Today's proclamation that the Nintendo Switch will be receiving a port from both the Bioshockand Borderlandsserial with a physical release was great news at commencement, but less so as details emerged about the way in which the developer is handling the physical copy.

On one mitt, physical releases are great for collectors who want to brandish their game, or for those who want to sell, trade, or allow friends borrow subsequently a game in the futurity. Unfortunately, we at present know that the cartridges are but coming with only some of the data and a hefty download for the full experience. This is non merely frustrating, it also limits the apply of a physical cartridge in the hereafter and makes united states wonder what the point of a physical release is if the implementation is then half-baked.

As Jason Schreier points out, Bioshock is packaged into a 16GB cartridge that contains only the opening acts of the games, with after content and add-ons needing to be downloaded;Borderlands comes on a 8GB cartridge with a vi.6GB required for Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, and a whopping 35GB for Borderlands 2and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

On the other end is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition. It serves as the gold standard of ports for the Nintendo Switch with developer CD Projekt Scarlet going higher up and across to provide non merely an excellent port, but besides putting everything onto i cartridge. They were the first to employ a 32GB cartridge for this purpose, and this is how all developers should treat concrete releases.

One reason that these newly-appear ports are so frustrating to run across is considering the costs saved by cut corners for Bioshock and Borderlands are passed directly onto the consumer. Fans now need to ensure they have adequate storage on top of a physical cartridge, which seems counter-intuitive.

Via: Youtube.com (Nintendo)

This is a bad business model for consumers in the long-term also. Eventually, these games will non be available for download when the developer no longer supports the game. That might be in ten years; It might be in twenty years. The point is that when someone purchases a physical good, there is an expectation that information technology will continue to work indefinitely exterior of breaking.

Everyone tin can still play their old NES, SNES, and GameCube games today because the cartridge contains the unabridged game. Ane could fence that those games are from another fourth dimension in gaming history, just information technology seems like selling only a part of the game without a way to ensure information technology is ever available is not progressing with technology, but going backwards instead.

Years from now a video game collector might exist showing off their Nintendo Switch library of physical titles, yet unable to play games that crave a download because support has ended. Put simply, it's a one-half-assed task, and consumers should reject it outright with their wallets.

Next: New Mobile Final Fantasy Tactics Game Available Now (But Y'all Might Be Disappointed)