January 27th, 2012

There may be full retail games available for download on the Wii U, says Iwata

21 Comments

Satoru Iwata, when speaking at a recent investor meeting has shared that Nintendo is “considering the future possibility of digital distribution of packaged software” for both for the 3DS and the Wii U. This is a fancy way of saying that you may be able to purchase full retail games via the consoles instead of going to retail store.

In regards to the 3DS, they “already have the necessary infrastructure” to do this, and will do the same for the Wii U before it launches, but the decision to launch it:

…must be made by taking into consideration such factors as the relationship with the wholesalers and retailers, and the best way to be embraced by consumers

So, it might not launch with the Wii U unless Nintendo can figure out the details. But it’s still great that this seems like it’ll happening at some point in the next year or so.

  • bob

    I don't know if the 3DS has enough memory for this, but it could be cool for Wii U. Then you could buy a game without leaving your home. :)

  • http://macromanjr.blogspot.com/ Brian L.

    Iwata = Boss. That is all.

  • http://www.moonkitty.net Brad

    Am thinking the next version of the 3DS will have a much bigger memory capacity for this (in addition to an extra circle pad).

  • Dr. D

    These last 3 articles about the Wii U have been the best in terms of Nintendo finally getting smart and really turning around for the better, especially after reading that stupid article on Yahoo news about how Nintendo is doomed. Keep up the good ideas!

  • skywake

    @bob
    Depends on how big your SD card is because that's where your downloadable software is stored. The 3DS could do it if the people who wanted to do it went out and got 8-32GB SD cards before they did ;)

    Oh, and the Wii U apparently supports external HDDs. Damn good, get a 2TB drive because they're cheap. How many games will that hold? :D

  • http://passid.ca/joshm Joshua

    That's an interesting idea. However, I will still prefer purchasing physical games from retailer stores. Nothing beats a new, fresh game case!

  • Perry

    You know what's awesome? The fact that I will have a Wii U (or hopefully a different name) in my home in less than 11 months.

  • http://msn.com Brandon Matthews

    I second that Joshua! :)

  • The Video Gamer

    This'll definitely be handy for 3DS since it's a struggle bringing around a bunch of boxes with handheld but Wii U since I still like boxes I'll proably still go retail on Wii U. With 3DS I guess it'll depend on how good the box art is.

  • Alex Atkin UK

    They better get some good encryption in the Wii U if they plan to do this as the ONLY way it would work is on external HDDs.

    No point in going digital if you can only fit one game per SD card so still have to switch media. ;)

    I wish they had gone digital from the onset with 3DS though as its a real PITA carrying around even a few games because they either take up a huge amount of space, or risk losing them if they are loose in your pocket.

  • theN

    David, look into NFC and RFID.
    It'll make a great article, if you look them up and read that one slide in the investors briefing.
    You'd also be the first to have an article about it.
    Nobody seems to have picked up on the little NFC tidbit Iwata dropped.

  • http://1227.com Davidude

    Good idea for the 3DS! You can buy a game late night, and then you can download it over night with spotpass!
    But it would fill a crapload of space on the SD Card!

  • Craig

    The only problem being… It's the recession and as much as we want to get things without retailers profits added, we'll see a huge decline of retailers due to things like this. In the UK… Virgin Megastores, Zavvi and now HMV have all closed or will be closing down stores. HMV is the only one left really and they're the only places to really get music, games, films, magazines, game/music clothing and gadgets – they're awesome stores that WILL be effected by this stuff.

  • Tak

    I used to prefer the smell of new games, but the joy of not having to stand up when changing the game has brought me into the modern world of less oil tankers sunk for vain plastic packaging.

  • theN

    HMV are in administration aren't they?
    Zavvi operate online.
    The Bricks and Mortar stores will die off a little, but they'll be back when the companies can turn a profit again.
    You don't need dedicated music/game stores anyway, supermarkets are cheaper and usually have the same stuff.

  • Navybro

    Hmm, idea: What if the downloaded games go on a game card that goes in the same place as the other single-game card/-tridges? Kinda like those DS carts that can hold DS roms, only these will be officially licensed carts, encrypted against anything that's not downloadable from the E-shop. =P AND have enough memory for at least several titles or so. (wonder how expensive this kind of cart would be. . . ) (not counting the cost of the game downloads themselves)

  • Trulaw

    The problem is that developers may shrink the size of their games to make a downloadable version feasible.

  • the dark hero

    I'm only expecting this when games. are hard to find
    I perfer physical copys if their available
    plus id dont have any space 4 that on my 3ds SD card

  • Terravexo

    So could this mean that steam on the Wii U is a possibility?

  • http://passid.ca/joshm Joshua

    I swear, that is the face of Nintendo right there.
    Iwata's face shines with hope, determination, will and 1UP's all the way.

  • Gulliver

    i hope they have a system similiar to ps3 where you can store your psp games downloaded from psn on your ps3. a system like that would help with the small amount of storage on the 3DS.

    or go one better and have it cloud based so no matter what device you use you have acess to all your stuff where ever you go.