2d ago

Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview | Nintendo Support

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.

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60 comments

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.

60 comments