During his Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo revealed that some switch 2 cartridges game key cards will be cards. Instead of storing the game, these cartridges only work as the key to unlocking the title download in question.
Such first game key cards are now listed for pre -order, including Switch 2 version of Yakuza 0, Hitman: World of Murder: Signature Edition, and Maden 26. More sports are expected to be followed.
“This is a bit disappointing,” says Stephen Cook, CEO of Remaster Specialist Night Dive Studios. “You will hope that a company that has a big, such as a floor history, will take protection a bit seriously.”
The problem is that at some point in the future, Nintendo’s Switch 2 Aship Servers will be offered off-as Wii U and 3DS Eshops were closed-that the game key card will be slightly higher than useless pieces of plastic. At this time, the only way to access these games will be through consoles in which the code has already been downloaded.
Jon Paul Dyeson, director of the International Electronic Games at the Strong Museum of New York’s Rochester, says it is another step in the “inevitable” all -digital future. “Nintendo, in some ways, was the slowest one of the major console producers.”
Professor James Newman, Game Development Leader and co -founder at Baths Spa University Video Game Heritage SocietyIn a sense, in a sense, the move towards Nintendo’s game key cards will not necessarily matter.
“Even when data is available in the cartridge a day, sports are often downloaded by the patch, update and raised that the cart often loses its relationship with the game, and the physical copy of the digital item acts like a protection dongle.”
“No institution will be able to keep everything safe”
Strong Museum Jon Paul Dynon
So since digital games become routine, where do the game protection efforts live? How do you secure the digital game for the future? And what do you save exactly?
“Mobile games, in some ways, are the biggest challenges,” says Dynson, Dyson says, due to how to change over time, and if it is not updated permanently, it will suddenly be pulled from stores. So which version do you have? Dyson thinks, “Some ways does not matter what the version is, as long as you have clear documents as to which version you have saved.”
But strong will usually preserve the digital game version in many places of his life, often near his release and after a major modification, as well as when he is dragging it from digital stores.
Storing all these digital games and making them accessible to future generations is a huge challenge, especially if the game needs an external server to work. The museum tries to get the DRM-free version of sports if it can-though it is not always possible with the console release-and the data is saved in multiple ways.
The most expensive way is through professional cloud -based digital protection platform PerisroicaBut the museum uses local storage devices, and even magnetic tape. “You know, the tape is ridiculous,” says Dyson. “Storage on tape is getting better and better: it’s one of the things that is an old technology, but in some ways, it’s great.”
One of the most financially -powered efforts in the sports protection space can be realistic. “No institution will be able to keep everything safe,” Dyson’s suggestion, which says it is impossible to save every game-especially when you consider things like a game jam or once the titles.
He says, “It would be like to say that we are going to preserve every piece of every story written.” “So I’m slightly more comfortable with a loss.”
Instead, focusing on strengthening, has moved towards a more comprehensive theory about the protection of the history of the video game. “Sometimes it means keeping the game safe, but sometimes the history of the emotional impact of the game is equally important to preserve the player’s history. What did it mean for society at the moment? What did it mean to create this game?”
Newman agrees: “Here is an important assumption that the game is very important, so the purpose of protection should maintain a long -term game capability. It has a definite meaning, but it is not only worth asking what we do, but also what we do not learn from playing games and what we can do with other things.
He cites the example of speed running communities and the way in which the way in which to get closer to sports and manipulation in different ways.
“I really want to be an archive of performances that show the different ways with which the game can be played and played,” says Newman. “So a collection of playth video recording will be extraordinarily valuable to help us understand the meaning of sports and games.”
“Basically, my argument is that only the move towards digital sports encourages us to go back and revise that what we are really trying to get and which content will be the most useful in the future.”
“My view is that moving (away) from thinking about the protection of the game focused around the bits streams allows us to think about making a collection of documents about sports, which includes designers and developers, players, journalists, historians, experts, and so on.”
Dyson says fans’ communities are invaluable, in order to preserve both sports and the stories around them. “Sport protection is not only important because games are important, but because the protection process is a process of love, and it is something that means and itself.”
