for these EDITIONS; they ship at the same time as the standard retail copies, and we can work in advance on future titles already and it's much faster for us to work this way. Plus, no heavy, large items means no giant shipping weights or costs. So, this method really just worked as a win-win-win across the board.
I don't think people could really comprehend the lengths we go to ensure the quality we're putting out.
As for the goodies included, again we pretty much worked backwards from our principles. We had the game preserved on disc/cart, sure, but we also wanted to preserve the story, impact, culture of the game, which our booklets achieve with analytical essays, developer interviews, and in-development artwork. We wanted to create genuinely high quality keepsakes, not disposable tat.
One anecdote I love telling is how we travel to our print partners just to feel the paper to ensure it is the right quality paper stock. I don't think people could really comprehend the lengths we go to ensure the quality we're putting out. We have high costs across our print materials, artwork etc for EDITIONS just in order to secure that very feel.
Physical media is great for preservation, but they too can become unplayable under certain conditions. What else should publishers be doing to ensure long-term preservation?
Absolutely; digital media should be better for preservation and long-term accessibility, but sadly, it just isn't yet.
For us, it's two-fold; on the physical front, ensuring that all the content is actually on the disc and cartridge - that you can take these games off your shelf in 30 years time, without the servers active, and play this game without hindrance, and that they're easily accessible via retail standard copies without limited units.
The other part, of course, is that we work directly with museums and archive groups to share our games and materials with them whenever possible. We're not the game rights holders though, of course. It's really vital, more than ever in this growing age of lack of ownership and disposable entertainment, that developers and publishers publish their games without online restrictions that may make their games unplayable one day, to publish on as many storefronts as possible, to not lock games behind streaming services, to work with museum groups to provide game builds and development materials.
I'm an absolutist when it comes to preservation, where I want to see every game preserved and remain playable, but we're a very far stretch away from that happening. In the meantime, we're doing our bit.
You’re likely not keen on the idea, but do you foresee a future in which consoles no longer offer the ability to play physical media? What happens to initiatives such as this in that event?
I'm so unkeen on the idea, the thought makes me wonder if I'll just bury myself away and play my massive games backlog at that point!.
No, but in all seriousness, I've thought about this a lot. We're a ways away from that, because the people who buy physical still today are locked-in on it, and we're not going away for decades, so there's still good money in it for platformholders. I think even with next-gen consoles, they'll be hard-pressed to remove the options.
We have some time until that happens, but even then, there'll be something we can do. USB sticks with the DRM-free game on and merch inside a box, or something. There's always going to be an audience for as long as I live, so there's always going to be a way.
It almost feels like no game is truly “finished” these days when it comes to updates and patches. What challenges do you face when choosing which games to give the Lost in Cult treatment?
You're right, and this is a huge challenge. I'll even add to that and say that no physical publisher has any right to control developers or publishers over whether that happens. But we are in the best situation; we simply do not sign games where that is known to happen or likely to happen in the future, which of course is a big part of our conversation with partners.
I cannot stress enough that we are willing to walk away and not work on gigantic games that we believe wouldn't be able to meet this commitment.
We check, check, check, and check again – and I'm not kidding, I ask so many times I get annoying – that builds are final and no patches or updates are planned, we have our preservation team DoesItPlay? test each game before we go to print, and if there's any major issues, we go back to the developers.
In fact, we have one unannounced game that we specifically knew would likely receive a patch in future, and have advised they go ahead and do that now before we test or go to print, even if that means shipping gets slightly delayed. This is very, very important to us that games are as final as possible, and released with all the latest patches and content on disc without internet connectivity or patches required.
I cannot stress enough that we are willing to walk away and not work on gigantic games that we believe wouldn't be able to meet this commitment.
You’re naturally focused on current-gen consoles for the time being, but can you foresee Lost in Cult going back to prior generations and reviving forgotten classics?
I'd really love that, especially as someone that particularly loves collecting for those consoles. My PS1, PS2, PS3, Wii, and DS collections especially get a lot of love, they're very fun systems to collect for, and of course as someone approaching his mid-30s, were my childhood consoles of choice.
I wonder what options are available for those. We have this huge homebrew Game Boy revolution happening, which is fantastic, but a lot of those older systems, the printing processes are gone and you can neither license nor print for them anymore. Porting older games to newer consoles is sometimes the easier option. But yeah, we'll see, of course those kinds of ideas are all interesting to us.
