Shantae
Banned
I love the Nintendo Switch, and it's my favorite system not just for Nintendo games, but for whatever games I can get on it. The gimmick of the Switch works, I love playing a game on my TV with all the HD glory, but also just picking up out of the dock, and taking it to me on whereever, from car rides, to the long third shift hours I got where I don't do a whole lot. It's the perfect system for me.
I don't trust digital game sales though, especially on Nintendo consoles. I don't trust that their services will be active for a long time, and as someone who like at least the illusion that I own the games I buy, physical all the way. Even if I wanted to be a person who bought digital, the Switch storage is so damn small, and they should be allowing eternal hard drive support at least, because Micro SD cards are too costly if you wanted to go an all digital route. I only just recently bought a 512gb micro SD for $70, and even that is not gonna be viable for the long term. I don't even buy a lot of digital games, and the 128gb card I had never fit everything. All the physical games I own either have massive updates, or DLC that is huge. I never could keep Resident Evil Revelations 2 installed on my Switch when I had the 128gb card in it, because that game was over 20gb on it's own.
The thing that sucks is then there are physical Switch games that offload their costs onto consumers, and don't even include the full game on the cart. Games like MK11, LA Noire, Wolfenstein 2...fuck these games for not even putting the whole game on the cart, defeating the purpose of buying a physical copy. It's not even a small download that these are, these games alone would fill up any internal storage on a Switch.
As someone who prefers physical media though, and not wasting my money on digital versions of games, as a person who lives in the US, the physical market for Switch sucks. It's like an endless hunt just trying to buy games I want to own, and you have to be keeping track of so many different sources just to get a copy of a game on week of release. Granted, I will admit that I want a lot more obscure games than most people, but even back on the PS2 or PS3, I felt like these kind of games were not so damn hard to find. Lapis x Labyrinth was a game I didn't find out til after it came out, and I really wanted to get it once I heard about it...yet week of release, I couldn't find it anywhere. I understand that that's an obscure game, but this is an all too common trend on Nintendo Switch I feel, and can be said even for popular games.
Another problem is we got games that get digital only releases, but then get physical releases in Japan, and/or Europe. I really would love to buy Sword Art Online Hollow Realization and Fatal Bullet on Switch, but...fuck the US I guess, we're only doing physical copies in Europe? Even in that situation, I was planning on getting Hollow Realization via an import, but now I can't find a single copy anywhere online. I better buy Fatal Bullet while I can, but this goes into another problem.
I'm not fucking made of money. I can't afford to always buy every damn game on day 1, and that's why these limited or hard to find releases are such a pain in the ass. They sometimes come out too quick that I'm basically expected to be on top of shit all the damn time. I hate that I can't at least wait a few weeks after release, and still be able to buy games sometimes, we're still in the Switch's generation, and games have already gotten way too hard to find.
Services like Limited Run games are nice at first, but it's also shitty that we need something like that where yet again, you have to buy shit as soon as possible, or risk paying scalper prices. This Christmas my family really wanted to get me River City Girls, but couldn't find a copy of that at a close Best Buy, so I ended up having to find a Best Buy 45 miles away that I ordered a copy from for store pick up.
Another problem that didn't affect me so much, but I wanted to get my mom a copy of Stardew Valley for Xmas, because she likes farming games, and I had bought her a Switch for Animal Crossing (she loves that series). Problem: Stardew Valley has no physical release in the US, so any gift version of it would be so unsatisfying to open as a gift. The closest I could find was a digital version that came with a bunch of plushes at Best Buy, and even that version printed the code for the game on the damn receipt. And yet Japan has a physical copy of that game too....isn't that game by a western dev? wtf?
Basically I love the system as a piece of hardware, but as a person who prefers physical games, the market sucks. Even if I was made of money, you still have a situation where you basically gotta be at your computer all the damn time, preordering from multiple retailers, AND from multiple regions to even get the games you want. Why does it have to be this way?
I'm just frustrated as a person who wants to love and buy all my games on Switch.
I don't trust digital game sales though, especially on Nintendo consoles. I don't trust that their services will be active for a long time, and as someone who like at least the illusion that I own the games I buy, physical all the way. Even if I wanted to be a person who bought digital, the Switch storage is so damn small, and they should be allowing eternal hard drive support at least, because Micro SD cards are too costly if you wanted to go an all digital route. I only just recently bought a 512gb micro SD for $70, and even that is not gonna be viable for the long term. I don't even buy a lot of digital games, and the 128gb card I had never fit everything. All the physical games I own either have massive updates, or DLC that is huge. I never could keep Resident Evil Revelations 2 installed on my Switch when I had the 128gb card in it, because that game was over 20gb on it's own.
The thing that sucks is then there are physical Switch games that offload their costs onto consumers, and don't even include the full game on the cart. Games like MK11, LA Noire, Wolfenstein 2...fuck these games for not even putting the whole game on the cart, defeating the purpose of buying a physical copy. It's not even a small download that these are, these games alone would fill up any internal storage on a Switch.
As someone who prefers physical media though, and not wasting my money on digital versions of games, as a person who lives in the US, the physical market for Switch sucks. It's like an endless hunt just trying to buy games I want to own, and you have to be keeping track of so many different sources just to get a copy of a game on week of release. Granted, I will admit that I want a lot more obscure games than most people, but even back on the PS2 or PS3, I felt like these kind of games were not so damn hard to find. Lapis x Labyrinth was a game I didn't find out til after it came out, and I really wanted to get it once I heard about it...yet week of release, I couldn't find it anywhere. I understand that that's an obscure game, but this is an all too common trend on Nintendo Switch I feel, and can be said even for popular games.
Another problem is we got games that get digital only releases, but then get physical releases in Japan, and/or Europe. I really would love to buy Sword Art Online Hollow Realization and Fatal Bullet on Switch, but...fuck the US I guess, we're only doing physical copies in Europe? Even in that situation, I was planning on getting Hollow Realization via an import, but now I can't find a single copy anywhere online. I better buy Fatal Bullet while I can, but this goes into another problem.
I'm not fucking made of money. I can't afford to always buy every damn game on day 1, and that's why these limited or hard to find releases are such a pain in the ass. They sometimes come out too quick that I'm basically expected to be on top of shit all the damn time. I hate that I can't at least wait a few weeks after release, and still be able to buy games sometimes, we're still in the Switch's generation, and games have already gotten way too hard to find.
Services like Limited Run games are nice at first, but it's also shitty that we need something like that where yet again, you have to buy shit as soon as possible, or risk paying scalper prices. This Christmas my family really wanted to get me River City Girls, but couldn't find a copy of that at a close Best Buy, so I ended up having to find a Best Buy 45 miles away that I ordered a copy from for store pick up.
Another problem that didn't affect me so much, but I wanted to get my mom a copy of Stardew Valley for Xmas, because she likes farming games, and I had bought her a Switch for Animal Crossing (she loves that series). Problem: Stardew Valley has no physical release in the US, so any gift version of it would be so unsatisfying to open as a gift. The closest I could find was a digital version that came with a bunch of plushes at Best Buy, and even that version printed the code for the game on the damn receipt. And yet Japan has a physical copy of that game too....isn't that game by a western dev? wtf?
Basically I love the system as a piece of hardware, but as a person who prefers physical games, the market sucks. Even if I was made of money, you still have a situation where you basically gotta be at your computer all the damn time, preordering from multiple retailers, AND from multiple regions to even get the games you want. Why does it have to be this way?
I'm just frustrated as a person who wants to love and buy all my games on Switch.
