Rumour: New Leak May Explain Why So Many Switch 2 Physicals Are Game Key Cards

I read this leaker tends to fill in gaps of information with personal assumptions and is very unreliable.

And yet they can't release a switch 1 version with a switch 2 patch automatically installed?

ffs. Marvelous is already doing something like this!!!

Source: Trust me bro

The simple answer here is that smaller sizes are not significantly cheaper to produce, or cannot be produced for whatever reason. Nintendo doesn't benefit whatsoever from hoarding smaller cards, nor would they benefit from only producing significantly more expensive 64GB cards because none of their announced games even need that much space, Bananza would fit on a 16GB card!

The idea that Nintendo is purposefully sabotaging not only other developers but also themselves is pretty preposterous.

The whole point of having a handheld is the feeling you can take a bunch of games with you either on cartridge or downloads on the go. The memory in the Switch 2 is pretty small for these games’ file sizes, and even just doubling that memory will cost about eighty quid. My internet is pretty slow (it took me 5 days to download 150gb of Jedi Survivor on the PS5), so I’ll be wary of deleting and re-downloading games.

It’s not just the price of the games I will consider, but if it’s worth the space they will take up on the Switch 2 memory.

Speaking of which anyone know if FF VII is gonna be one of those stupid key card deals? Doubt I'll get any of those.

@Truegamer79

Already confirmed to be a key card.

EDIT: upon looking for my source I could no longer find it. I apologise but I didn't vet the claim before making it.

Nintendo: making life miserable for third party devs since 1983

I don't care about the reason here. I'm a consumer, I'm the one who gets the final product in his hands, I'm the one being affected here on the bottom line, so I'm the one who is going to opt out from purchasing any game that comes in a game key card.

I really, truly, very much hope these game key cards are going to flop hard. Let there be another desert cartridge dumping.

I'm hoping that Switch 2 will be successful enough in the first 1-2 years of release that Nintendo will figure something out to make the actual game cards either cheaper or more enticing for third party publishers to use.

I'm willing to put up with game key cards in the short term but I feel like this is gonna be detrimental in the long term. I'd actually be alright paying a little more for Switch 2 games if it means they are fully on cart.

@Overzeal
Figures, Switch 2 what an upgrade! Not.

It's expensive to produce numerous variations of cards as opposed to one single type; in the grand scheme of things, it's cheaper for Nintendo to make only 64 GB cards than to offer 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, etc.

If this is legit, what an odd choice. I wonder how much cheaper it is to produce 8, 16, or 32 GB carts than it is to produce 64 GB? Are they able to manufacture 64 GB for less if they buy in bulk, so they just stuck with the one size to keep costs down? I'm so curious!

I mean you claim Split Fiction is a game card key, it isn't, it's a code in a box. Funnily enough that point proves how this leak could well be bollards, it mentions nothing about code in a box being an option, unless they are that as digital only which seems unlikely.

Seems like an odd benchmark to sit at 64 GB if true, though that would certainly explain why many third party publishers are going the game-key card route. Not sure there's anyone to truly blame, though I can't make that call without knowing exactly all the logistics that go into manufacturing the Switch 2 cartridges. I really wish we had more transparency regarding this process.

I'll never say never, but I'll honestly opt against game-key cards when I can. Which may mean either skipping a Switch 2 game or even buying it on another platform (fully realizing I may unfortunately have to go digital in a few cases).

Again, HELL NO to all game key card release !!!
I will NOT even support that BS products !

rather get actual info about this from nintendo themselves any rumors like this we should take as a grain of salt.

Why Nintendo can't jump to Blu-Ray format? It's cheaper than their Switch cartridges, no?

@StewdaMegaManNerd more like some third party devs being lazy if not taking advantage of 64gb cartridges.

At this rate, we'll only have room for about four major games (if that!) on a 256GB microSD X.

Even digital customers are getting screwed over as they'll have to swap microSDs almost as much as physical customers swap cartridges (in which case, why not just spring for a proper physical copy of larger games, where available), and for those buying anti-physical releases, two cards at once!

This isn't sustainable even in the short-term as customers will quickly be frustrated with having to buy a new microSD X for every few games they buy (and more in households with multiple Switch 2s), and I can't wait to see the bloodbath unfold and third parties change their tune and issue proper physical releases in response to widespread backlash...

We can only hope anyway.

@Vyacheslav333 becauses cartridges store more data then discs and discs are slowly dying off.

@Vyacheslav333 you want a portable console with a giant blu-ray drive attached to it?

uhhuh uhhuh... if he says so, it must be so.

@RiasGremory I was joking and referring to the fact that apparently Nintendo used to require third party developers to go through a ton of hoops in order to get their games on the NES/FC. In terms of the cartridge situation right now, I have no idea who’s to blame.