Switch 2 has garnered some controversy recently with its Game-Key Card releases. I'd love to know your thoughts on this – is it actually a viable solution, and will Lost in Cult's commitment to include fully playable games on cart extend to the Switch 2?
Yes, we're doing Switch 2 releases! Yes, they're only full games on cart versions!
It goes without saying, Game-Key Cards don't sit right with us and don't fit into our ethos of games being fully on cart for future use. I understand why Nintendo created them as a better alternative to code-in-a-box type releases, but we're never going to release Game-Key Card versions of games.
We're some ways away from having Switch 2 releases on a monthly cadence, but we are in discussions for a few titles that may come as and when in the future, and we'll only do full games on cart. We're learning about things at the same time as most people reading this are, but if it turns out that costs on normal cartridges are significantly higher, I think most collectors would agree with us that it's still the preferable option over empty carts.
Pie in the sky question, but are there any games that you would absolutely love to work on for a physical release?
Oh yes, gosh, tons. 1000xRESIST stands out to me, it's one of my all-time favourite games, it just is such a special game and I'd love to work on that.
Annapurna, pretty much anything from them, their style of games are perfect fits for our EDITIONS. Dadish series of games should get a physical release.
I have a long, long list of games I personally want physically, and personally want us to work on, which usually overlaps. It's not on the Switch, but I'm going to mention Rollerdrome. It was my game of the year that year, I love it with all my heart. It's a difficult one because the developer got shut down and the rights sold off, but it's on my dream list for sure.
We're also not restricting ourselves to indie games, I might add; our curation focuses on artistry, which usually sways towards indie, but I'd love the opportunity to give some AAA games our EDITIONS treatment, too.
This interview has been lightly edited.
Huge thanks to Ryan Brown for speaking to us. If you want to check out the new releases on Switch, you can head to the Lost in Cult website now. Standard editions are priced at £29.99 each, with EDITIONS costing £59.99 each. Staunch collectors can secure the full batch of Switch titles for a total of £179.97 (although currently there's a £9 discount), including an as-yet unannounced title.
For the superfans, 'Collection' versions are available which include the EDITIONS game with a vinyl soundtrack release and giclee print (or, in the case of Thank Goodness You're Here!, just the vinyl soundtrack). These range from £89.98 to an eye-watering £178.98 for the PS5 Immortality Collection, plus shipping.
Comments 60
Hmm, I tend to agree with Ryan on his takes on physical media judging from what I read here, and hope that's he is correct that physical games won't go away for a long time! I'm not really a preservationist, I just love having something physical to go with my games!
I've pre ordered some game key cards. They are games I want to play.
It all sounds good. I also am thinking that when we get to the all digital future I may just focus on retro. I already went through this with music, where physical media just disappeared and basically my interest in music evaporated. I expect the same thing to happen with video games.
I like this company.
@Duncanballs The subtext of your statement is. You don't care if your actions screw everyone, you just want the pleasure. That's hedonism. I don't get being proud about destroying the game playing environment.
I’m an old gamer and some fellow old gamers like me grew up with everything physical.
Music, film and gaming, seem to have changed and don’t mind.
I have been all digital with music, film and games probably for a decade now.
We just seem to get on with it and used to changing environments.
Someone mentioned on here it’s more the younger generation and I do know a few that always go physical with film and games.
Maybe it’s a possession thing or collection thing I’m not sure.
@Misima or maybe he just doesn't view keycards as screwing everyone and/or destroying the game playing environment. That's like complaining about ppl who are all digital. Are they, too, actively working against the physical gaming community by not throwing their behind physical games? Ppl buy the games they want in the medium that suits them.
Lol where was all this bravado against code in a box? Nintendo is still doing carts for their games. They're offering game key cards as an option for companies who were doing code in a box. Code in a box is objectively worse than a game key card at full retail price. All these companies are only ing on now with their holy crusade for physical media forever because they want to capitalize on the outrage and probably want to get into LRG's whale cookie jar.
As long as the genre intrigues you (and you have the money for it), people should buying every fully physical game that comes out.
People tend to think that those of us who are willing to buy Game Key Carts want physical to disappear - or at least: don't care if they do. That's the furthest thing from the truth. We WANT all games to be fully physical, but are absolutely aware that the companies who put games into Game Key Carts for little to no reason ( cough cough Bravely Default cough ) simply don't want to release physical games anymore - and this is the only option they're willing to take. Boycotting them won't stop them from entirely removing physical in the future. This has been their MO since the PSWii60 days. Game Key Carts are, at the very least, a form of ownership... But they're not ideal.
We would rather full physical. But if the game doesn't release physically? But we still want to be able to sell/trade our games? Game Key Carts are the only option for those games.
If you're a full Ninty fan, you won't be affected by boycotting Game Key Carts. At all.
But if you want Capcom games? I'm sorry, but no one makes games like Capcom. Throw any indie or studio out there. They don't match Capcom quality in their genres. And Capcom jumped on Game Key Carts faster than most other companies... Because the devs are cool, but the heads are greedy as ****.
Also, for anyone that defends Bravely Default by saying "they don't want to pay for the 64gb cart" : It's a 3DS GAME. They could have EASILY put it onto a Switch 1 cart and given it the upgrade treatment (then bam, you have a Switch 1 and Switch 2 version, while still having the full game in cart). No, Square Enix has been doing its damnedest to rid of physical for years now. Mostly by making their games too big for physical, making them so niche that no one stocks their physicals, or mandatory Day Zero patches. They want physical gone.
@Misima A tad extreme don't you think. I am not going to change the industry. No one is apart from the publishers and manufacturers.
I'm not going to miss out on games I want to play. I've lived through betamax/VHS to DVD. Cassette to CD. Magazines to websites. Physical to digital.
I'm still here, still enjoying gaming.
"proud about destroying the game playing environment."
Seriously? I'm proud of who I am as a person, my family, my values and how I treat others. Gaming is a past time. Get some perspective.
One of the most entitled and self centered comments I have ever had in reply.
@Siaha philosophically you're arguing for selfish behaviors. You're missing the free rider problem. By them acting selfishly, they are confirming others to have no choice. It's truly a virtue-less act to let the world get worse because you can't be bothered to make a small sacrifice.
If everyone just demands better, then the problem resolves. What kind of world will we have when we can't even get people to take no action in order to improve society? We are not asking for action but inaction and still the answer is no, "Eff you, got mine?"
@Duncanballs no, it isn't. Read my other comment.
@Misima I have and you are spouting nonsense I'm afraid.
You are talking about improving society and making sacrifices in a conversation about gaming.
You're acting like gaming is life or death. I love gaming but there is a lot more important things in the world.
@Duncanballs no man, key cards suck
@HugoGED maybe but it is what is and it's here in two weeks.
For games without a physical release, it would make more sense to buy them for a handheld PC instead, especially if there are PC releases without DRM (quite a lot of the Yakuza/Hitman games are available DRM-free, making the Switch 2 releases a tough sell for physical buyers).
And if this conduct from third parties persists in this way, I doubt I'll be buying very many third party games at all, at least not on the Switch 2.
@OldGamer999 ditto. I've gone with the flow and just moved on. Getting older. Don't want to be surrounded by tonnes of stuff I can't take with me.
Appetite for Destruction and many others .... Vinyl copy, cassette copy, Cd copy. I was quite glad when MP3s became a thing!
Absolutely no problem with people who prefer physical I'm just less interested in "stuff" as I get older.
I'm still confused about this whole "Game Key Card" stuff. Did every developer say they were going to do that or did we all assume they were going to that because a couple big studios were doing it???
@Duncanballs
Totally get you.
Also less clutter and also with digital it’s all instant at your finger tips.
And in the car a lot less dangerous, the days of feeling around for a certain cassette 🤣
@OldGamer999 I'm thinking of my kids as well. They've got to sort out all of this crap when I'm gone. 😜
Will their standard retail releases be available in other retailers, or only from their website?
And why are they ESRB-rated covers when it's a UK-based company ?
(actually, we all know why)
https://nintendolife.sitesunblocked.org/guides/every-nintendo-switch-2-game-key-card-release
So not every studio has confirmed that they are doing GKC, but so far getting full games on cart looks to be the exception, not the rule. There still exists the possibility that this changes, but for now we are making assumptions based on the current trajectory of things.
