Oh.... He got his early. Well I was speaking of official release dates. When most consoles release games are available on day 1. I hope there's a large selection for you guys when this comes out.
Well it's debatable. Some people feel it's weak and some are happy with the knowledge that more games will be coming down the line.
it entirely depends on how badly one wants to play Zelda D1 on the best platform available ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ if you want it real bad, Switch has an amazing launch lineup
^ Yes but it looks like data on the SD card is encrypted or why would any saved stuff not be accessible even if you reset the same console? Wouldn't it have the same encryption keys? So much for saving stuff on the SD card and then you have to reset if the system hiccups... oopsie.....
That's how the 3DS has always worked. Not sure about the Wii or Wii U but I'd imagine it's similar. I've seen no official word that the Switch will support cloud saves, but that's kind of a no-brainer at this point, and I remember reading that Nintendo accounts are supposed to be able to support that. So locally-encrypted game saves are not an issue if your saves are backed up to Nintendo's servers.
How much can Cloud Storage realistically do? I plan to buy physical as much as possible, but for someone who wanted to say buy Breath of the Wild digital copy on the Switch (which we know uses nearly half of the systems memory) could the game be downloaded to Cloud Storage? Even I think this sounds a little silly, but I was still curious enough to ask.
I don't think you understand what cloud storage is. It works like this. You buy a game for your Nintendo console. If you bought the physical version, you just slip it into your console. If you bought the digital download version, you can just download it to your console whenever you want. Either way, you'll want to save your game progress. This progress is saved to your SD card, of course. But if Nintendo uses cloud storage, then your saves will also be uploaded to Nintendo's servers, where you'll be able to download them again if something happens to your Switch, your SD card, or maybe you just want to play your save on a friend's Switch. The latter should be as simple as logging into your Nintendo account and letting it download the save. (Nintendo may not allow this, mind you, but there's no technical reason you can't do it.) Cloud storage is basically just a backup of your game saves, not the entire game. They might store your screenshots online, too. I don't know. Again, no technical reason they couldn't, just depends on whether they want to and have developed any useful services around it.
Actually funny thing is my Nintendo DS XL seems to encrypt as well. Things I have saved on the same SD card like bought games and stuff can't reload if I reset the system. Plus the online shop is SLOW.... I had the misfortune of having to reset my system once and all the games I had on my SD card couldn't be reloaded so had to purchase them again. Not to mention encrypted connection to the DS store. Nintendo seem to have always had an issue with their online store or anything internet related in that it's never the fastest thing.
By far, Nintendo's most economical use of packaging are the 3DS game cases. The Switch cases are 90% plastic with no manual. Bring back the manuals, dammit.
I miss the days when we'd get instruction manuals that rivaled some books. I remember the manual for Final Fantasy II being really robust and involving a walkthrough for the first third of the game. Nowadays if you're even lucky to get one, all it does is show you the warranty information and maybe (maybe!) what the controls for the game are. I know I'm rambling about this, but I loved how the manuals were also the only place (for some games) where you got any kind of storyline explanation at all.
The bigger cases are so Nintendo can rip you off more and people won't notice. Small carts for the $30-$40 games and MASSIVE waste of space carts for Switch's $60 games.
It still beats digital distribution when you consider the game sizes and the minute storage capacity of the SD cards which are bundled with the consoles. I'll definitely be buying a 128gb SD card with a fast write and read speed.