Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads and 'MSPO' for the franchise

T

The Outrage

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
13,731
Reaction score
1,775
3DS Digital Downloads
Nintendo - 'Majority' of Nintendo-published 3DS/Wii U titles will be packaged retail/digital | GoNintendo - What are YOU waiting for?

Nintendo is aiming to significantly expand its digital business. In August, New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS system will launch both as a packaged game at retail stores and as a digital download in the Nintendo eShop. The majority of Nintendo-published Nintendo 3DS games will have the same dual-distribution strategy. Likewise, the majority of Nintendo-published Wii U games will be available both as packaged products and as digital downloads starting on launch day.

These downloadable games will also be available for purchase at participating retail stores and on retailers' websites. Our customers can visit retail outlets or their online shopping sites, look for the products they want and pay for the product there. The retailers will then provide shoppers with a 16-digit code that can be exchanged in the Nintendo eShop for the game. This will give shoppers more options to find and purchase their favorite games. - Nintendo statement

Wow...this seems like an absolutely huge step for Nintendo to make. To go from not offering much with online content to this kind of support. The 3DS really got Nintendo's digital ball rolling!
Click to expand...
One of the most immediate applications I've seen for this is transferability of DS Pokemon to the 3DS. We know that we only required one DS to transfer from III-->IV, but required a second for IV-->V. While the DS and 3DS can communicate with each other, allowing for a digital copy allows for the same scenario as Gen IV, allowing for both DS and 3DS games to co-exist on the same system. I am thinking that this would allow one not only to transfer Pokémon directly from BW to 3DS, but maybe even from DPPt.

As for the hard copies, they may either utilize the same system as Gen IV's transfer machine, or given the 3DS's capabilities, perhaps a hard copy could initiate a download of a separate channel (kind of like how Mario Kart can download MK-Channel onto your Wii), in which you can activate when you have a DS cartridge inserted, and temporarily hold your DS Pokemon as they wait to be sent to your 3DS.

'Massively Single Player Online' games
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/13/nintendo-files-patent-for-massively-single-playing-online-games/
Playing games online can be a mixed bag of fantastic and horrible experiences, depending on what you're playing. If you're lucky, the game you're interested in has an active, helpful community of friendly people, eager to help new players become members of the neighborhood. If you're unlucky, however, your online gaming experience may take a decidedly different, far less enjoyable form.

Nintendo, seemingly aware of the perils of interpersonal interaction online, have filed a patent for a "Massively Single-Playing Online Game," which aims to provide all of the benefits of a persistant online world, without any of the drawbacks associated with other people. The general idea is that a player's actions will affect various gameplay mechanics for all other players, much like in traditional MMOs, however the players will never actually interact with each other. A player may build themselves a house in a persistant world, for instance, and while other players can find the house, they cannot find its creator.

The Big N also gave economic examples, wherein a player's actions may increase or decrease the scarcity/value of an item for all players across the board. NPC interaction was also pointed to as a way for players to communicate with each other indirectly, with computer-controlled characters acting as messengers.

It's important to remember that technology companies like Nintendo file patent applications on a fairly regular basis, and that this application's existence doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be seeing this kind of gameplay implemented into anything anytime soon. It's also important to remember that a Pokemon game using this technology would be off the chain.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

That would be cool, I've held onto my old DS Lite just so that I can easily transfer Pokemon to new games on my 3DS, it would be cool to see a way to do it with only one 3DS.
 
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

Hm, the idea is neat. But trading and battling is mostly encouraged to be done between two friends, not exactly trading with oneself. I mean it isn't unheard of people to "trade with themselves", I do it myself, but trading and battling is still mostly something that Game Freak envisioned to be done between two or more people. They envisioned it as a social thing. So I'm not too sure if I can see this sort of thing happening.

And off-topic, but I'm super glad to hear that Nintendo is considering doing both retail and digital. Having no wifi in the house myself, I don't want games to be solely digital downloads.
 
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

Isamu Akai said:
Hm, the idea is neat. But trading and battling is mostly encouraged to be done between two friends, not exactly trading with oneself. I mean it isn't unheard of people to "trade with themselves", I do it myself, but trading and battling is still mostly something that Game Freak envisioned to be done between two or more people. They envisioned it as a social thing. So I'm not too sure if I can see this sort of thing happening.
Click to expand...
Nothing here is suggesting trading between friends is not occurring, what's happening here is basically a suggestion of what's happened with the DS and GBA games. The Poke Transfer machine isn't even trading between friends but a convoluted way to get your old Pokemon to the current games.

Anyway, edited the title with a different topic I wanted to talk about too.
 
That's an idea... not sure how realistic it would be though. For one thing, it'd only be advantageous to players who buy digital copies of games rather than hard copies (so it would be unfair to fans who choose not to purchase the digital copies, who are unable to purchase the digital copies, or fans like all of us who already own hard copies and are less likely to buy the digital copy just for this new feature... I mean, really, how realistic is it to expect that if they re-release Generation IV and V as downloads that there'd really be a large market for them (besides people who have missed out on purchasing them back when the hard copies were available)).
Is it a bad idea? No. But it will only benefit a small group of customers so I doubt it's likely to happen (especially since current problems, such as the GTS, which would be easy fixes aren't even being handled).

