Game

By shutting down eShops, Nintendo is once again standing by the legacy of video games

When Nintendo announced that it would closing eShop for both 3DS and Wii U in 2023, my response was simple: of course it is. The development shouldn’t come as a huge surprise – after all, it wasn’t long ago that PlayStation announced its decision to close its digital stores for PS3 and PS Vita (although this decision was eventually reversed). Companies do what they want, and mainly what they want is to make money and avoid wasting it. So of course Nintendo is shutting down two of its older eShops. There’s no money in it. But for the rest of us, that sucks, right? My initial reaction was resignation, but after talking to my partner, my emotions quickly turned to disappointment at what we were about to lose.

My partner is on a Fire Emblem kick in minutes. In fact, they only entered the series properly after starting with Three housesand now they’re working on 3DS games. But after the eShop closed the following year, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation, the conclusive solution to both Birthright and Conquest, is essentially unplayable unless you’re willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on eBay for the hard-to-find physical version. Our combined annoyance makes me think of all the other digital-only games on the eShop, like Sixth Monster Attack or Pushmo. Hell, even Yellow Pokemon will not be legally replayable without owning a physical copy.

Subtitles are not provided

And because of Nintendo’s decision, some games will potentially lose their legal capacity, just because it’s a business. It’s also clear that the company isn’t interested in making those games easily accessible either, as in the original Q&A it released regarding the closure, Nintendo addressed users’ concerns. play by saying that they are not obligated to provide these games. And unfortunately, that’s true.

Talk to GameSpot, Iain Simons, UK writer and part-time curator National Video Game Museumsaid, “In terms of financial responsibility to their shareholders, they may not be obligated to provide titles. So why should they? As their statement, this is part of the ‘natural life cycle’ – everything must pass, the game dies.”

It’s not just money that acts as a barrier, as Simons pointed out to me. Games are in an odd position when it comes to cultural recognition and haven’t really convinced non-gamers that they’re an art form worth spending time on. Mediums like Oscar-winning movies, an organization that – though far from perfect – still do a better job at presenting the art format, as opposed to something like The Game Awards, which unfortunately looks like a tournament E3 press conference is more than an award-focused only.

There are other complications when it comes to game preservation, such as how frequently platforms change; materials used to make games, such as metal and plastic, continuously degrade; and copyright issues. All of this makes understanding games from a cultural perspective extremely difficult.

Subtitles are not provided

“From a conservation standpoint, you dip your head into it for an hour and immediately realize that this is a huge problem that requires vast resources and coordination to get going,” says Simons.

However, there are people who are trying to preserve as much of the history of video games as possible, even if it is a large amount of work. But when it comes to doing that job, there’s also a huge amount of frustration that comes with it. Organized video game history is one of the famous organizations dedicated to preserving the history of video games. Their statement about shutting down the 3DS and Wii U eShops acknowledges the business side of things but criticizes other actions by Nintendo.

“As a paid member of the Entertainment Software Association, Nintendo actively funds lobbying to prevent even libraries from providing legal access to these games.” Written VGHF. “Not providing commercial access is understandable, but blocking institutional action to preserve these titles is actively undermining video game history.”

What the VGHF is referring to is that the ESA (best known as the organizers of E3) has been actively campaigning against games that are not made available in public libraries. In 2017, Oakland’s Museum of Digital Arts and Entertainment (MADE) asked the US copyright office to enact the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Free maintenance MMO whose publishers are no longer supported. Then, in 2018, ESA applied for MADE’s request denied, stating that “video game publishers have a strong economic incentive to preserve their own games.” Fortunately, MADE succeeded and copyright immunity has been granted, but only if the property has been legally transferred by the intellectual property owner. So if a company stops making MMOs, they can choose to turn over the game’s assets to conservationists. But even that limited ability to save defunct games might not be possible, especially since we can’t even guarantee the safety of the video game’s source code.

