#oneaday Day 559: Event horizon

I've been thinking recently: with all the annoyance and frustration over CEO after CEO saying that their game development studios are using generative AI in their work, are we finally at a point where one could actually completely stop buying new stuff, and subsist entirely on titles developed and released prior to this AI bullshit getting everywhere?

I'm pretty sure we are. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've been there for a while. I still buy a fair few new games, but right now, given the size of my physical and digital libraries, I'm pretty sure I could just flat-out stop buying games altogether and still have enough to keep me occupied until my dying day.

I mean, hell, just on Evercade there is somewhere in the region of 700 games. There are over a thousand games in my Steam library. Another 540 in my GOG.com library. In my physical collection, I have 422 Nintendo Switch games, 169 PlayStation 4 games, 147 Xbox 360 games, 92 PlayStation 3 games, 282 PlayStation 2 games and plenty more besides. On the MiSTer Multisystem 2 I have every game from pretty much every platform I care about from the Atari 2600 up until the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64. I really could stop buying games today and I would still be entertained until the end of time. Hell, I think I could probably get by on Doom and Final Fantasy VII replays.

Part of me wants to try doing this, but a certain degree of FOMO prevents me from committing to it entirely, because I know there are games in the pipeline that I definitely want: the third Final Fantasy VII reboot; Ace Combat 8; the Trails in the Sky: 2nd Chapter remake. The limited print publishing companies — which, honestly, is where I buy the majority of my games from these days anyway — have been doing a great run of physical versions of otherwise digital-only games that I want to play, and new versions of games I enjoyed back in the day, but which are a pain to get up and running on modern PCs.

I think we have reached a sort of "event horizon" similar to that found in other media, where enthusiasts of the medium can comfortably drift away from the mainstream, popular, current side of things and subsist entirely on niche interest material from the past that they find personally resonant. This absolutely happens in other forms of creative media — there are people who enjoy listening to music who never touch chart hits; there are people who love movies who have never seen a "blockbuster"; there are people who love reading who read nothing but classic literature.

So I think what I'm going to do is not necessarily commit to a complete purchasing blackout, for the reasons I've already outlined. I am still going to buy whatever the third Final Fantasy VII remake project game is; I am still going to buy Ace Combat 8; I am still going to buy any limited-print games that come up which I have been eagerly awaiting a physical copy of.

But what I am going to do is curtail impulse purchases. A significant portion of the physical library I own I picked up because I knew I wanted to play the games in question someday, and when that day rolled around I didn't want to find myself in a situation where it would cost three figures (or more) to be able to do so. I already feel a great sense of regret from the day I traded in my copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PlayStation, and I have no desire to feel that way again.

What I do find myself feeling to an increasing degree from modern video game publishers and developers, though, is… nothing. Honestly, I just looked through the list of everything announced at the recent The Game Awards, and the only thing that registered even a slight twinge of excitement for me was Ace Combat 8. Everything else just sort of drifted past me and I had no particularly strong feelings about it. And the recent behaviour of Larian Studios' head honcho has put me right off wanting to get caught up on the Divinity series.

So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to finish all the "finishable" games I have on the go right now, which includes Yakuza 5, Death end re;Quest Code Z, an Ace Combat 7 replay, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Cyberpunk 2077. I'm already giving myself anxiety by having so many half-finished games on the go, some of which I haven't touched for months, so I want to check all these off my list because I've been enjoying all of them and want to see them all through to their respective conclusions.
Throughout the year, I'm going to buy anything that I already know I want without guilt. That includes the stuff I've already mentioned, plus any surprise announcements in series that I follow and appreciate, or from companies that I consistently enjoy the work of.
Throughout the year, I'm also going to buy any limited-print stuff that I already know I want. This primarily includes previously digital-only stuff that has been out for a while, and modern rereleases of titles I loved in the past like Heretic, Hexen and the System Shock games.
I am not going to buy games just because I see them while browsing a shopping site and think "ooh, that looks interesting", because these are the things that end up on the shelf and don't get played for literally years at at a time.
I am not going to buy games for previous-generation platforms unless I know they are games that I have already played and want to revisit, or games that I never got the chance to try back in the day.

I say all the above with the caveat that if something like this year's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 comes along and surprises everyone, I reserve the right to jump in and explore it for myself. While I was initially cynical about that game when it first appeared, it ended up being one of my top games of the year. (Conversely, I really didn't like Blue Prince at all.)

This might all sound a bit half-arsed and I freely admit that it is. But I wanted to acknowledge the feelings of… discontent that I have with the current direction of video games while still allowing myself the opportunity to enjoy the things that I am looking forward to.