@Vyacheslav333 : Blu-rays are slower than Switch cartridges, and if reduced to mini DVD-like sizes, would be too small for many games (7.5GB for single layer, 15GB for double), and even more so if reduced to a UMD-like size.

Plus, who would want to carry around fragile optical discs over compact and durable cartridges?!

Is that why they price hiked? Btw did welcome tour have a physical.

You know as a late response to the switch eShop having a price floor of 2usd I noticed some bundles being sold to somewhat get around that. Hard to imagine that happening much for these switch 2 games though besides maybe sonic/sega since they've them before. I'm just thinking would they do a package deal of ff7r and bravely for a real physical release and charge more?

every physical cart would probably cost 70 and perhaps 80 bucks for some games is that worth the price for having the entire game on the cart?

@Polley001 - There may be some truth to that. Saw somewhere else that tech is far advancing beyond ehat we can pay. I remember having a 4gb mSD card before the Switch, and remember having a 64-ish one halfway through.

Nowadays, I don't see anything under three digits, and the TB monoliths that used to be rare, are all over.

Basically, everything from phones, to cameras, to videos and such all require more cause people want numbers.

I keep asking and no one has said anything, how much data does a Key Card hold?

@Vyacheslav333 Umm, at that point they might as well just make a home console.

@Spider-Kev They hold nothing as far as I’ve heard; they just give you access to the digital file of the game in question.

Why can't the 64gb cards hold 64gb of a game and the rest gets downloaded?
Why make us use up 100gb per game?

A 1tb EX card is going to fill up super quick this Gen!

@StewdaMegaManNerd
That's crap! Every card should be a 64gb then!
We shouldn't be penalized for this!

After loosing my physical game card collection and 2x switch consoles (sons and my one) in 2020 in a car fire. I'm happy to have my games digital. Insurance covered £150 worth of contents so didn't touch a thing. Just give me affordable storage going forward.

@RiasGremory You mean game discs, right?

@RupeeClock You are very correct. Ofcourse it's just NAND-flash which is produced by companies like Samsung, Kingstonm, etc. But the production of high speed nand < 64GB isn't going to be viable for them.

@Vyacheslav333
1: Data speeds are too slow using disks

2: disks make portability impossible

@Beermonkey
EV?

Regardless, sorry that happened.

Already figured this tbh. Still sucks tho. Think it may be a technical limitation on Nintendo's part? Don't think they're real happy about printing all of their games on 64 gb.

I can honestly not believe Nintendo hasn't seen this coming... They factored the price of Switch 2 into sales forecast but not the cost of cartridges into game sales?? They couldn't have naively just assumed everybody would suddenly switch to digital and pay for expensive express cards!!
Curious how this situation will evolve in the lead up to release...

The way these are manufactured it's likely the cost of a smaller card would be negligible, so there might not be any point offering 8/16/32GB cards.

Nintendo has access to sales data the public doesn’t. If it was fiscally viable they would make more options. But if sales are leaning towards digital it makes sense to offer a few options for physical and focus on digital.

I’m just wondering how long it will take sandisk to put out a 2TB express card. Really all I am waiting on. Granted the internal memory is large enough for the launch games I am getting. So no big worry there.

It might actually be legit, since if the Switch 2 cartridges are MicroSD Express. It's very much possible the smallest available memory module is 64GB.

The vast majority of SD cards are used in video/photo cameras and some Android phones that have a slot for it.
And these days no one is buying small cards anymore, so it makes no sense to develop and produce anything smaller than 64GB these days.

@Spider-Kev The game-key cards must be a much cheaper memory type, which will therefore be slower. The total storage is less relevant than the chip type itself (which we don't know ATM)

They will soon fix this if no one buys the key cards.
The negative press around these will already have Nintendo talking.

people will defend nintendo no matter what they do huh haha. this is clearly by design. the big three are phasing out physical media to cut out used game sales entirely. the ps5 will likely be the last sony console to launch with an optical drive out of the box. when the ps6 launches, most people won't bother to pay the extra $100 to get the drive (if they can even find one for sale due to artificial scarcity and lack of supply). this means that the scales will tip even further towards a digital-only platform, outside of a few premium and limited run releases strictly for rich collectors....

well, nintendo is likely going down the same road as sony and will do its part to discourage physical collecting as much as possible. this fate was written a while ago now, but it's that much more sad to see as it comes to fruition. one of the last chaming things left in the AAA space (as it has become just so soulless and by the numbers for a good 15-20 years now) was the ability to purchase physical media and have a little collection to show for it if you so desired.

with all that said, it is good news that you can still trade and re-sell game key cards. that ability makes this dire news a bit easier to stomach and to be honest, contradicts my first point about nintendo going all in on digital-only sales... at least for now... it sort of feels like a PR move not to lose all the goodwill in one blow. but in time, i am certain nintendo will ensure that game key cards are tired to a single account because... why wouldn't they?