Subtitles are not provided

The source code for the original Heart Kingdom to be notoriously lost, so it’s lucky the game is even playable on modern consoles. And “blessing” is a shorthand. The content must be recreated for the purposes of the remastered version of the game, and if Square Enix decides it’s worthless, the only legal way to play the game is through the PS2 version.

However, according to Damian Rogers of Game Preservation Association, it is likely that at least some of the source code for the Nintendo eShop games will be saved. “We can also be fairly certain that, thanks to modern development practices and the foresight of the developers, the games are also internally safe, although we wish Nintendo and all Game publishers will be more transparent with details Rogers said.

Transparency is one of the biggest issues here, certainly with a company like Nintendo. With a renewed interest in Fire Emblem, Nintendo may be working on some sort of port or remake of at least one of the series’ 3DS games, so they probably won’t be in circulation indefinitely. But that doesn’t make up for all the other games that don’t get the sudden, unexpected revival and will be lost due to the eShop’s closure.

Sure, there are ROM sites, but Nintendo keeps sending requests to take these sites down, with legal lawsuits eventually forcing their owners to pay millions of dollars. But these sites are doing more to preserve older titles than Nintendo in many cases – think Mother 3, a game that can only be played in English thanks to fan localization. But if a company like Nintendo isn’t interested in making its older titles available for purchase on digital stores or to conservationists and historians, there’s nothing anyone can do legally. law on that. And so we have a situation where these games are not publicly and commercially available. “But, in the end, these [eShops] James Newman said.

Subtitles are not provided

Newman also works for the UK’s National Museum of Video Games, in addition to being a research professor at Bath Spa University. And like me, he’s aware of how digital sales and streaming media can act as a protectionist deterrent. “One of the key changes to note here is that the move to digital distribution, subscription and streaming brings a change in the way we, as consumers, access We no longer buy movies, albums, or games in the same way, but instead, we pay to have access to it while it is part of a catalog and as long as we keep checking in.

“This has the potential to have a huge impact on our ability to watch, hear, and play, as well as our ability to pass on our media collections to future generations, whether it’s transferring them. through family and friends, or donate to museums and archives.”

It was something that struck a chord with a relationship for me. Being able to easily share a game with someone just by giving them a copy is a special move. There’s something understandable about lending your friend a DVD, and the idea of ​​playing one of my favorite games with a kid of my own one day feels like an opportunity to pass on the message. something a little more interesting than my genetics.

There is not much that an individual can do to combat this. But Newman offers an explanation of what people can help with conservation efforts, even if it’s not direct conservation work – but simply recording the existence of the works. this product. Documentation and recordings that provide an understanding of the game’s place in the cultural conversation are an important part of this process. “There is a tendency to view game preservation as a software project aimed at decompressing data and emulating old or outdated systems,” he said. “But game conservation is also a documentary project.

Subtitles are not provided

“Being able to play a game like Super Mario Maker the future will reveal and show how Nintendo gambling makes the game and focuses on placing and arranging the tiles, but to really understand the complex meaning of that game we also want to see the levels designed by the players and all those videos who are building them and reacting to them as they try to complete the intricate and intricate puzzles people have sometimes designed. “

Newman was right – recording games through things like tutorials, let’s play, live stream, it’s all important. But it’s not enough either. While it’s more likely that companies keep their source code secure, there’s no guarantee that they really are. And if Nintendo continues to succeed in shutting down ROM sites, it will not only affect their own library of games, but also affect games from other platforms hosted on the same site. web.

Nintendo is rightly loved as the company that makes so many great games. But as with some other publishers, it’s also my legitimate goal that the company doesn’t want you to know about its rich history. When companies like Nintendo and organizations like ESA are often the main voices in how games are delivered, we’re put in a position where we can’t win. So for now, the main thing we can do is follow Newman’s advice by documenting these games, or best of all, looking at ways we can help groups like the Game History Foundation. play game. Because as long as the bottom line doesn’t create an incentive to do so, it’s clear that publishers won’t do the job.

Source link

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button