I love video games, you see. Love them. And I always will.

I'm just not sure I love Video Games That Were Made In 2025 And Beyond, going by some of the recent happenings.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

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#oneaday Day 377: Course correction

A report came out today that suggested the third-party titles which launched alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 have been somewhat underperforming, and physical retailers in particular have noted, to no-one's surprise, that no-one wants to buy those dumbass Game Key Cards. If someone wants to buy a physical game, they want the actual game.

Now, there are likely multiple explanations for this situation, just one of which is the Game Key Card thing. The other is the fact that many of the third-party titles for the Switch 2 launch are games that are already at least several years old — things like Cyberpunk 2077, Bravely Default and Yakuza Zero being the main examples. Granted, each of those things have new features for their Switch 2 incarnations, but they're still games that are 5+ years old, and which have been widely available on other platforms since their launch. There's only really Bravely Default that isn't super-easy to get hold of any more, and even that's no more than £20 or so for a second-hand 3DS copy.

The optimist in me would like to think that both Nintendo and the third-party publishers who have been trying to push Game Key Cards will see the under-performance of these launch titles as a wake-up call, realise they fucked up and make an effort to reverse course. In an ideal world, I would love to see all the launch titles reissued on full, proper cartridges, no downloads required.

I also know that we do not live in an ideal world. In fact, some might say we live in one of the worst timelines imaginable, and as such I do not think it particularly unreasonable to think that one of two things will actually happen: 1) Nintendo and the third parties plug their ears, go "la la la" and hope that people will just suck up Game Key Cards given no other option, or 2) Nintendo and the third parties go "welp, that didn't work" and pull out of physical releases altogether.

Of the two, I think 1) is the most likely outcome, because Nintendo themselves appear mostly committed to doing actual proper cartridges for their own games. Mario Kart World comes on one, for example, and the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza does, too, as do the "Nintendo Switch 2 Version" rereleases of stuff like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom and suchlike. We've also seen no indication that titles like Metroid Prime 4 will be coming on Game Key Cards.

The issue, I'm told, is that there are actually only two options for publishers to release games physically on Switch: 64GB "full" cartridges, and 1GB Game Key Cards. And the trouble with the 64GB ones is that they're expensive, so even if a game could easily fit on one of them — like Bravely Default — a lot of publishers are baulking at both the extra cost to them, and the consequent business need to pass that cost onto consumers via higher prices. We're already seeing some resistance to things like Mario Kart World costing £75 — quite right, too — and so it's understandable that publishers would hesitate to go down a path that would require them to charge a high price in order to make their money back. To the Game Key Cards' credit, any games released in this way are a bit cheaper — but you're still talking at least £30-35 for most.

No-one has really said exactly why the 64GB cards for Switch 2 are so expensive, but it's presumably to do with them being based on the high-speed access that SD Card Express offers. A 256GB SD Card Express is a lot more expensive than a regular old SD Card of the same capacity, and if the Switch 2 carts are based on the same tech — which one would assume they are, otherwise why would the system require SD Card Express for digital downloads? — then that means that faster flash memory is pricier in general.

There's also the capacity question: 64GB is probably not enough for some modern games, since file sizes for triple-A titles have been ballooning over the 100GB mark for quite some time now. That said, if Cyberpunk 2077 can fit on a 64GB card, I feel like most other things probably can, too. And if not, well, game developers should rediscover the incredible art of compression. The games industry in general used to be really good at that — look at the amazing stuff you could fit on a single floppy disk in the 16-bit era! — but it feels like it just hasn't been a priority for developers in more recent years. After all, if the capacity is there, might as well use it, right…? Maybe it's time to get out of that mindset.

There's not really an easy solution then, though I suspect people would be at least a bit more open to paying a little more for their games if they knew they were absolutely, definitely getting the full game, complete on cartridge. Of course, these days there are things like patches, content updates and DLC to consider also, with many physical releases from the previous generation already being of questionable archival value as a result, one might say this is something of a losing battle.

Not all hope is completely lost, however; several of the limited-print companies such as Strictly Limited Games and Lost In Cult have committed to releasing their stuff on full Switch 2 cartridges, and I have little doubt that others will follow. Given that a significant portion of my Switch 1 library consists of titles from publishers like this, that makes me feel a little better. It is, however, disappointing to see companies like NIS America announcing things like new entries in the Trails series as being on Game Key Cards. Given that there's a strong crossover between those who enjoy niche-interest stuff like Japanese role-playing games and those who buy a lot of physical games — as my own shelves will attest — this feels like an intensely foolish thing to do.

