Digital Downloads, multiple devices

[Tanooki]

Later last year my kid broke my tablet I had, it was an apple thing I wasn't too pleased with so when she did I went and got an Android Nexus 7 device. One thing and one thing alone bothered the crap out of me, you can't take it with you. I didn't care much about the rolling freebies for paid games I had, but I put money into Pinball Arcade for it, bought all the 2 game $5 packs for all season 1 and most of 2. When I got the new device I wanted it back and wrote the company who made it, they said they'd love to help but regretably they had no way to transfer or discount a new buy of the stuff again. I still as of yet have not sunk into buying the stuff back and I loved those tables.

Another issue in this is also Nintendo and Sony too, but mostly Nintendo. Sony does have stuff that works on PSP or PS3 or Vita, but those games mostly do not have copies on the other device, those that do have PSN load anywhere options. Nintendo though, of course not, the greedy old giant with their 3DS and WiiU both have the Virtual Console, and there are a few shared nintendo network games too on the eShops that are doubled down on too. Nothing there Nintendo will allow you like Sony to fire up on either device making you buy twice.

What are all your feelings on this crap and how have you either tolerated it, dealt with it, or have you ignored them for it?


I haven't pirated in a long time, but I swear if it wasn't for the always on the network monthly new table updates where I'd get caught I'd go fishing for an android APK file for the tables I legally own.

[Nz17]

Well I guess in this particular case, you should have bought the Pinball Arcade tables directly through the developer's Web site.

I look at events like this as punishment for buying into too closed of an environment, and few are more closed than iOS. If the situation had been flipped, and instead you bought Android first, then you'd be free and in the clear as you could have then just re-downloaded things onto your new device.

Sorry, man.

By the way, a lot of the tables in Pinball Arcade are just from the company's earlier work but by a different name, the Pinball Hall of Fame collections. Just pick up the Gottlieb and Williams collections for your console(s) of choice and you should be pretty good to go. If you want it portable, you can get it on PSP.

[Leo_A]

Nintendo's DRM nonsense largely keeps me away.

It doesn't get bought if it's multiplatform or appears to stand a good chance of receiving a retail release eventually (DuckTales Remastered, Wii Sports Club, and both NES Remix titles spring to mind for some recent examples where waiting paid off). The only exceptions to date have been Mega Man 9 & 10 on the Wii that I bought on Nintendo's console despite 360/PS3 versions being available.

That leaves me with the odd Nintendo exclusive and the Virtual Console. I do buy some of my favorites on the VC for the convenience that I own in original form, but between Nintendo's restrictions and VC prices that I think are about twice what they should be (I bet the loss of revenue from each sale with a 50% cut across the board would more than be made up for in volume), I'm very deliberate there with what I purchase.

[Tanooki]

I never saw the option to buy the Pinball Arcade tables for IOS on their website, let alone any system back when that first came out or I'd have done that. Despite that, it's still I think a big issue that us as consumers get taken advantage of unfortunately. Unfortunately at the time there was a communication need of sorts and a bitchin weird sale on the old model ipad2 at the time so I grabbed it. Before they had those hall of fame packs for the Windows XP environment there was Williams Pinball Classics (oddly the name of pinball hall of fame in the PAL areas) and it has Creature from the Black Lagoon, Lost World, Black Rose, and Tales of the Arabian Knights which is as accurate too and really fun. Though not made for a modern 64bit OS I found a patched EXE so I can still use it.

I wish I had never done the ipad buy because it is a buggy pos that has well known wifi problems that apple won't acknowledge or take care of at their fault so when the thing was eventually accidentally destroyed by my toddler I wasn't even mad, I was happy to be broken free of it.

I'm familiar with their past works and do have the 3DS and PS3 versions of the Pinball Arcade. When I get rid of the PS3 games I have as I'm working on selling off stuff for a PS4 I know it has a version there too I think on disc so I'd grab that.


Leo--It's why I only buy maybe 1 in a 100 of their releases with actual money, and anything else was an apology (ambassador program) contest win codes or freebies off of gift cards. If they'd grow the hell up and make PSN like accounts entirely and not half way, I'd be more than happy to pay a good 1-10 bucks for various games they have depending on the title. I held off on DuckTales too as it just looked too beyond download to stay off a disc, glad I did too as I picked it up and got that cool pin Sony kids got with their download worthless paper voucher.

[Gameguy]

I don't pay money for digital downloads. Never did, doubt I ever will.

[Zthun]

Later last year my kid broke my tablet I had, it was an apple thing I wasn't too pleased with so when she did I went and got an Android Nexus 7 device. One thing and one thing alone bothered the crap out of me, you can't take it with you. I didn't care much about the rolling freebies for paid games I had, but I put money into Pinball Arcade for it, bought all the 2 game $5 packs for all season 1 and most of 2. When I got the new device I wanted it back and wrote the company who made it, they said they'd love to help but regretably they had no way to transfer or discount a new buy of the stuff again. I still as of yet have not sunk into buying the stuff back and I loved those tables.

