First, slow down a sec. I'm sure it has happened and those are real examples. Even if there is a way to retrieve them (maybe not an easy way), it's the fact it CAN happen that I'm concerned about. I'd rather say no to all digital now before I start losing games and it's too late.
No no, we shouldn't have to prepare anything. It's not like we're getting refunds. Carts and discs don't fail if you care for them. That's why they're the superior choice for buying content, especially when it costs the same as or less than digital.
Again, speculation. Anything CAN happen, I can walk outside and get struck by lightning, have a giant meteor land on my head, be sucked into a giant sink hole under my feet and have a million dogs run up to me and drown me in their piss, but that doesn't mean I am going to fear that happening because the chances of it are so minuscule. Same with a game company just magically deciding that they are going erase any and all copies of a game from existence despite the fact that someone has already bought and downloaded them. Not selling it anymore, that can happen, but all copies aren't magically going to evaporate at someone's will.
And yes, carts and discs do fail. It is not going to be 10-20 years from now, but likely in 100 or so years those games are going to rot. Capacitors die, silicon erodes, disks dry up, all that can happen no matter how well you take care of them. Conversely, if I am taking a digital game and transferring it every 10 years or so to the latest and greatest form of backup media and doing so in triplicate, I don't have to worry about that.
I dont think the chances are that minuscule. Not big, sure. But it happens. And I dont think I should have to first buy a hard drive for my system. And then make sure to copy a game to multiple spots just to make sure I still have them. Because having them in only one place sucks especially since data can easily be corrupted... Id rather stick with discs... Or physical media in general... ---
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