It's early days, so I'm not ready to write physical gaming's obituary just yet. But I hope the data we've seen today actually causes some people to sit up, take notice and ponder if they might not be just a little better off doing things slightly differently.

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#oneaday Day 321: My Switch 2 concerns

I still have my preorder in for a Nintendo Switch 2 and I'm looking forward to having a play with it. But I am quite concerned about some things that seem to be cropping up in these initial pre-launch months.

Chief among these is the "Game Key Card" thing. For the unfamiliar, this is effectively a replacement for the "code-in-a-box" nonsense some publishers pulled with Switch games, where you'd buy a "physical release" and get nothing more than a box with a voucher for the digital version of the game in it. The box was then completely useless because there was nothing to put in it. The sole justification for this, one might argue, is that it allows "digital" games to be given as gifts. But only the ones that have actually had this treatment, of course.

Game Key Cards is… possibly a step forwards from this, but still not in any way desirable. Effectively how they work is that they're a cartridge you put in your Switch 2, and this then automatically causes the digital version of the game to download from the eShop. There are a few justifications for this: it keeps costs down while still allowing for a boxed release of sorts, which in turn can be given as a gift just like code-in-a-box.

Unlike code-in-a-box, however, Game Key Cards are transferable. They need to be in the Switch 2 to play the game even once it's downloaded, and they can be loaned, traded or sold to others. This is arguably an improvement in that they make digital purchases more portable — you can take a game over to a friend's house, for example, although one might argue the inherently portable nature of the Switch 2 makes this a moot point anyway — but one suspects it is going to be used by a lot of companies as an excuse for cost-cutting.

We're already starting to see a number of games that have announced their "physical" release will be on one of these Game Key Cards, with no other option than the digital-only version. As a collector of physical media, neither of these options are desirable.

Some have conjectured that this situation has arisen because Switch 2 carts are, supposedly, expensive — like, $16 a unit expensive. That means once companies have paid their cut to Nintendo, paid manufacturing costs, paid marketing expenses and everything else that goes into making a game, there potentially won't be much left for games sold around the £30-40 mark. This is, apparently — and remember this is mostly hearsay at the moment — the reason that physical releases like Mario Kart World are £70 or more.

Thing is, I'm not sure I understand why they're so expensive. They're essentially flash carts. Admittedly, in the case of Switch 2, they're high-speed flash carts, which are slightly newer (and thus more pricey) tech. But $16 a unit for something that supposedly only goes up to 64GB seems… high. (Oh yes, that's seemingly the other reason some are going for the Game Key Card approach — games such as Street Fighter 6 flat-out won't fit on one.)

I've long said that if a console generation arose that was digital-only, I would probably bow out and stick to my existing library of games — which, as most of you probably know, is pretty enormous. Nintendo, whose consoles have long been a champion of physical media — Switch 1 carts are the only releases of the current(ish) generation that don't require lengthy installs before you can play — seem to be pushing towards that all-digital future that I'm not sure anyone really wants, particularly those involved in a hobby that has always been, to some degree, about collecting.

I'm willing to give Switch 2 a chance. I'm even getting the bundle with the digital version of Mario Kart World included — I figure as a game with an online component, it's probably going to have regular updates and/or DLC, making the physical edition useless after a while anyway — but I'm still a bit concerned.

I guess one thing worth waiting to see is what the limited-press physical houses do — if anything — with Nintendo Switch 2. A significant portion of my Switch 1 library consists of limited-print physical releases of games that would have otherwise been digital-only. If that situation continues, then I think I'll be all right. I know some folks hate the limited-print stuff, but I suspect it's going to become an increasing reality of video game collecting in the coming years. We'll have to see, I guess.

I wish we could just be excited for New Thing. It feels like a long time since we've been able to be unreservedly excited for New Thing. The last few New Things we've had — particularly in gaming — seem to have had particularly big caveats involved, and Switch 2 is no exception.

Think back to the run-up to the PlayStation 2's launch. Nothing but excitement. A new system that could produce incredible visuals, could take full advantage of the new DVD format for storage, and which was fully (almost) backwards-compatible with the previous PlayStation? Sure, the price was a sticking point for some, but that came down. And the PS2 went on to be one of the most beloved systems of all time, with good reason.

I wonder if the last couple of generations of console hardware are even going to have a legacy to leave behind once their digital services are turned off.

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#oneaday Day 299: Switch 2 Tax

It was the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal today. And while there's a lot to like about the system — 1080p and up to 120fps handheld, 4K docked, HDR, nifty online socialisation functions, upgrades to certain Switch games that include both a performance boost and new stuff for the games — one thing is giving me a lot of pause that I wasn't feeling before the announcement.

