I really appreciate how a lot of stuff on the Playstation Network supports cross-buy. Cross-buy is when you buy a game once and have it for use on multiple systems, so I could buy Game X on PS4 and also get it on PS3 and even Vita. Not every game on PSN supports it and not all games are always on every Sony platform, but it’s appreciated when it shows up. Actually I did mention two cross-buy games a little while back: Rogue Legacy and Oddworld: New ‘n Tasty.
I would love to see Nintendo adopt a cross-buy policy. Their account system is really outdated and has been for years, which has been the source of complaint from many players. What I find aggravating is the need to re-purchase things like virtual console games. Back when the Wii came out I bought Super Mario World for 8 bucks or whatever it was. When the Wii U came out you had to purchase your stuff all over again. I think any game tied to your Wii was reduced in price to like a buck or two but that still seems petty. That’s actually another annoying aspect of Nintendo systems. Most of your content is tied to hardware so you are forced to do system transfers if you get a new system. For the 3DS they used to limit these to like 1 a year or something but fortunately they changed that. I do love Nintendo but they seem extremely slow at adapting to new technology and concepts.
One thing that you pretty much never see is cross-system cross-buy. Take Zen Pinball for example. Currently it is released on pretty much every platform imaginable and by now there are a crap-load of tables. It would be really awesome if your tables were tied to your account, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. It’s especially frustrated for anybody who bought tables on the Wii U since they all but abandoned the console outright. That’s pretty much what happened in my case so if I wanted to move over and start purchasing some of the new tables on PS4 then I would need to repurchase every table that I had on Wii U. That’s like over $30 in pinball tables. BUT… the tables are cross-buy within their respective brands so all of your tables on PSN are shared across PS3/PS4/Vita and Xbox 360/One. Still, it would be pretty sweet if you could hop onto Steam and access all of your tables when away from your consoles. A global account would be much appreciated.
Speaking of Global accounts, I think BioWare actually does something to that effect. I believe all of your content is tied to your BioWare account, or at least some of it, and is accessible across various systems. I haven’t tested this out between consoles like PS3 and Xbox 360 but I was able to access a majority of my content in the PC versions of Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 after having previously played them on Xbox. I remember Keen and I thought that was pretty nifty at the time.
In general I would like to see a lot more cross-buy enabled products and overall it would be great if there were more cross-system compatibility. I’m not completely certain but I think I heard Keen say that the iPad version of Hearthstone uses your same account and cards and I think even lets you play with PC people. If I’m mistaken I’m sure he will probably edit that out. That’s pretty much the end of my ramblings.