“This is the reason why fans ‘communities have been so important throughout the history of sports protection, and why is it important for institutions to work with fans’ communities?”
Cook believes that in addition, developers and publishers should work more closely with communities who have been the older sports champions and “do whatever they have to re -access them with limited resources”.
She was especially happy to see Bethesda Removes Keys For Elder Scroll IV: Oblonon Reclaimed The volunteer team behind the Sky Blue Mode. “I think that’s exactly what I want to see more, and this is the thing we do to the Night Dive on a large scale.
Whenever we have the opportunity to do a new game, we first do and find the community that has enabled it to run to this location, and either consult them, contract them, or in some cases, hire some of the team members. “
Dyson added that fans’ communities also benefit from institutions in some ways. “Sometimes they have the freedom to do things that are probably in the gray areas.”
“I think everyone is definitely trying more to back their things these days, which is great. This will make our jobs easier as a studio that is primarily focused on remists.”
Stephen Cook, Night Dive Studios
“But the negative aspect of fans’ communities is that they have not necessarily sustainable for a long time.” “They start because someone loves something that was deeply meaningful to them. But when the group’s age is over, when someone really doesn’t care about text -based adventures in the early 1980s, this is the place where institutions play their role in the institutions, and hope.”
After all, groups around the world need a joint effort. “The game, which covers such a widespread activities, has a wide range of different audiences and has matters of use and requires a variety of skills, which we need to start thinking about it as a distributed effort,” says Newman.
“Different organizations will have different interests, knowledge and techniques, so we need to find ways to harmonize all this skill so that people can learn from each other and things do not get out of the cracks.”
To secure the past
But in view of Nintendo’s recent move, are modern companies making sports difficult for sports? Are things getting better, or worse? Cook says, “I think Nintendo’s example is one step behind.” But he added, referring to the recent, he has the reason for hope somewhere else Square Enxes, Sega, Cape Communications and Tito for Archive Development Materials.
“Although it’s really good, it would have been good even if they did so 20 years ago, is okay?” The kick laughs. “But this can be said for all.
“Hopefully, it will not be a struggle to find the source codes and assets to create a collection in the future.”
He added that now thanks to the popularity of remorse for companies, this is a clear financial incentive to do it. “Ten years ago, that was definitely not. I clearly remember that there has been a lot of talk with the first parties about re -issuing and responding to their waist catalog, ‘Well, no one is going to buy it. Why does anyone want to play an old game?’ This emotion is definitely very easy to establish and promote IP to rebuild and rebuild new and older players.
Dyson agrees that companies are thinking that they have a commercial benefit to save their old content, but notes that it is still a secondary commitment. “There is still a lot of pressure on the game companies to make money, and therefore protection is always a bit after thinking, as it never forwards the same level of profit which will be the new blockbuster game.”
Newman added that although “definitely there are more developers and publishers who are actively protecting their work”, not everything will be saved. “We are still knowing what is important and what should be the scope of protection.
“For some people, the code is going to be very important, but for others, the scripped surface design note on a piece of paper, the powerpoint document of the pitch presentation, the abandoned level or the character that never released it will be so valuable. These are often the things that are most likely, and the most likely.” “
Dyson argued that companies should have a plan to tell how each new game and its adjoining content would be preserved for the next 50 or 100 years. He says, “It will force companies to think about long distances, and not only ease digital access.”
“I think that is a process of thinking that in this broad sense promotes the commitment to protect the game: what does it mean to keep the game safe, or what impact your company’s history, or on the players of this game?”
For this part, Cook would like to see that more big game companies go back and show some love for their old titles. “The command and victory that the EA had achieved was amazing.” “But it looked like a flash in the pan.
“They have such a wide catalog of things, I hope they have seen and gone, ‘Well, well, let’s not take the next part of Barker, or let’s pack a bluffer with Danjan keeper and magical carpet, and all the other amazing games are going on.”
“I personally would like to see more about that: Some big players are doing themselves.”