And that one thing is the price of games. As someone who collects physical video games, I naturally will want to continue doing that for any new console hardware I pick up. But the new Mario Kart is seventy-five fucking pounds for a physical version, and the new Donkey Kong game is sixty-six quid.

Donkey Kong is just on the borderline of what I'll consider paying if the game is legitimately good (and it's a real borderline case here as I don't really like Donkey Kong as a character), but more than £70 for a game that will almost certainly also have paid DLC is well over that line for me. I'm sure Mario Kart World, as the new game is called, will be very good, and I'm quite curious to play it — but £75 to have a copy on my shelf (and not much less than that for a digital-only version) feels… excessive. And I'm someone who voluntarily pays £35 to limited-print companies for £10 indie games just so I can have them on my shelf.

This feels like a mistake for Nintendo. It feels like it might put all the goodwill they built up with the Switch at serious risk of unravelling. I'm sure they will justify it by saying the new cartridges are higher capacity, the tech is more advanced or whatever, but it still feels like… a lot.

Couple that with the fact that while the launch lineup looked neat, there wasn't a singular game that made me go "yes, give it to me, I need this right now". We had a bunch of very welcome ports of stuff like Hitman: World of Assassination, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (though no mention of Rebirth, interestingly) and numerous others, a Bravely Default remaster that I've been hoping we'd see for quite some time, the aforementioned new Mario Kart and Donkey Kong games, and a few other bits and pieces that were perfectly nice enough, but not really "system sellers" for me.

Not yet, anyway. I have no doubt I'll probably end up with a Switch 2 eventually. But today's announcement makes me feel like I probably don't need one at launch. Probably. Probably.

There's a few days until preorders open. I will have to mull it over quite seriously. Quite seriously indeed. In the meantime, though, it's not as if I'm short of regular-ass Switch games to play, including a selection of pretty chunky RPGs I still haven't gotten to.

So we'll wait and see, I guess. It was a good presentation, and there's a lot to like about Switch 2. But I feel like a lot of people who were all set to preorder day one are now having very serious thoughts about the situation, just like I am. I feel like this should have been an easy win for Nintendo, but as it stands, they could potentially have a problem here.

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#oneaday Day 84: Modern gaming is great

It's very easy to be cynical about the state of modern gaming if all you pay attention to is triple-A. There are a bajillion YouTube videos on this very subject. I even made my own counterpoint, which you can enjoy here if you see fit:

Fact is, though, if you look outside all the identikit Live Service open-world player retention monetised-out-the-wazoo triple-A space (and the indie darlings who desperately wish they were part of that space), we've never had it so good.

We're living in a world where, in 2024, there is a brand new Famicom Detective Club game out now, with an English version and a physical release. I bought it, because I really enjoyed the modernised versions of the first two. (You can read my thoughts on them here and here, and some more detailed thoughts on this new third entry will follow soon.)

We're living in a world where preservation of retro games is not just taking place in the form of rereleases — and it's great that that is happening in itself — but also in the form of fantastic "museum-style" pieces featuring interactive historical artifacts, video clips and all manner of other goodness.

We're living in a world where Japanese games we once thought would never be localised are readily available in English — and with gorgeous big-box physical releases just like PC games from 25 years ago.

We're living in a world where all the mainline Yakuza/Like A Dragon games are available in English, which I'm sure makes the guy who used to harass me on MoeGamer because he thought anime-style games were stopping Yakuza games from getting localised mad for some reason.

And, of course, we're living in a world where thanks to emulation and related solutions, everyone has easy access to pretty much every game ever made, so if you ever claim you have "nothing to play" you really only have your own boring ass to blame.

There's plenty that's shit, of course. The aforementioned live service games. Perpetually unfinished releases with endless "roadmaps". The scourge that is Game Pass. The death of traditional games journalism, particularly magazines. The general standard of "discourse" online (or lack thereof) surrounding video games. All of that sucks fat horse dick.

But a lot of it also doesn't matter. Because you can shout and scream and yell about how shit you think "modern gaming" is… or you can actually engage with "modern gaming" until you figure out that it's much, much more than just the incredibly shit bits. And the sooner you leave the incredibly shit bits behind — and yes, it absolutely is possible to do so, I have done since about 2010 and have been eating well games-wise ever since — you'll find things better than ever.

So close that Twitter window where you're complaining about Helldivers II or whatever, and boot up a copy of, say, Emio: The Smiling Man. And don't look back.

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