It’s clear what Microsoft thinks of game ownership—the Xbox One’s policies don’t communicate much of a belief in it. Sony scored a lot of points on Monday, but to be fair, it was a defense of the status quo. Where does Nintendo come down on the subject?
Miyamoto drew the metaphor from the idea that Nintendo is “almost like a toy company where we’re making these things for people to play with.” But it’s a very useful counterpoint to those who think a game license versus a game ownership is no big deal—those who think no one will care about the games they bought today when the servers are turned off in 10 years. (As Halo 2 itself showed, people do care.)
https://lastchance.cc/the-last-man-to-play-halo-2-on-xbox-live-5535672%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
That said, Nintendo could take an additional step toward this toy-ownership ideal. As it stands, you may transfer digital content you own from machine to machine only. If your Wii U or 3DS is lost, stolen or fried, there’s no way to pull down what you purchased from the cloud—as you can, incidentally, with an Xbox Live or PlayStation Network account. Nintendo’s been forgiving in very extreme cases, but it would be nice to see them finally take that step.
https://lastchance.cc/nintendo-fan-is-happy-with-nintendo-s-620-answer-to-hi-5983360%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Miyamoto: Nintendo’s game ownership policy should operate “like a toy company” [Eurogamer]
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