@N00BiSH
No, it's just the usual big devs that are absolutely jumping into it. Based on preorders currently revealed.
Some other games have shown that they'd be Game Key Cart, but having only one game from a company isn't enough proof that the company prefers Game Key Cart.
Smaller companies? shrugs Not really conclusive with them.
Any company can switch sides, obviously. But there's little doubt Capcom & Square Enix will stand on their decision.
Ubisoft and EA, for instance, may stand for full physical in the future in order to make good PR (less likely for EA).
Give these companies an inch and they will take a mile. Some people are willing to be disrespected by these companies because of ridiculous loyalty to them. They (fans) will always justify whatever the corporation does. I've seen quite a few people defend the game key card bs and it's so ridiculous. Don't be surprised if a revised Switch 2 is digital only. I can almost guarantee that a Switch 3 or whatever it'll be called will be digital only. Whining about something but still ing it just shows Nintendo and others that they can get away with certain things.
@Duncanballs that’s the thing, one day we’ll all be gone and all those physical titles will be someone else’s burden, it’ll either end up in a skip or given away to charity shops. They won’t know about any preservation stance the deceased stood up for on some website they know nothing about.
@SillyG I'm of a similar mind. A big draw of buying into the Switch ecosystem was the ability to get a copy of the game physically on the cartridge (for which I get the usual benefits: reduced digital storage needs, ownership, etc) even if I knew it could end up being a somewhat compromised version of the game compared to playing it on more advanced platforms. Now portable PCs are on the rise and a portable PS is constantly in the rumour mill, the portability advantage of the Switch is starting to disappear. So if you take away the prospect of buying games physically and you know you are buying your games digitally, I'm not sure if there is any reason for a multiplatform customer to consider buying their third party games in the Switch ecosystem.
Cyberpunk 2077 hopefully start a trend that will keep as long as possible and force Nintendo to make more Switch 2 carts with different capacity so publishers have no excuses.
Physical games have almost no appeal anymore. 🤷♂️
@sethfranum
Many (most?) will go with the cheapest "physical" option available. Which is the gamekey card.
@Michael0916 they are a huge step away from a big box, a manual, a map etc. Empty plastic shells with legalise pamphlets.
"Said publisher will not be responsible in anyway if you decide to eat the media contained within. Said publisher also does not endorse eating of such media. Said publisher hopes you will enjoy but will not be responsible for game rage and broken TVs. Please do not sue."
I hate the idea of game key cards. So, I'm only pre-ordering and paying full price on games that are in the cartridge.
For this reason I'm getting Cyberpunk day one.
The others, either sales or second hand.
Take a note for lazy 3rd party game developers / publishers, especially like EA / Ubisoft / SquareEnix / CAPCOM.
Customers still need physical games.
Sell your games with every contents + update + DLC in physical game media, NO game key card, NO code in box, NO Partial , NO Streaming only, NO Online only, NO BS treatments, DON'T Cheap out!
Treat your customers with respect.
I prefer buying all my media - games, music, books, movies - the old-fashioned way, in physical form with the product present and not something to be ed. I don’t buy code in a box, I don’t buy compromised physical releases that “do not play” from the cart, and I’ll be skipping almost all the game key releases. I just dislike the idea of my purchases being beholden to the internet and corporations’ good graces. Digital purchasers have their priorities, and I have mine, that’s all.
I’m glad there’s some publishers out there who still “get” me, and those will be the companies I . 👍🏼
It’s sad that I’ve already come to accept that having key cards is better than not having anything physical at all.
i will be busy buying as many switch 1 physical games as i can since i wont be spending much on switch 2
@Misima hogwash
@AllBLK the mainstream audience doesn't care how and where they play the games and whether they are physical or not. It's just a fact now. Most won't be playing the switch 2 in 8 years. It will go in the cupboard and collect dust. I know for sure I won't be
This past weekend, I donated a bunch of my DVDs and bluerays as I never watched them due in part to having streaming services. I no longer have music CDs. I feel that video games are going to the same place and I have already given in. Life is too short to try boycott games for being on key cards or being digital. I still buy whatever happens to be cheaper but these days tend to favor digital over physical.
