"With the introduction of a Nintendo account, we now have the capability to tie consumers' purchases to their particular account." - Reggie on Switch VC
This is one of those 'wait and see' things regarding the Switch's online capabilities. It could work like iTunes - a game is installed, but you can't open/play/listen to it unless you sign in with a different ID. Who knows, to be honest. I still think there is way too much missing information for this thing to launch in ~5-6 weeks.
That's the real question, and it's TBD. Right now, Reggie is just saying that they can tie games to an account vs. to a physical system - an issue that's plagued owners for some time.
If you lost your 3DS you would lose all the digital games you bought on it, and would have to re-buy them. Same applies if your 3DS breaks, malfunctions, got banned and so on.
If they're on your account, the system can get stolen or be broken but the games are accessible on another console if you simply log in.
Before: Any purchase you made was linked to a console. So if your console broke and you tossed it, or you sold it before buying a new one any digital games you had on it were gone. To transfer them to a new system you had to run the system transfer wizard.
Now: Any digital games you purchased are linked to your account, so if you log into a console with said account you can download those games, independently of the physical device in question. Kinda like Steam, Origin, XBL, PSN, or pretty much any other content delivery system.
I had no idea that's how all the Nintendo stuff is. So, if I had bought a WiiU, nothing would have migrated over... That is really scary with the eShop stuff. If you were to drop your DS and have it broken, losing save files would suck, but losing $XXX worth of games is even worse. Like if Steam was tied to your Computer and not an account.... your computer crashes and poof, there goes $1000 worth of games.
I had no idea that's how all the Nintendo stuff is. So, if I had bought a WiiU, nothing would have migrated over... That is really scary with the eShop stuff. If you were to drop your DS and have it broken, losing save files would suck, but losing $XXX worth of games is even worse. Like if Steam was tied to your Computer and not an account.... your computer crashes and poof, there goes $1000 worth of games.
If you get your console fixed by Nintendo and it isn't absolutely destroyed (ie, you drilled through the console, it was dropped in the sea...) they will transfer everything to the new console.
If you buy a new console you can transfer data from the previous one (my Wii U has the Wii data in it, my N3DS has the 3DS data in it).
It's not as extremely terrible as everyone makes it out to be, but it definitely was not good and it really is stupid how they thought it was a good idea.
In that respect it's more akin to your Windows license than it is to Steam games. If you have to replace your motherboard your Windows license is lost as well.
It is, but prior to this change while your purchases were tied to the account, the actual game data was tied to the hardware, so losing the hardware would mean you had to re-purchase the game even if you logged into the new console with your old account.
Well as we saw with the new Sonic, I don't think they care
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