That problem is solved with retailers being able to sell digital codes and set the prices for those codes.
Bomba bin code purchases.
That's what I was referring to: retail digital codes entering the world of competitive prices, despite still being digital. That's great for consumers. But I'd still like to see Nintendo price digital content accordingly, though I don't trust them to.
Yup. And as much as I adore them, I trust absolutely no one when it comes to digital distribution, including Nintendo. The temptation to give in to that profit motive is just too great. So it's physical for me for as long as possible.
I throw myself at the mercy of Valve, but only because I really do trust them. Steam owns, their services own, and I fully believe they have the consumer's best interests in mind. In the grand scheme of things there's always that worry if the service goes down for good you'll lose your games, but I don't believe Steam will in the forseeable future. It and GOG are the two big digital services that work wonderfully.
Nintendo's works well enough so far, in the sense they haven't screwed anybody, but like Microsoft and Sony I don't entirely trust their eShop plans. I think this is also due to the fact you're buying games for a closed, controlled environment. The open nature of PCs means all content tethered to my Steam account can be used anywhere, on any PC, from here until Valve is dead. 20 years from now I should still theoretically be able to download the games I bought last year, on my future awesome PC.
Consoles? Not so much. Even if it's account based, you're still potentially locked to playing your games on a singular system, which puts up a weird mental barrier in my head. I don't feel like I'm in complete control, and I don't like that.
I know this is unlikely, but what if Nintendo were to offer a buy back program where you can sell a game you bought on the eShop for, say, a third of the MSRP at the time of the trade in?
It wont happen. It would be neat, but not a big concern to me. I never trade in games. Rarely I'll sell them on eBay or something, but never trade. For me, the value of digital comes from control of my collection, accessibility and service, as well as competitive pricing. The cut Nintendo will get from digital sales will greatly outweigh retail, and I feel in a current market this needs to shape the price.
I'm okay with giving Nintendo my money because I like their games and the company's offerings. But I don't think it's fair they milk me for all I'm worth when I
know they could charge less.
Fingers crossed they price competitively. If they do, I'll probably buy online quite a bit.