I mean their plan is quite obvious, Nintendo hasn't been shy or queit about hating the second hand market and how they don't get any revenue from it. It's pretty obvious from an intelligent person's standpoint that this is them muddying the waters and making it harder for secondhand sellers.
@Jokerwolf
I would absolutely agree if Nintendo wasn't selling their games as full physical.
If some of their own games later on use Game Key Carts, then it holds much more merit.
@MrDocena They come out looking like the good guy even though they created the situation with the way it is now and then releasing their full games on there. I'm imagining in two to three years we'll see only key card games. Doug Bowser even said they plan on doing physical in the immediate future which is very specific wording. A lot of these other Publishers don't want you to own your games so having a lifespan on them is what they want and that's how the key cards are going to really work. If that publisher decides they don't want people to have access to that game 10 years from now they can do that just fine and there's nothing you can do.
@Coalescence Bingo. As more companies move out of the full data on card physical game space, others will move in and try to fill it with limited physical releases, sometimes with needless and pricey extras attached to nickel and dime collectors
@Jokerwolf
The only way they'd be able to do that is to pull a killswitch update which bricks your digital copy (or worst case: your console). Nothing outside of that, or banning your , would remove one's access to the game. ... Unless it's a Live Service game, in which case: they can close that any time.
And I've only seen two companies brick (non-Live service) digital copies after all these years. And both of them were indie studios.
I'm not saying Nintendo is the good guy, nor am I saying that none of these companies would have the mind to remove people's ownerships of these games, but pinning this assumption as "Nintendo's Grand Plan" is hasty.
There's different forms and roads to greedy success, and Nintendo muddying the waters more reflects that it's planning something big for future success, rather than it specifically pointing to the "all digital future by their hand".
If they wanted to do that specifically, they could've pushed for it much sooner with other methods. This is far more roundabout. And while Nintendo has always been roundabout, they've never been too predictable either. No one has a claim that everything they've done has been analyzed years ahead. Everyone's been wrong on their assumptions in one area or the next.
Like I said... Not an impossibility, but not concrete either.
Even if I myself do run off of theories and assumptions that aren't outright outlined/documented, this one still has too many factors for me to sit on that hill. Though you're free to point and say "I told you so" if it should happen accurately.
@MrDocena if they turn the servers off that you're ing your game from you can no longer access it with the game-key card. It becomes a piece of e-waste.
Must be some powerful copium for people to believe that owning a game key card is actually owning the game. Might as well just buy the digital version and not be burdened by carrying around a key card cartridge. Well, I guess ignorance is bliss.
Im not a huge fan of physical media, but id absolutely not want it to go away.
That said, making physical releases for very niche games really doesnt help. What id like to see is one of these companies making deals with major publishers to print physical editions of titles where it wouldnt require much, if any extra effort. People would pay a and both parties get there cut. (Example would be something like madden which fits on a cart but at an extra cost. Let the small company print physical copies and charge $100. Games that are too big and would require work to segment would likely need to be byed. Also, they could delay the release and include any day 1 patches)
@SurprisedRobinChu
And how would owning a full digital be better if you literally can't sell or trade it even if you wanted to?
Game Keys (though easily fudged with KeyGens) were literally made to prove you own a game, it's automatically attached to all digital games purchased these days and exists on all physical copies of games. Having it as a physical item, not attached to an which can be lost/banned, is a proof of ownership that can't be taken away without serious loophole-jumping that would put companies on legal crosshairs.
Before Steam took over all PC games, having the Game Key Codes attached to your installation disc boxes were used as direct proof of ownership - which were used for legal disputes, or mundane things like warranties.
Nowadays, if your goes: bye bye games.
You literally have no ground to say you owned XYZ games (maybe receipts, but that's a headache and a half to try to use as proof these days).
So when the all digital future comes around, and said companies have a "whoopsies" which removes people's licenses on their s... There'd be no legal recourse on an individual level. It'd just be a blanket court case.
The Game Key Cart is a form of proof that can be used.
And if it isn't: then neither can a typical physical copy be used as proof if a "whoopsy" occurs that prevents your physical games from running on your consoles.
@Jokerwolf
???
