Nintendo to make retail games available for download

[hisak]

Huge news from tonight's investor meeting: New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the first Nintendo game to be available both in a physical medium and as a downloadable title. More games will follow, including Wii U launch games.

But there's a catch! Rather than selling the games directly to consumers, Nintendo is still using retailers to distribute the games, presumably in order to stay in a good relationship with them. The games can still be bought without going into a store, but you'll need to visit a retailers' website.

Here's slides from the conference comparing it to the normal digital distribution model:



And another detailing possible pros and cons of buying digital or physical:



This is a massive step up for Nintendo, and I'm surprised to see it happen before the next generation has even truly started. I think I plan to start buying digital as soon as it's available: my decreasing storage space will thank me.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Although my recent purchase of a Kindle has softened my stance on digital books, I'm still not completely sold on the concept of downloading games and movies. I like the physical media, its presentation (I especially like what Nintendo have done with the new style packaging of 3DS games and those tiny windows). I'm mostly using my Kindle for cheap books. If I'm handing over £30-£40, I want something physical to show for it. Hope the physical medium will stick around for many more years to come.

[Hyruleansoldier]

I like having a box and manual, though.  I doubt I'll be buying new games in digital-only format.

If you think long-term (as in VERY long-term), it's probably inevitable - as storage space of all computer-related things increases exponentially, so will the volume of the games themselves, so I envision a world where we'll all have about two consoles (one handheld and one hooked up to the TV) which hold about 95% of our games (some won't be available for download, unless maybe on another console, like Banjo & Conker which got transplanted to MS's Xbox).