So one of the things that I loved as a child
and one of the great things of video games past
was the ability to straight Just loan your games
to your friends This was a huge point of contention
back in 2013 with the ps4 in the Xbox one When
Microsoft started restricting loading physical
games Sony doubled down with the infamous how
to load games to your friends commercial and
1e3 that year and arguably that entire console
generation with their policies Nintendo in that
time has maintained being able to loan physical
copies of the Switch game, so you can just take
the little cartridge out and hand it to your
friends, but now they've unveiled a new method
of loaning digital downloads to your friends.
The new virtual game card system was unveiled
today at the Nintendo Direct, and it looks, honestly,
amazing. Simple, easy to use, great for that.
Do we think this is the wave of the future? Steam
kind of lets you do it now, but only with families?
It's still pretty restricted. Is is Nintendo
going to be able to set a new standard for video
games? Jay, what do you think? Yes, yes. This
is a yeah, roll the credits. We're done here.
No, this is a it is it is pretty cool because
I mean, obviously. Unless you're like a Gen Z
er, right? Like we all grew up. Yeah, just trading
games all the time. So, yeah, it's going to be
pretty interesting to see what happens with this.
But I think overall, like this is a pretty good
thing. Is there like any sort of like fees associated
with like nothing? OK, so here's here's how it
works. Much like loaning a physical game. If
I loan you the physical game, I don't have access
to it, right? Because I've loaned you the cartridge.
Very similar thing. During the process of loaning,
you have to be connected to the internet. What
I do is I've downloaded a digital game like Mario
Kart or Zelda, right? I'm gonna load it to my
friend Jay. What I do is I eject that virtual
game from my system via the internet, and I say,
okay, I'm loaning this to my friend Jay. Jay
then inserts it in their virtual system, in their
Switch, right? And then they can play it. For
as long as they want right and when they're done
they ejected out of their virtual system and
give it back to me So again, you can only play
one copy at a time Right, but again, that's no
different than if I landed you a Super Nintendo
game Right, so I don't see that as being a major
downside to this I saw some people be like that
Carter sir. I can't play it. No, no If I loan
you a physical copy of my game, I don't have
it to play. So I don't see a problem with, okay,
I bought Animal Crossing. I'm done playing it
for right now. I'm going to loan it to Jay. And
while I've got it loaned to Jay, I can't play
it. Now, some people are going to argue this
is going to decrease. Honestly, I think this
is going to help their revenue. I think this
is going to help them across the board. Don't
you? Yeah. It'll definitely like give people
the chance to try games before they buy it. Like
I'm like, hey, Alex, you need to play this. And
you're like, I don't really know. I can lend
it to you. You can try it for a couple of weekends.
Give it back and then buy it right there. I think
that that's the bet that Nintendo is making.
Yeah. Right. Hey, give this game a shot. And
after a couple of weeks, I loan it back to you.
And I'm like, you know what? Yeah, I'm going
to buy my own copy so we can play at the same
time. Chat's asking, how long do I think so someone
hacks their way around it? With digital rights
management, they've gotten pretty good about
that. I don't think it's going to be any more
common than hacking games and romses now. I don't
think this increases that significantly. The
fact of the matter is, is that Most consumers
don't pirate things. Yeah. Right. Most consumers
don't want to go through the hassle of trying
to figure out which pirating site and where to
go and what to do and all that stuff. So I don't
see this being a situation where people really
want to go through the hassle. Do you? I mean,
no, not really. And like a thing is like. If
someone really, really, really wants to hack
something, they're going to fucking do it. But.
I think we're kind of past like the limewire
era, right, where like everyone was doing it.
Yeah, I don't know. I just feel like no one's
doing it anymore. I don't know. Maybe I could
just get old. I don't know. I I'll be honest,
I think that's probably the case. Wow, that's
damn. Yeah. Again, I don't see anything. I think
that this is a good thing. And honestly, I would
like to see more game companies start to do it.
I would like to see Sony do it. I would like
to see Microsoft do it. I would like to see all
these guys go to a point where they're just like,
look, if I want to loan virtually, especially
where we're getting rid of physical media, right?
Like, let's face it. I bought Assassin's Creed
Shadows the other day and I didn't buy the physical
copy. I went and just downloaded it on my PS5.
Most of my games I don't own physical copies
for. My Steam stuff, obviously I have no physical
copies of anything on my PC. So, again, I think
this is beneficial to the entire industry. Yeah,
hopefully. I'd give credit to Nintendo. While
they don't do it with like, you know, graphics,
in a lot of ways, Nintendo is big on innovation.
Like they really do innovate still in the video
game space in really positive ways. So. Anyway,
what do you all think about this this new thing
that Nintendo's announced for the Switch? Would
you? be willing to loan your digital games to
your friends? Do you think this is a good thing?
Does it help the industry? Does it hurt it? Let
us know what you think down in the comments below.