So on an EXTREMELY strange case where either -
A) I bought a game a century later after its release.... (Because, guess what, I still have all of my digital games on my Wii, DSi, and WiiU, and am still able to re them all these decades later - not that I'd need to, because they still run fine)... during a century when they finally erased their servers (which, outside of purely greed reasons, they'd have no excuse. these servers are so absolutely miniscule in size by today's tech that it'd be more trouble to get rid of it than to keep it running).
B) An extreme case where they pulled the server plug RIGHT WHEN I STARTED ING A GAME.... Of which, legal action is doable unless I was clearly warned beforehand.
C) An extreme case where GameKeys have to be tagged online everytime to work (not even pure digital games do that... and news flash: if that was the case, then they can do a firmware update to make even full physical games get locked out. Because, guess what, even your physical game has a GameKey embedded in its code/cartridge/disc/box - which they can dismiss by requiring a new key).
-is what I have to be wary of????
There's conspiracy, then there's unfounded paranoia...
Digital games and game keys don't work like how you imagine them to be.
Games check for keys, without a server or online connection. Physical games already have them built in. Game Keys are the same, but you have to the game first.
It'd be an insane situation I'd have to be in in order to not be able to play with my GameKey game. Which... Again, legal action can be done.
I personally don't want game boxes all over my house, I prefer digital if it is an option. I wish people could game however they want to as long as they dont pirate games, I also understand games and all media are trending towards digital and I'm ok with it.
@MrDocena Not true, the ability to re them is going away too at some point for all your listed platfroms.
https://en-americas-.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3764/~/how-to-re-wii-shop-channel-content-on-wii
If you read all of it you will see I am right.
@Jokerwolf
Like I said: "a century later" (an exaggeration, but proves the point well enough).
They haven't been shut down for years. And while I do doubt they'll keep them open for another set of decades, I do indeed doubt they'd close right.... Now.
In either case, I have had ample time to find an alternative to preserving these games. No one would be at fault here other than myself.
No one can even purchase a Wii game on the eShop anymore either - all this (shutting down servers) would concern are those who already own the game.... Of which: there has been no deterioration of digital games proven on any platform, only a deterioration of hardware. And in the extreme case where my hardware breaks (I'd have to treat it pretty poorly) - it would be to the very same effect as breaking/losing your physical copy of a game. Like losing a bank , as opposed to losing cash.
The only worthwhile argument here is emulation.
And emulation is a dodgy subject in of ownership.
To stay on topic and not be dragged into yet another meaningless flame war, I for one am excited on owning the physical copy of "Thank Goodness You're Here!" and have the full game on the cartridge and not some rubbish key card
I tend to roll my eyes when I hear the phrase “game preservation” but I do lament the lack of ownership of media that is pervasive in gaming.
Is there any kind of physical preservation movement for PC games given the use of steam, gog etc currently?
Imagine if antiques roadshow is still a thing in the future and we get all the game collectors on there. That would be great fun.
I stopped collecting things after a bunch of long distance moves. Its all just memories now.
Publishers who do not commit to true physical releases should be punished.
They will look better if they just skip physical and just release digital only than releasing a plastic DRM key.
We know they are doing it just for the shelf space and nothing more.
I can see my Switch 2 lying dormant for most of the time, with absolutely no interest in game key cards or digital for the most part it's going to have to be left up to Nintendo to release the boxed copies of their first party games and I can't see any of them coming anytime soon, guess I'll just have to entertain myself with MKW and Donkey Kong Bananza for now.
A little off topic but getting physical video games is still very easy for us. We just order them on JBHIFI, EB Games and Amazon and we still get the majority of our games in physical form just like we still get albums by Artists and Bands we really like on CD and movies and TV Shows on DVDs and Blu Rays. I see articles saying getting things physically is really hard now but I can say from experience living here in Australia it is still very easy.
Seems like UbiSoft was right all along - people are being forced to accept they are not owning their games anymore.
Great interview, love to hear it for those interested in Lost in Cult's physical releases and I'll definitely consider at the very least their standard editions myself - that said, personally I'll gladly take also Game-Key Cards to still have several benefits of physical over none at all like in the case of exclusively digital games and so also code-in-box (but I won't say no to fully digital if a game interests me as the games themselves are what matters the most), not to mention that most likely what will happen if Game-Key Cards somehow won't sell the companies releasing their games that way will simply do so fully digitally, period!
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