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New Hardware Models Highlight Nintendo's No-Transfer Policy
An article at Wired discusses the difficulties involved in transferring games that were purchased and downloaded online when users replace their Wii or DSi. "Neither the Wii nor Nintendo’s portable DSi consoles have an upgrade path for downloadable content, since games are tied not to user accounts but to specific machines. It’s impossible for a user to copy content from an old console to a new one. Even some Wii owners whose machines have malfunctioned said it was difficult, or impossible, to get Nintendo to transfer the software licenses at its headquarters." One gamer, who bought the recently released black Wii console, explained that she got Nintendo to transfer her games, but needed to "mail both of her Wii consoles to Nintendo, and wait two weeks," hardly a convenient solution.
I'm surprised that there aren't hacks available yet that would take care of that issue.
But at least Nintendo could have resolved this in a more user-friendly manner if they wanted to make it easy and still limit piracy. HASP modules is one solution. Each console equipped with a key allowing the user to move the key to another console in case there is an upgrade or a warranty problem.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I've heard that the Wii may store information about which games you have purchased locally, on the Wii itself. Pirates have reported that after installing pirated games, they did not need to pay to get a free re-download from the Wii Shop Channel.
I have not confirmed any of this though.
I had no problems when I sent my Wii in for repairs and they replaced it with a new system. When I connected the new Wii they replaced my old one with to the net, I could easily redownload all the games I had previously bought. Hell, it even took me a year to do that because I was internetless at home for two years.
This was Nintendo Japan, however, and no country beats Japan for customer service.
Well put, mate. I've come to the same decision myself.
It seems like every day another company is showing up on my "No Buy" list, but you know what? Who cares? Just like you, I've got a gaming PC and consoles going all the way back to Pre-NES. Just on the PSX and PS2, I've got over 300 games I could replay.
I have bought 2 Wiis, requiring a total of 4 repairs. I have to say that Nintendo was one of the easiest companies to deal with. One repair was out of warranty. The price was very reasonable, at the time a new Wii cost $250 and the repair was $90. I simply sent them the broken Wii and they sent back a new one. All the downloaded stuff was copied over. I have never had to pay any shipping directly, it was always free in warranty and included in the repair price when not. It has never taken more than 10 days for the turn-around.
In fact the DRM is not ideal. It would be nice to be able to redownload when you buy a new Wii. You can send them two Wiis and they will do it for you, so it is not impossible. But at least when their support was based near Seattle they were incredibly nice. I had one Wii break, I sent it in for repair and then they sent me a replacement. Then after a couple of hours that one broke. The person on the phone was very sympathetic. They arranged a this setup:
They expressed a new Wii to me. I had one 2 days later.
In that box I returned the broken Wii, that took about 4 days.
Then when they had it I called back, they added back the Wii Points and I was able to redownload the games that I had before.
So I had a working Wii in 2 days, and a week later I had all my downloaded VC titles again. From dealing with many companies over the years, this was handled very well. You might wish that there was no DRM, but I wish I had a pony for my daughter. The compromise was pretty decent.