Console Digital Downloads 0

by Adam Blue • Editorial

Messing with my Wii over the weekend, I saw a great deal of old-school games on the Virtual Console that I love. I like the idea of having all of my favorite games stored in one place for easy access, especially Shmups. The VC has a ton of them. But my thought was, let’s say I buy a ton of games and the Wii store shuts down, or the next console requires you to buy them again? These are just thoughts. I’ve been using Steam for quite a while and feel confident with that system, but it is one platform that is constantly being updated through the years. Five years from now, I’m sure PC games will still be played on a PC using Windows, but what about the Wii?

I guess you can say the same goes for XBLA and PSN. I have faith in Microsoft and their distribution of games, but for some reason I’m scared of Nintendo. Sony gets props for having PSN titles played on both PS3 and PSP. Although Nintendo does allow games to be stored on an SD card which should be easily hackable if need be; the bigger kicker here would be the ability to play VC games on the DS as well.

But this goes into another issue – ROMs. If I own a game and it somehow becomes inaccessible to me, wouldn’t it be ok for me to have a ROM, or possibly even a pirated copy, backed up? Do the terms recognize that use? I think some terms indicate they have the ability to pull a game from use at anytime, much like EA’s original digital distribution service. And I know most require an internet connection for a game to be played, but does the Wii?

Maybe there are answers to most of these questions, but I’m just used to the years and years of collecting physical copies. I enjoy that. I welcome in digital distribution, and find it to work great on the PC, but I still question the consoles. Any thoughts on this?

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