Nintendo Unveils Digital Game Sharing (venturebeat.com)
- Reference: 0176838979
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/03/27/1525215/nintendo-unveils-digital-game-sharing
- Source link: https://venturebeat.com/games/nintendo-unveils-virtual-game-cards-for-the-switch-for-family-sharing/
Users can play a single digital title on up to two systems, requiring only a one-time local connection between devices. The company has also confirmed that Virtual Game Cards will be compatible with both current and next-generation hardware. The system will also feature a family sharing option, allowing users to lend digital games to family members for two-week periods before automatically returning to the owner's account.
[1] https://venturebeat.com/games/nintendo-unveils-virtual-game-cards-for-the-switch-for-family-sharing/
Good but not best (Score:2)
I'm glad they are doing something. I had thought long about how poor the game sharing is for the Switch 1 platform and how important it is for Switch 2 to make purchasing digital games more flexible use like owning a physical copy. This is a huge improvement but it still seems overly complicated. I'll have to wait to see what it is like I guess, because I'd really like to use the convenience of digital licenses, but with the Nintendo platform I can't abandon the flexibility of physical game cards yet.
Don't worry (Score:2)
I'm sure people will develop other ways to share games
Press releases like this... (Score:2)
...imagine a scenario where the tech works perfectly
In the real world, it will work as advertised some of the time, occasionally fail with mysterious errors, and be enormously maddening and frustrating
Legitimate users will get angry
Pirates will find weaknesses, loopholes and workarounds
Actually making this tech work perfectly, in all edge cases, with users who make stupid mistakes, is hard, really hard. They will probably release a low-effort version that demands perfection in user behavior and has no error
So this is for your kids (Score:2)
If you've got two kids you might end up buying each of them a Nintendo switch. That means you probably want physical cartridges whenever possible right now so that they can swap cartridges between them. That's the problem this is meant to solve.
The occasional error or problem will be irritating but given how many games just aren't available in a physical format I guess it's better to have some solution than nothing. And honestly Nintendo's software usually just works.
It's a trap. (Score:2)
You should not share Nintendo games. There's a high probably you'll be sued.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure I understand. Steam already does something very similar (but better) with family library sharing. Connect two (or more) accounts to a single family, and everyone can use any of the games that anyone owns, as long as no one else is using it at that time (and as long as the publisher doesn't opt out for a particular game [or maybe they have to opt in? I'm not actually sure; but most non-brand-new game work]). I considered this a decent move from Nintendo that I wasn't expecting from them, given their