The 12 Days Of Switchmas: Day 6 – Content Management That Isn’t Awful
With anticipation high for the upcoming Nintendo Switch, the staff here at Geekscape are sharing their thoughts and wishes for Nintendo’s new system… and we’re doing it over 12 days: The 12 Days of Switchmas! You can head here to read all of the previous entries, but today, it’s my turn!
My colleagues have touched on some of the prospective Switch inclusions that we’re beyond excited for, as well as some functionality that’s been sorely lacking on Nintendo consoles for multiple generations at this point. My wish for the Nintendo Switch is some more lacking functionality that the Switch absolutely needs to figure out, seeing as the unit is your home and portable console in one: much, much better content and account management.
Say my pal digitally buys a new Xbox One game and wants to come over to play some multiplayer. Does he unhook, pack up, and bring over his entire console so that we can play that new game?
Of course not. That sounds ridiculous. He comes over, logs into his Xbox account, and we download the game and play it. Easy. It works the same way on Sony’s family of consoles, and you better believe that this is the way it works for Steam gamers too.
But that’s not the way it works on Nintendo consoles. Purchases are tied to the hardware and can only be moved by performing a ‘System Transfer’, which will transfer the content licenses to the new console, while erasing the old console in the process (which gets even tougher if your old console is not functioning). I was silly enough to make most of my 3DS game purchases digitally (for the convenience factor, you know), which felt far less convenient when I realized that upgrading to the New 3DS Xl would leave exactly half of my 3DS consoles feeling useful, which wouldn’t have been the case had I purchased physical games (and wouldn’t be the case on another console, either).
This makes physical purchases the only real option for Wii and Wii U gamers who want to play their games in someone else’s digs, aside from physically bringing your console with you. It stinks.
I can definitely see things getting even messier with the release of the Switch, a primarily home console that also has the ability to be used on the go (which is one of the system’s main selling features). The above issues that I mention don’t seem like a huge deal for Nintendo’s new home / portable, but it still seems like a nightmare if I want to share a game in my own household. Say I want to take the Switch with me for my daily commute, but my fiancé has the day off and wants to play some Stardew Valley while I’m away. Multiple consoles would solve this on another platform (it’s easy to have a second Xbox One or PS4, and you can use one digitally purchased title on both concurrently without any issues), but with Nintendo’s current functionality, we’re buying a second Switch and two copies of every game. Our wallets definitely can’t handle that. And it only gets worse if you’re looking at a whole family of Nintendo Switch consoles.
The Switch is definitely going to introduce some interesting issues into the next generation that I’m not quite sure how Nintendo is going to solve. If I’m a father of a family of five (who likes Master Chief and Nathan Drake just as much as I like Mario) buying one Switch for the family, and I make a rule that the super portable Switch is not to leave the house: why didn’t I pick up a more powerful and cheaper Xbox One or PS4 instead.
Honestly, I can’t wait to pick the console up (I’m standing in line right now), but if Nintendo doesn’t let up on their current policies when it comes to utilizing multiple consoles, I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to use the Switch to its full capabilities, and that would make me really sad. I just want to be able to purchase one digital copy of a title, and have it work on multiple consoles if I decide to get another, without dropping another $79.99 (because Canada)!
Check back tomorrow for Day 7 of The 12 Days of Switchmas, and be sure to share your Switchmas wishes below!
