Here's something of interest. According to Siliconera, Nintendo plans to release New Super Mario Bros. 2 as both a physical retail release and as a digital download through the eShop or other digital retailers. People will be able to buy the game either way. Apparently, Nintendo plans to do the same for other first-party titles as well.

Another point of interest: Individual digital retailers will be allowed to set their own prices for the digital version, so buying it through the eShop directly could differ from GameStop's price, and both could vary from Amazon's price.

Impossible. This is Nintendo we're talking about. They don't know how to use the internet!

Nintendo is evolving

*Waits for Iwata to visit the Valve offices*

@Bocam said:

Nintendo is evolving

Cue the Pokemon evolution theme.

@Hailinel said:

@Bocam said:

Nintendo is evolving

Cue the Pokemon evolution theme.

Seems like digital versions of retail games, similar to the Vita, will be a continued strategy for Nintendo. This is Nintendo, so this remains to be seen, but it's pretty cool if they manage to pull it off.

Was wondering when they would start doing this. I'll still get the box, though.

Is this the real life!?

...IS IT!?

@Dany said:

Impossible. This is Nintendo we're talking about. They don't know how to use the internet!

Interesting fact they were one of the first videogame company to use an "network infrastructure" game service, The Satella view in the mid 90s. Plus they had network stuff on the NES. :p

Oh man if this continues, I'll be buying 3DS games out the ass.

I think the most important news about all this is that Nintendo said devs/publishers have full control of their own pricing for the digital versions of games. I hope this means full at any moment control, I would love to get some sort of steam-like thing going on a major console. I love buying crazy cheap games I will never play, and I know I am not alone.

Very cool. While I'm a bit worried about the more limited storage space on handhelds (I don't want to have to stack up on a bunch of SD cards, that would seem counter intuitive) and I actually like the little cartridges they come on, the pure convenience of having a bunch of games to launch anytime really sells me on it. This does make me wonder if they will retroactively add some of their earlier games to this system, like Kid Icarus or 3D Land, seems like the obvious way to go, no?

As for Wii U supporting it, hell if it comes with enough storage space I could see myself going all digital on that one.

Love that I'll have the option to download full retail games on both the 3DS and Wii-U. I hate living in a small town with too little games to choose from.

@RockmanBionics: IIRC you can use 32 gig SD cards on the 3DS, I don't believe most 3DS retail games are more than a couple of gigs so you could probably store quite a few on one of those. I know if they properly support the service I will have to buy a large one for myself.

Now will digital games be out day and date with their retail counterparts?

@Zenaxzd: If a 32 gig card would work without issues I could see myself getting one of those, will have to look into it further, later.

@JJOR64: According to Nintendo they certainly will on the Wii U, dunno about 3DS but I'd assume so.

That doesn't seem very Nintendo-like at all. Cool. Also, my mission to purchase all eShop content looks to become a lot more expensive. I should just give up now, because I really don't want my 3DS tainted by Zombie Slayer Diox anyway.

@LordAndrew said:

That doesn't seem very Nintendo-like at all. Cool. Also, my mission to purchase all eShop content looks to become a lot more expensive. I should just give up now, because I really don't want my 3DS tainted by Zombie Slayer Diox anyway.

It seems that people really underestimated Nintendo's whole commitment to making their online experience better. There really haven't been any notable missteps in their 3DS online and it keeps improving.

@LordAndrew said:

That doesn't seem very Nintendo-like at all. Cool. Also, my mission to purchase all eShop content looks to become a lot more expensive. I should just give up now, because I really don't want my 3DS tainted by Zombie Slayer Diox anyway.

Why would you buy all eShop games? Not even Jeff would do that, granted they seem to be much better on the 3DS.

Nintendo learned how to use the internet!?

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@LordAndrew said:

That doesn't seem very Nintendo-like at all. Cool. Also, my mission to purchase all eShop content looks to become a lot more expensive. I should just give up now, because I really don't want my 3DS tainted by Zombie Slayer Diox anyway.

Why would you buy all eShop games? Not even Jeff would do that, granted they seem to be much better on the 3DS.

I bought all of the initial Virtual Console batch, and continued a few more times. Since I already had everything by that point, I figured why not keep it up. I've already upgraded my SD card once. I can do it again! Money's no object. Until it starts becoming an object, which is soon.

Tomorrow's story: Nintendo confirms Wii U will support 802.11b only, contain 4 GB of storage that isn't upgradeable, and 36 digit security codes will needed to be input every time you want to download a game rated above E.

The apocalypse is nigh! The only hope of warding off the cleansing flames is that Nintendo notes you can not transfer this game between systems.

So I'm kind of torn. I want to embrace the digital future so hard but I'm wary of digital services that haven't figured out the whole linked-to-account/re-download thing because you know, pirates. Its going to take another decade before they have some kind of system to activate and deactivate a limited number of devices on the same account, hopefully they don't head down the same path as EA and we need to spend 5 years at the pay-for-the-privilege-to-redownload truckstop.

I'm happy to experiment with smaller titles knowing full well that I might never get them off my system but I don't know if I want to do that for something larger despite the convenience of having it on my system at all times. What Gamestop, or someone I Iike more, should do is offer the digital copy as a pre-order bonus for the physical one, a digital gateway drug if you will, though I guess that would exist in the realm of conflict of interest so...

If this is true its quite a stark change for nintendo and probably will mean the Wii U will have a sort of sizable HDD. It kinda excites me to see Big N brave a whole new world for consoles on digital downloads. still concerned about refunds, are they tied to an account or console, is it same day release? lots of questions

@Dany said:

Impossible. This is Nintendo we're talking about. They don't know how to use the internet!

And here's the kicker: all Wii U software will be available digital AND retail from day one!

All coming from Nintendo's financial briefing so no speculation there.

Can't wait to NintenDownload it.

It is always good to have options and although I will always prefer retail, if a distributor is setting their own price and they have a good special on a game, then I would be crazy not to consider it.