As for the second idea involving the hard copies... that's already possible. They could make an application for the 3DS which you can transfer your Pokémon to from a Generation IV card, then remove the card and put in your Generation V card and transfer the Pokémon from the application to Generation V. But they have not done it yet or even indicated that they will do it... I find it unlikely that they even think it matters since trading with oneself is already possible (although it requires 2 DSs).

About the Massively Single Player Online RPG... I don't really like that concept much at all. If it's going to be online and the world can be impacted by other people, why not include interaction with other people? Is it a concern of "some MMORPGs have jerks that get online and start cursing at other players" or "some people use MMORPGs for their own private services, such as chatting, advertising, piracy, etc." or "we don't want to be responsible for a kid who gets murdered / kidnapped / raped / harrassed by giving his address away to a criminal on our online service"? Or is it a technical concern (like they dont believe that the DS can handle several players online at once withour running slowly, etc.)?

Offtopic -
And off-topic, but I'm super glad to hear that Nintendo is considering doing both retail and digital. Having no wifi in the house myself, I don't want games to be solely digital downloads.
Click to expand...
I'm also glad they will continue to sell hard copies when they switch over to digital copies, and I do have access to wifi. There's a lot of downsides to digital stuff... first off, you can't pay with cash... second off, if the DS gets lost or stolen then so do all your games... third off, the amount of games you can have depends on the size of the DS's hard drive (or flash memory or whatever it uses)... fourth off, if you've read the terms then they say that Nintendo has the right to take money out of your account or not give you games that you've paid for and not even need to refund you for it... the list goes on.
 
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

The Outrage said:
Isamu Akai said:
Hm, the idea is neat. But trading and battling is mostly encouraged to be done between two friends, not exactly trading with oneself. I mean it isn't unheard of people to "trade with themselves", I do it myself, but trading and battling is still mostly something that Game Freak envisioned to be done between two or more people. They envisioned it as a social thing. So I'm not too sure if I can see this sort of thing happening.
Click to expand...
Nothing here is suggesting trading between friends is not occurring, what's happening here is basically a suggestion of what's happened with the DS and GBA games. The Poke Transfer machine isn't even trading between friends but a convoluted way to get your old Pokemon to the current games.

Anyway, edited the title with a different topic I wanted to talk about too.
Click to expand...

Okay, now I see. I misread.

That said,

No I do not want digital downloads for the main Pokemon games, or at least not have them solely be digital downloads.
 
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

Isamu Akai said:
No I do not want digital downloads for the main Pokemon games, or at least not have them solely be digital downloads.
Click to expand...

Nintendo's certainly not planning on taking such action. Their initial problems with digital downloads was the accessibility for their younger players. Given Pokémon's audience, they will likely not consider exclusive digital downloads, however, the article proposes dual distribution via digital download and hard copies. This actually lets the game be more accessible to younger fans who would have trouble with digital downloads, and older fans who would prefer them (or feel awkward for going to the store to buy them, but I'm not sure how big that population is)


@dannyjenn;

The way MSPO seems to be set up seems similar to how mixing records work with the current games already. If they combine this with main-series games, I'm wondering if there would be an option to be constantly online, and thus getting updates from other player's games who are also online, without having to suffer from the normal lag you'd experience by having to be connected to people with worse connections.
 
Doesn't the Dream World kind of do the second part already? (regardless of anyone's personal opinion on it...)
 
I think what would be awesome (in theory) is if they had a legendary Pokémon and made him extremely rare or een one-of-a-kind and put him in the multi-player world... then it would be a race between al trainers to get to it first and capture it before anyone else does.
In pratice this would be an awful idea... incredibly unfair for anyone who doesn't get lucky and to anyone who buys the game late (even a single day late may make all the difference). And it would be difficult to implement... if 2 players see the Pokémon on the overworld but one person enters battle then what would happen when the second person presses A on the Pokémon? And there'd really be no point if the game wasn't multiplayer, since the person who does catch the Pokémon doesn't get any bragging rights / isn't able to use it to have the advantage in battle, etc.
 
Personally, I wouldn't like it if a main series Pokémon game became a full on MMORPG or MSORPG. I wouldn't mind if there was a special area that was basically an MSORPG though (I think an MMORPG might be too much to handle xD).

In regards to 3DS digital downloads though, if Pokémon titles are included in it (I assume they will be, after all, they are published by Nintendo) I do hope they make it possible for players to transfer Pokémon from one game to another with only one 3DS console (even if it can only be unlocked after a certain point). If they don't, I'll be facepalming for the rest of eternity.
 
Re: Implications of 3DS Digital Downloads for the franchise

The Outrage said:
This actually lets the game be more accessible to younger fans who would have trouble with digital downloads, and older fans who would prefer them (or feel awkward for going to the store to buy them, but I'm not sure how big that population is).
Click to expand...

Well the number of people who don't want to support Gamestop at all is probably pretty sizable, so that could be another source of digital download revenue.
 
Joshawott said:
Personally, I wouldn't like it if a main series Pokémon game became a full on MMORPG or MSORPG. I wouldn't mind if there was a special area that was basically an MSORPG though (I think an MMORPG might be too much to handle xD).
Click to expand...
I don't understand this though. Regarding what MSO's are being described, their essentially what we play in the games now, except with a possibility of live updating of your games based on what your friends have done if you have Wi-Fi on. We can already see a preliminary version of that through Entralink. I think that MSORPG is the next logical step. I'm really thinking this patent was made just so Nintendo can make online games like MMO's without the hassle of actually interacting with people.
 
Please note: The thread is from 14 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom