Nintendo fans will finally be able to back up their eshop purchases online with their Nintendo Accounts when the Switch arrives. This is a welcome change from how previously digital purchases have been tied to the console itself, forcing fans to re-buy previously owned titles on new consoles, when online infrastructure should have allowed otherwise (as Nintendo’s competitors have done for some time now).
Eagle-eyed viewers caught this fact in a bit of fine print revealed during a Switch unboxing video recently posted by YouTube gaming channel FloKO. The text shows up briefly around 3:00 in, as highlighted below:
https://twitter.com/BjoernTheSmexy/status/832419152740626433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Your Nintendo Account contains your Nintendo eShop purchase history and current balance. By re-linking your Nintendo Account after initializing the console, it will be possible to redownload any software or DLC purchased using that account. (Software that has been discontinued may not be available to redownload in some cases.)”
For a company with such a devoted fan base, Nintendo’s lack of a centralized, cross-platform account has long felt like an obvious oversight. The introduction of Nintendo Accounts in 2016 was a step in the right direction, but this has been the first indication that they will follow through to the necessary conclusion of backing up purchases online. While historically one of the gaming space’s great innovators, Nintendo has been distinctly conservative when it comes to embracing the emergence of online gaming and commerce.
The Switch arrives on March 3 as the much-maligned Wii U’s tenure ends not with a bang, but a whimper. Nintendo has been cagey in the lead-up to launch since the Switch was first announced, but signs like this and the more adult-directed advertising campaign suggest the gaming mainstay is really hoping to shake things up with its new console.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.