Another issue in this is also Nintendo and Sony too, but mostly Nintendo. Sony does have stuff that works on PSP or PS3 or Vita, but those games mostly do not have copies on the other device, those that do have PSN load anywhere options. Nintendo though, of course not, the greedy old giant with their 3DS and WiiU both have the Virtual Console, and there are a few shared nintendo network games too on the eShops that are doubled down on too. Nothing there Nintendo will allow you like Sony to fire up on either device making you buy twice.

What are all your feelings on this crap and how have you either tolerated it, dealt with it, or have you ignored them for it?


I haven't pirated in a long time, but I swear if it wasn't for the always on the network monthly new table updates where I'd get caught I'd go fishing for an android APK file for the tables I legally own.

I don't understand what the complaint is about. This is actually normal. I actually think it's pretty cool that Sony lets you buy a game once and then let's you play it on PSP/PS3/Vita without having to repurchase it. You say Nintendo is greedy, but it's always been this way with systems with games. If I bought a game on my SNES, that didn't mean that I got the genesis game for free. If I bought something on the 360, I don't get the PS3 version for free from the publisher. What's the problem?

[Tanooki]

My problem is the entire system on the whole. I paid for some games that are digital, not physical, in that case I'd agree entirely since they're tangibly produced shipped product. I no longer have one device, but I have another that's compatible and receives 100% the same stuff. I just wanted to transfer the license and it's something that just isn't possible, that's my problem with the Pinball Arcade example I gave. I would never expect if Pinball Arcade was disc based (I know it's precursor is) and I owned it on the PS3 and I sold the PS3 and wanted a free disc in the mail for WiiU I'd be out of my mind.

The Nintendo issue, it's unique, they are doing one thing, Sony is doing another and Sony I appreciate for it and Nintendo doing what they are and then also binding games strictly to hardware is just a nut punching to me which is why I own almost nothing digital from them.

[Zthun]

My problem is the entire system on the whole. I paid for some games that are digital, not physical, in that case I'd agree entirely since they're tangibly produced shipped product. I no longer have one device, but I have another that's compatible and receives 100% the same stuff. I just wanted to transfer the license and it's something that just isn't possible, that's my problem with the Pinball Arcade example I gave. I would never expect if Pinball Arcade was disc based (I know it's precursor is) and I owned it on the PS3 and I sold the PS3 and wanted a free disc in the mail for WiiU I'd be out of my mind.

The Nintendo issue, it's unique, they are doing one thing, Sony is doing another and Sony I appreciate for it and Nintendo doing what they are and then also binding games strictly to hardware is just a nut punching to me which is why I own almost nothing digital from them.

I think you've made a bad assumption with your pinball example. Transferring the license in that case may not be possible because the IOS version is most likely written in Objective-C and the Android version is going to be written in Java. Even if they were written natively (C++), the libraries would be different. I also don't think that the publisher controls the licensing in this case. Apple and Google handle it (someone can correct me if I'm wrong).

I feel you're fishing for arguments for why digital is inferior to physical (as I'm finding a lot of collectors do). You say that you would not expect this if Pinball Arcade was disc based and you would be out of your mind if you sold your PS3 copy and expected a Wii U version in the mail. But if you look at the action, what you're asking for is exactly the same thing. You lost your copy of Pinball Arcade on IOS, and now you expect a license transfer (free copy) from the publisher to deliver it to your android device.

Again, I don't see an argument for what is wrong here. Nintendo's strategy for binding the game to the hardware is obsolete when compared with how Sony and Microsoft do it, but people have transferred their licenses to updated devices. It's just not as convenient as other methods - you have to call them instead of clicking a few buttons and having it automated online.

[Tanooki]

I don't it the same since one is a physical copy and the other isn't. I know they're not coded the same, it's just that they're tangible in any way and it is made by X company(Farsight) not apple or google, so I didn't think it would be that big of a problem to allow the same purchases to exist while delisting them from the apple setup. Yes I expect a transfer, that's what I would have like, now free maybe a bit of a stretch, but I'd have been fine with a reduced price. Nintendo as caveman as they are did it with their Wii virtual console games allowing them to be rebought on the WiiU for like 40% of the cost. If I could get back those $60 in pinball tables for $20 I'd pay it right this second, log off and get lost in it for a few hours.

I know Nintendo can allow stuff to be transferred with a call, but there have been cases spilled out in a fury online where they wouldn't do it, almost making it seem like it was up to call rep discretion which is fairly ratty if that's the case. Either way we agree they're very outdated in their model and it needs to stop.