First Cross-Buy game coming to the Nintendo eShop this week
One of the top complaints about the Nintendo eShop and ecosystem is the concept of being able to purchase a game and play it both on your Wii U or 3DS. This concept is called cross-buy and for nearly every other digital platform out there its a ‘thing’.
If you buy a game on the PS4 or PS3 it’s probably going to work on the PS Vita, certainly retro games will do. The Apple iPad and iPhone also share accounts and purchase an app one on allows it work on another (usually).
Late last year Nintendo the Nintendo Network ID to the 3DS and it was hoped that functionality would be coming to the Wii U and 3DS as well – alas not to be.
Until now.
This weeks Nintendo Download Update will feature the first Cross-Buy game. Squids Odyssey on the Nintendo 3DS eShop will come with a code to redeem the game on the Wii U. However if you purchase the Wii U version you don’t get the 3DS version. This likely means that the developer of the game is willing to give away the game for free and not a change to Nintendo’s policy on cross-buy.
This deal is only valid for the European store, we should hopefully be getting the game here in Australia and we’ll check with the developers. America – this deal hasn’t been announced for you just yet. We’ll have the full Nintendo Download Update later in the week.
Cross-Buy, it should be on Nintendo platforms – especially for Virtual Console. What do you think?
With all psn crossplay games I’ve bought, I’ve only ever played them on either console or vita because the whole save file sharing thing confuses me. That being said, files and games are much more easily transferable from a ps3/4 to a vita and vice versa than between a Wii U and 3DS (in regards to copying, not porting).
Despite this, I definitely think it would be nice to have the option to play at least virtual console games on both the Wii U and the 3DS (since the mechanics are the same for both for virtual console), but it should be done with an app or some way ties to our miiverse/nnid accounts so we can share the same save states between console and handheld. Although obviously this won’t happen anytime soon for GBA games since for the time being they can’t be properly supported on the 3DS. Also, most of the Wii U and 3DS retail titles aren’t mutual with each other to begin with. They each have their own version exclusive games so I can only see this happening for virtual console games and third party/indie games if they choose to develop their products for Wii U and 3DS.
Definitely agree with Virtual Console having crossplay buy, as they’re the same game but different emulator, even if it doesn’t have save syncing.
For other games though that are released across both, to me it seems reasonable if there was a heavy discount on those games as often there’s more to it than simply a port, with work in adjusting graphics or even producing unique features for a version of a game. The developer would get a little extra and more users would be enticed to buy the second version of the game.
Something like Monster Hunter could have benefited here and encouraged players to buy both – pay for the full game on either console, head to eShop to buy the other to play on your home/handheld console as well for just a little more, rather than paying full-price again for essentially the same game. Chose this game as (unless I’m mistaken) it was built to be able to use the same file across both versions of the game.
Of course, buying on one and having it download to the other once you do for no extra wouldn’t be something to complain about!
All I want is for my eShop purchases to be bound to my NNID. I can’t believe I have to hope for that- that should be the reason a NNID exists. I should not fear that my 3DS or WiiU may become broken beyond repair and I lose any digital purchases I’ve made- especially when Nintendo have done so well to encourage using the eShop lately.
On a similar note- there’s at this point no way to back up saved data on the WiiU. Is this the price we pay for condemning proprietary memory cards? Or am I being punished because so many other people abused the Wii’s SD card slot? Lovely.
They are bound to your ID. If you lose your system, you can call Nintendo to untie it from the existing system and then you tie it to the new one.
It’s not a perfect system, but you don’t lose your stuff!