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Nintendo Have you Warmed Up to the Idea of Subscription Based Classic Games?

With the Switch we no longer have the Virtual Console that existed on the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U for classic games. As of time of writing, only NES games are offered to people who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online Service.

You get access to more games for a cheaper price, but none of the games are your own downloads. If you cancel your subscription, you lose access to those classic games.

I enjoy individually owning the games I want to download. At least I know I can access these games at any time at long as my console is still functioning. Even if fan favorites like the SNES, N64, and GCN are added later, I feel it will be a bit hollow with all of it behind a subscription and time hasn't changed my mind.

So how do you feel about the classic games line-up being locked behind a subscription paywall? Do you feel better about it now than when you did when it was first announced Virtual Console would not be returning?
 

Castle

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Imagine if books and movies were locked behind a pay wall. How much of our culture would be held for ransom?

I don't think this is anything nefarious on ninty's part. I think ninty in their infinite ignorance simply doesn't understand the implications of this.

I personally limit myself to as few reoccurring payments as humanly possible. I have never paid a subscription for any video game and I would be extremely hard pressed to even consider doing so. I can justify charging subscriptions for any product that requires ongoing development and maintenance: online multiplayer games and early access titles for indie devs even. But to lock games that have been available for 15-20+ years behind a subscription is just sleazy.

This reach towards rebranding video games as a service model is right up this crooked industry's alley. I will insist upon continuing to own the products I purchase and will stop buying video games entirely if it ever came to that.
 
No and i never will.

Yes, through a subscription model like Nintendo Online i have access to more games than I ever would have bought. This allows me to discover games I'd have never played otherwise.

However if i stop paying then theyre gone. And when the servers are shut down everything is gone for good.

Same with digital games or service games. Overwatch will be a dead disc in a few years.

Games i may have archived to save space wont be able to be redownloaded when the next generation comes around. But at least for now I can play my digital games because I bought them. My subscription based games always have a finite window.

I'll always prefer physical to digital and i'll always prefer digital to subscription.
 
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I might, when the games actually come. Can’t be excited about a service with a ****ty small number of games.

When and if Nintendo chooses to put a decent amount of games here then we can talk.
 

Castle

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A subscription model could work for digital distribution if you intend to play a lot of games, you're potentially getting more bang for your buck. Instead of buying 10 games a month at $5-$60+ a pop, you have access to a library of hundreds of games and content for a set price per payment period.

This would work well alongside the option to purchase games outright if you're thinking about letting your subscription expire.

It still stands that the more games that are stored and distributed digitally on servers the more likely we are to lose them when there are no hard copies of the material left to hold on to.
 
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Same with digital games or service games. Overwatch will be a dead disc in a few years.

Games i may have archived to save space wont be able to be redownloaded when the next generation comes around. But at least for now I can play my digital gamsles because I bought them. My subscription based games always have a finite window.
Add in when half a game is on the cart and you have to download the other half. Mostly Switch developers (Ninrtendo included) who are too tightass and refuse to use carts larger than 16GB.
 

Cfrock

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I haven't warmed to the idea one jot. I could maybe get on board with the idea of a subscription service if it meant access to a large library of new games, like a Netflix for gaming, but subscribing to play old games is something that I can't find any value in. These games are worth so little for what they actually are. The cartridges can end up being expensive due to their rarity, but those are physical things that are no longer being manufactured. The actual software is still available, and endlessly replicable, so a subscription fee would see any customer paying an insultingly absurd amount of money over time for products that should be costing pennies. The fact that those games will vanish when Nintendo inevitably terminates the service is another factor because a customer will have spent potentially hundreds of dollars over many years and then have nothing to show for it. This service is not one offered for the benefit of the customer but for the sole benefit of the company.

There's a video I watched recently that talks about the issue of game preservation, and it feels relevant to this topic, in regard to paying for an impermanent product.

 

Jimmu

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I don’t really like the idea where there is no option to just buy the games outright. I feel as though it would be great for them to add the option to choose to pay a one time fee for each game to be able to keep it so people are able to make the selection of which model best suits them.

As it currently stands, the selection of the games available is crap and disappointing. I hope they at least improve that soon but I don’t see much incentive for them to do so with this model.
 

Vanessa28

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Now if it would've been something like Netflix and the latest games will be available a short while after their release, it could be worth it. The idea itself isn't bad BUT we're talking about Nintendo here and they're everything but cheap to their fans and customers. They can easily remove certain games and also pull the plug. And they can decide to shut servers down so bye bye games. Plus they won't add some games anytime soon except for very old crappy games. So nope. They have to do better than that.
 
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I don't see a problem with this. Nintendo Online is $20 a year to play current games online, like Smash Bros, and they throw in a bunch of NES games you can play as well at no extra cost. The subscription service isn't to just play NES games like I see some suggesting here. If I'm not mistaken, a lot of these games can still be downloaded on the Wii U.
 

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