Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data. Instead, the game-key card is your “key” to downloading the full game to your system via the internet.
Pay a premium for a physical copy of your game, and the cartridge may not contain the actual game. Only on Nintendo Switch 2.
Not that I agree with it, but isn’t this what other consoles have done for about a decade already?
Physical media for games is on its deathbed.
Yes/No. Both Sony and Microsoft have quality control processes to ensure that whatever is published is going to play on first entry of the disc.
That said, publishers use A LOT of workarounds. Day 1 patches to “finish” the game. Download code inserts. And as of recent, mandatory online server check-ins. As far as I’m aware, Nintendo is the only one who allows publishing half the product with required download.
Seems so. Notably, Switch 1 already has games with a similar warning on the box.
They’re just giving a name to it.
On one hand, I’m glad they’re up front about it (and I’d rather see an even uglier, larger warning on the cover for game key cards). On the other, I hope this isn’t a sign that they’re legitimizing it or that it’ll be more common.
One of the things I really like about the Switch is that I can actually buy a whole physical game that doesn’t need an Internet connection. Sure, I have to check a website first, but I can at least curate my wishlist with games that are complete on cart.
At least them giving it a new name makes choosing games easier, I guess.
There will still be normal cart. With a day one patch or not.
I don’t like the idea of a game that can’t be played long after the servers have gone down.
But I’m glad that it can still be traded or sold after purchase unlike what Xbox tried to do.
Not only on Switch 2. There was at least one Tony Hawk Pro Skater game that did this.
If I remember the episode of Guru Larry, the developer noticed their rights to the IP were set to expire, so they went to shit out one last game as fast as possible. They had to get the game published by a certain date, as in discs on store shelves by this date. The game was not going to be ready in time, so they put the tutorial level on the disc to print and distribute it while they finished the game, which would then be a multi-gigabyte download. Meaning that a physical copy of the game is worthless once the servers shut down.
So these physical copies will only cost $5, right? Lol.
“We want to kill physical game sales forever and we aren’t hiding it anymore.” - Nintendo, 2025
Actually from the prices I’ve seen online they are about 5 /10 dollars more than digital versions.
Not much different from these now day that have only a code.
Did not buy and went to the e-shop.
So they essentially stuffed a download code into a physical cartridge to make people feel like they are getting something?
Isn’t that needless and wasteful? Isn’t it also going to trick unsuspecting people into buying something they think is a physical version of a game but isn’t?
Nintendo’s site says the cartridge must always be inserted in order to play the game, and so it is the cartridge that controls the game license.
On that basis it seems likely you could sell/give the cartridge to someone else, after which they can play it and you no longer can - they’d just also have to download it first.
Until the download servers go down and you have a cartridge that’s just ewaste
Yes, which is a big part of why, despite allowing transfers, it still sucks.
Thank you for the clarification!
I still don’t like it.
Me neither. It’s basically a download game but with physical DRM in the form of a cartridge. The age of genuine physical game ownership is toast.
They’ve been doing that for decades now. Lots of PC games had a box and CD, but the only thing on it was a stub installer to run Steam. Or even if it had the full game, you’d have to download a giant day-one patch to fix all the bugs fixed between the image going gold and the actual release day.
Nothing new here. PS3 games were famous for requiring an install from the optical media to the internal drive first, and then also downloading some mandatory major update before running. The role of the physical media was mostly symbolic.
They better have a proper label / sticker there.
For collectors, and resell value compared to a paper with a code.
One thing I don’t see people mentioning is that Nintendo Switch 1 game cartridges had 32gb of storage. We don’t know about regular Switch 2 cartridge storages, but they’ve already announced games like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy that are much bigger than that. Add in the fact that Switch 2 promises games in 4k (when docked) and there’s a very decent chance that these game-key cartridges exist because some games wouldn’t fit in cartridges and would otherwise have to be digital-only or not be on this console at all.
I don’t think there is anything stopping nintendo from making 64GB or larger cartridges except the cost.
Had a scare when first hearing this. But somewhere else on the site it does specify this as something like “some physical games”, and as quoted in OP they’re contrasting here with “regular game cards”. So it looks like real game cards will still be a thing.
So far I’ve seen screenshots of SFVI and Bravely Default boxarts marked as game-key cards.
I’ve seen box shots for Mario Kart and Donkey Kong that appear to be normal game cards.
Fuck you Nintendo. Because if you lose or damaged the game card, making it unreadable by the card slot, you won’t be able to play the game. Due to the game card having the license that allows you to play the game. You’ll own nothing and you’ll like it, gamer.
That’s a really dumb take. That’s just the downside of physical media.
The real problem of this is just the same as the digital games. Once the Nintendo switch store inevitably goes offline like the Wii and 3DS, your key card becomes useless e-waste no matter how good you care for it.
Question. Did you open OPs link? Because all you’re doing is buying a license on cartridge. You have to download the game and you need to insert the cartridge to play the game. Nintendo managed to figure out a way to add all the inconveniences of physical media to digital only games.
Yes, and did you read wha ti said?.. I agree with what you just said. The positive of physical card is that you can lend them. I still think it’s a horrible product, and I’m afraid this will be the end of physical games.
That’s a really dumb take.
I agree with what you just said.
🤔
The dumb take is that this is a bad idea because you might damage the card. That’s silly because that’s just the trade off of portability.
Isn’t that how all physical media works?
No. You have to download the game and need the cartridge to play it.
It’s not unheard of, though. Modern Warfare 2 had only a 70MB file on its disc, basically a license, and required you to download the actual game.
Note I’m not defending this. It’s a nightmare for game preservation and pushes us ever further in the direction of never owning anything. I’m just saying Nintendo isn’t breaking new ground with this particular outrage.
People are referring to damaged physical media = can’t play it. That’s always been the case. You mixed 2 different things into the same point, which are wildly distinct and why people say they agree partially.
At least there’s marking on the packaging so you’d know which ones to avoid getting.
Oh gross, that’s enough to end the retro market entirely. When the Switch 2 retires, the entire used game trade goes with it.
You know, unless hShop picks it up.
Many Ubisoft games and Activision games on the Switch 1 were sold like this.
Switch cards hold a maximum of 32GB, maybe that’s why? Although it seems no excuse for Switch 2, given it’s a whole new generation, why not support larger cards? I mean you can buy a 256GB microSD for $15, and that’s a private individual buying one; at scale, the memory can’t be too expensive…
But the Switch cards are not MicroSD cards. MicroSD cards are produced at much larger scales than Switch game cards. And there are many manufacturers producing the MicroSDs. That’s why MicroSD cards are so cheap because there is competition. While the game cards are a bespoke design using non-standard flash memory and only produced by Nintendo’s partners in lower numbers than MicroSD cards. I heard from a publisher that they had to pay $8 per unit for the 16GB card when they released a small indie game for the Switch 1. That was almost the price of the digital version. So they had to charge double for the retail version. The Switch cards are relatively expensive that’s why many publishers opted for a small card and forced the consumer to download the rest even when the game could fit on the bigger card. And Nintendo still takes a royalty for every game sold on top of that.
But even if a publisher could buy a 256GB Switch card for $10 bucks that is money not going into the publishers pocket. So of course a publisher like Activision will opt for the smallest card possible so they can earn a couple of bucks more per game sold.
