When did Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft start making retail games available digitally on their storefronts?

[AppleKid]

Pretty straightforward question, but I'm looking back on my 360 catalog and wondering how many of my retail games I could have actually bought digitally at the time of release.

For Nintendo, I know it started day 1 on Wii U and iirc began on 3DS with New Super Mario Bros. 2 in August of that same year. But were PS3 and 360 retail titles available digitally throughout their entire generation? Or was it something that became commonplace mid-gen?

Was trying to look around for talk of this from the start and middle of that gen but couldn't find anything substantial. Thanks in advance!

 

[Vertpin]

PS3/PSP for PlayStation.

 

[Fire Bocchi]

for ps3 and 360 it was something that became more common near the middle of their lifespans, probably when they started shipping 100GB+ systems,

digital retail was definitely not a thing when the largest models were like 80GB

 

[Bigkrev]

I remember it was a big deal that Mass Effect 3 was day and date Digital on PS3 and Sony was doing more of this than Microsoft was, but it wasn't a normal thing till PS4/X1

 

[nightstalker962]

Around Summer 2008 on PS3, but it picked up after June 2010.

 

[MJForum Poster]

The 360 started dipping its toes in the water with "Games on Demand" during the 360 era. I don't think they were day and date with brick and mortar though

 

[Plinkerton]

Sony was doing it with certain games like Warhawk really early in the PS3 era, but it wasn't a ubiquitous thing for a while.

 

[Cess007]

I remember Warhawk being a big deal in part because it was one of the first game that had a retail and digital version at release

 

[fiendcode]

Going off memory here but:

PlayStation was mid cycle PSP (2007)
Xbox was mid cycle 360 (2008)
Nintendo was early cycle 3DS (2012)

 

[Xeonidus]

Sony made a big splash towards the end of the PS3 generation with their PSN Day 1 Digital initiative:

https://blog.playstation.com/2012/0...t-these-8-ps3-games-digitally-on-release-day/

I'm sure there were more examples of this before though like the PSP.

 

[VG Aficionado]

A couple of the earliest digital retail games on PS3 were Wipeout HD and Burnout Paradise, which I believe launched the same week in September 2008 (BP was available in January on disc only). It took off very slowly but I ended up buying all my games digitally whenever I could.

I think it took them a while because of strategic decisions (whatever they were) and also because PS3's OS wasn't quite ready in terms of RAM allocation for HDD loading - for games that weren't designed around it anyway. The tech was probably not very much in place before 2008, as we got reports throughout 2006-2007 regarding how Sony kept reducing the RAM footprint of every OS-related feature in order to get more usable system RAM and some more VRAM too.

 

[jwk94]

PS3/PSP for PlayStation.

Click to shrink...

Yep! I remember the early "day 1 digital" days. Then when vita launched, everything went digital, same with the ps4 launch.

 

[fiendcode]

Starting with Vita every console after offered full game downloads from launch (Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X).

 

[Regiruler]

August 19, 2012 in North America for Nintendo.

 

[Tunesmith]

Xbox 360 Games on Demand started second half of 2009, it was announced during that year's E3 show.

 

[Deleted member 5189]

I remember that Kid Icarus Uprising was one of the first 3DS games that were available digital from the 3DS eShop. I was mad that the system didn't launch with the eShop and i had to buy retail games for a while.

The Wii U had everything digital from the start, I sold my copy of Nintend Land immediately and rebought it from the eShop.

I see no value in modern retail games, with the absence of manuals etc.

 

[Twister]

I see no value in modern retail games, with the absence of manuals etc.

Click to shrink...

Actually owning them forever no matter what happens to the store, saving storage space (on Wii U/3DS/Switch), playing unpatched versions of games (for speedrunning or for uncapped framerates like GOW 2018), lending them, selling if you dislike a game, you don't lose them if you get banned from online, the list goes on

 

[krae_man]

For PlayStation, I think the first game was Warhawk.

Literally every detail game being available digitally? That didn't happen until PS4/Vita.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

The first big game that was day and date digital as well for Microsoft was Grand Theft Auto V. The caveat being you couldn't play it until the next day. The launch timers weren't set to Midnight until the Xbox One.

 

[Deleted member 5189]

Actually owning them forever no matter what happens to the store, saving storage space (on Wii U/3DS/Switch), playing unpatched versions of games (for speedrunning or for uncapped framerates like GOW 2018), lending them, selling if you dislike a game, you don't lose them if you get banned from online, the list goes on

Click to shrink...

All my Nintendo systems are hacked. I make regular backups of everything. There shouldn't be any problem, if Nintendo will disable the server.

 

[Regiruler]

I remember that Kid Icarus Uprising was one of the first 3DS games that were available digital from the 3DS eShop. I was mad that the system didn't launch with the eShop and i had to buy retail games for a while.

The Wii U had everything digital from the start, I sold my copy of Nintend Land immediately and rebought it from the eShop.

I see no value in modern retail games, with the absence of manuals etc.

Click to shrink...

It wasn't available digitally for quite some time, if I remember right. Nintendo waited until you could get the pack in materials separately.

 

[criteriondog]

I remember specifically "Day 1 Digital" being a big thing on the PS3 Store, with Assassin's Creed III and GTAV.

Day 1 digital wasn't always there on PS3, but became pretty popular at the end of the gen, but was available a bit earlier.

 

[Deleted member 9584]

Nintendo started with the 3DS during summer of 2012 and they mandated every first party game from there on out to be on the digital store.