>>63684 Correct. The current legal definition of game ownership doesn't even suggest that those who buy physical games own them in the same way they would own other physical goods. What you're buying [i]is limited access to it. And the limits of the access are always defined by "until we decide to revoke that access which can be whenever without forewarning". Think of it like if you buy it from the Nintendo eShop, it's technically rented, but you're not told when the return date is. As a rule of thumb though, so long as
- The Nintendo servers are online
- The game hasn't been delisted by Nintendo
- Your Nintendo account is in good standing
Then you can download and play the game. Even if your Switch 2 goes up in flames, you can log in to your Nintendo account and re-download them on to a new one. In doing so though, any previous Switch 2s you've logged in to would lose their access to those games until you logged back in on them. No game sharing!
But these are three
critical failure points, so let's break down how they can affect your ability to hug Natsuki in
Doki Doki Literature Club! Plus+
>The Nintendo servers are online The Nintendo eShop isn't like Steam. You can't always upgrade your device to the newest model and sign in to it to play all of your old library again. Instead, each Nintendo eShop is specific to the current generation of device and their sub-models (Switch Lite, Switch OLED, etc). As new devices launch, the old ones are made obsolete due to Nintendo shutting down the online services for them, including the eShop. Not just by preventing new items from being purchased through it, but by preventing previously purchased items from being downloaded at all. It also lets you not play your games online anymore!
The Wii eShop was online from 2006 to 2019. That was 15 years. A young wizkid who used his birthday money to buy a game through it on day 1 could have downloaded it to his Wii and enjoyed it well in to adulthood. However, once the Wii's online services reached their end-of-life, the eShop was shut down. If he still has his games installed, he can play them, but if his hardware fails or his game gets deleted by his evil little sister, he'll lose access to his "legal" copy. He'll need to jailbreak his Wii and pirate the game to get it back.
>The game hasn't been delisted by Nintendo Nintendo is always changing their mind on what kind of publishers they want on their platform and what qualifies as a game they'd like to sell. If you use the eShop to purchase Popotan, but then the company who developed Popotan gets bought out by Sony, Sony's acquisition contract may prevent that developer from selling their games on other consoles (That's why PlayStation 4 and 5 have so many exclusives!). In this instance, the particularities of the contract will either mean that your Nintendo account still has access to re-download the game so long as the eShop is online, or it could mean that once you uninstall it… *POOF*, gone forever. Otherwise, Nintendo themselves may have disputes with independent developers and publishers who then decide to stop doing business with Nintendo. In that case, it's the same thing. You won't be able to buy the game, but you may still be able to download it if you already have. Or you may never be able to uninstall it without losing access forever!
>Your Nintendo account is in good standing You used Animal Crossing's custom artwork creator to add furry hentai to the game… And then you published it for other players to download! Your Nintendo account is now banned and you've lost access to all purchased games. You're going to have to make a new account and purchase those games again… But this is Switch 2, so your device ID was flagged as delinquent so now you can't even sign in to your new account on it at all! No more games from the eShop, and games you've bought physical cartridges for won't be playable online.
That's all digital download trouble though. As for buying physical copies of the game, there's typically less of a chance that you'll lose access but some caveats still pose a risk to those cartridge's usability. There are many tiers of physical games for the Switch and Switch 2:
>All-on-cartPut the cart in and play. These games will ALWAYS work, as the Good Lord intended.
>Data-on-CartThe game's data is on the cart but some of it needs to be unpacked and installed to the system memory. Might have to delete some of your installed games and pray you can download them back later…
>update needed:Update-in-cart:You need a new version of your Switch 2's firmware to play this game, and the update files are present on the cart.
Update-online:You need a new version of your Switch 2's sfirmware to play this game, but the update files must be downloaded from Nintendo. Let's hope the servers are still online to do that!
>Download-certificate-on-cartThe cartidge doesn't have the game on it. Rather, it acts as a signature that allows you to download the game from Nintnedo. If the servers are still up and you're not banned, you can do that! Unlike buying the game through the eShop though, you can sell this cartridge to some sucker and then he'll get to download and play it. Of course, even if you have this game installed on your system, you'll need to insert the cartridge to play, so it's not an infinite game glitch.
So in short: No, you don't own anything. I hope you're happy!