If you know me, even just a little, then you know I am not the biggest Nintendo fan. I don’t care for Nintendo as a company or as a gaming platform — it’s just not my cuppa. I have long since lost my affinity for it first-party titles, so I get very little use out of my Nintendo Switch. It is the last option on my laundry list of other consoles and platforms that I would want to play most games on.
But I feel it’s important to give credit where credit is due. Even though I absolutely despise some of the prices on the Nintendo Switch eShop, automatically downloading purchased content without any user prompts is by far its standout feature — and it’s one that should be offered by other online storefronts across the board.
Now, I don’t think Nintendo gets it right completely; there are times when I simply want to purchase a game to have in my catalogue — most likely when it is on sale — but that doesn’t mean I want it on my console HDD or SSD simply because I own it. I would surely run out of space in no time at all if that was the sole, default, unchangeable option, especially with the Nintendo Switch’s limited memory.
But if I could toggle a switch in PlayStation Store — and also the Microsoft Store, for that matter — so I could have any new game purchases download automatically, especially for those that I purchase through the website and not the native console storefront, I would jump on that lickety split.
I should point out that auto-downloading game updates is old hat, and the PS5 does let you auto-download pre-orders. But what I’m talking about here is having a game start downloading the instant you buy it, without having to press an additional “Download” button.
Having to manually trigger a download is far from the end of the world, mind you. But again, at least offering the option would save me from having to click the download prompt. I would be a happy Gamer Baby.
There have been a few instances where I bought a game at work, only to get home later and excitedly fired up my rig only to realize I forgot to trigger the download and would now have to wait a couple hours (depending on the file size). This is the exact scenario I was hoping to avoid in the first place.
And look, I get it. First-world lazy Gamer Baby problems, right? I am acutely aware how lazy this makes me seem. But considering how streamlined and effortless it is to do this on the Nintendo eShop, a digital platform that gets few other things right, I think it’s high time for Sony and Microsoft to crib this feature — or, at the very least, offer it as an option.
That is all.
