Putting aside for a moment its value as a discovery tool and historical resource for younger gamers who weren’t alive in the 8-, 16-, and 64-bit eras, it’s the idea of losing access that drives the passionate market for physical games and causes many of us to look upon any subscription service with a raised eyebrow. That access to a game on PSN or Game Pass or NSO could be revoked with little warning makes many of us anxious.
So what’s the solution? As we’ve discussed before, why not supplement the subscription service with a digital store that lets us buy the games, too? Why not additionally give players the option to buy any game outright?
The business realities here are that even with the emulator up and running, the return on investment on sales of, say, Super Soccer might not be worth the expense of drawing up the paperwork for Spike Chunsoft or Nintendo. Even with the framework just sitting there ready for the ROM, accountants might still look at the cost versus benefit and just not see the value.
Yet with the existing eShop, with its payment systems active and everything operating for the foreseeable future, surely it wouldn’t be a massive investment to partition a small section and devote it to NSO games? There must be a small revenue stream to tap into for people who aren’t interested in a subscription service but who would pay a reasonable price to buy those games on an individual basis.
And there’s the problem: Nintendo wants to drive you to NSO, and if the only reason you’re maintaining a subscription is for continued access to Yoshi’s Island or a handful of other retro games, a one-time purchase of a few titles isn’t sufficiently attractive compared to a rolling, renewable subscription that many people forget they’re signed up to. It’s streaming platform 101.
If a game’s getting delisted, though, Nintendo could get a lot of subscription naysayers on board by simply offering the game for sale on the eShop once it’s disappeared. For some, a separate digital purchase wouldn’t be attractive, either — some players would only want it on a physical game card — but offering a method for fans to put their money where their mouth is would put minds at ease. Super Soccer might not be a great loss to you personally, but for some Switch owners it’s a treasured childhood classic. Its sudden removal is a kick in the shins.
Removing access to any game, regardless of its personal significance or overall quality, is a blow to us all, though. Technologically speaking, there’s nothing to stop these games going on sale – Nintendo has the emulation, the servers, and the payment systems in place already. It also has the clout and resources to work through any backroom business issues and ensure that as many games as possible remain playable on Switch in whatever form satisfies all parties.
Right now, it’s players that lose out. If, as company president Shuntaro Furukawa has said multiple times in investor Q&As, Nintendo is serious about adding value to NSO as it continues on Switch 2, removing games isn’t the answer. If the business realities around these services make maintaining access impossible, the answer seems obvious: let people pay for them.