The sad reality is Nintendo are trying their hardest to push people into buying digitally. Making their physical games cost more than digital, and now making it cost more for developers to choose physical (properly).

I wouldn't be surprised if we see an all digital iteration half way through the Switch 2 life cycle and the Switch 3 to be digital only.

Sometimes, it would help if Nintendo just came out and clarified these rumours. But if they are only offering limited card options, then there'll be a backlash from gamers. And if they are offering more carts and publishers are just choosing to be cheap, then there'll be backlash against publishers from gamers and Nintendo might lose support from publishers. I guess when game like mario kart world is released, someone out there will be able to say with certainty what size cart it is.

Sorry but I think Nintendo is doing a Wii U. It is too close to the original product and some people aren't going to understand it's a new console, just think it's an upgrade. Well, which it is to be honest.
And this Game Key nonsense is going to make things worse

Hmmmm, this is all feeling a little half-way house from Switch 1 to 2. Switch 1 games are emulated and Switch 2 physical releases restricted to 64gb carts. It's a shame they couldn't just make the Switch 2 run Switch 1 games natively and just carry on allowing publishers to use the smaller Switch 1 carts for smaller indies releases.

In some kind of twisted turn of events I could actually see Switch 1 games being released physically beyond Switch 2 physical games.

Makes sense they opted for a single full storage card. Yes it costs more, but that’s in line with everything about this sequel

Could they not also have an option to release on switch-1-class cards, which are cheaper to manufacture, but then would require initial installing? That would keep prices down, make the game preservation afficionados happy, not require internet downloads, etc etc?

I may be stating (or restating) the obvious here, but the worst aspect of key cards is the inevitability that they won't last. Buying one would not mean owning the game, it would mean getting to use it for roughly maybe 10-15 yrs or so until the distributor decides it's too expensive to maintain the server where it's stored.
[pours one out for the 3DS & WiiU eshops]

i don't give a f... what the reason for the rise of game key cards is. this should not be "promoted" or supported at all. if greedy companies get greedier i get more radical with my stance. companies get greedier and greedier and the only one that pays for that and looses is the customer. why the hell have companies to get through with their attitude to train humanity to stop using their brain? i hate it when they think that AI or computer should take my "job" in thinking and decide what is better for me and what not. example is that ***** youtube AI translator that not only translates video titles but now also translate dubs and their is no option to turn it off. same goes with windows deciding how i have to use my bluetooth headphones. it decides for me if i have to use handsfree or not.

nintendo goes the same direction and forces fixed cart sizes and pushes publisher to use gamekey cards or digital only. why? just why? this modern world suxxs and sadly there is no way out of this crap.

@Spider-Kev @StewdaMegaManNerd @SillyG @RiasGremory Okay, understandable. 😅

@Anti-Matter Sony is arguably allowing worse. Doom with only 84mb on disk. Blu Rays are peanuts compared to carts.

Again, Nintendo is getting flak because they are the last to move to digital. Sony/Xbox have been on the journey to digital for a long time.

@Oneironaut0 I think in 10-15 years, everything will be digital except for a resurgence of physical with a small market share ala vinyl at a premium price.

In all honesty being a gamer from the 80's, most games of today that I want to replay 15-20 years down the line are widely available in some shape or form and not too expensive either. Of all of the games that I have played in a decade, it's only a small percentage that I go back to.

Everything in life is a rental anyway.

These game key cards really annoy people. Honestly won't effect myself one bit as I've gone full digital these days. Just buy the games I want to play, then move onto the next game. In the past was collecting cases for display purposes but never played many of these titles. I actually sold alot of these games and currently off loading to put towards a Switch 2. You don't need every game and just do you. Be happy gaming at your own pace and never be pressured into buying something you won't get use out of. Good vibes to everyone

@Oneironaut0
You can still redownload 3DS and Wii Ugame bought off their eShop, you just can't buy anything on there now.

Also, like it or not physical media doesn't last forever either. Eventually the game cards will fail and you will have loss your game. The only way to promote preserving games is through piracy and emulation

@Bunkerneath
Playstation has been using the same naming scheme for the past 30 years and it's never failed them. Also I'm not sure if non-gamers even really care about the game key cards - just seems to be something I see talked about online and nowhere else

The future is all digital.

Game-keys are awful, and basically every game comes on it! That way it doesn't make sense to buy "physical" third-party games, you could just as well download them all (wich fills up those expensive Micro-sd cards even quicker).

On a sidenote, it seems that on rival consoles there are games that need to be installed even if they come on a disc. That is also awful and fills up your memory too.

@IceClimbers
The future all digital is the future I hate.

@IceClimbers it's pretty much the case with film and music so I don't really get the massive backlash in gaming. Give me the choice and yes I would probably prefer physical but I can't stop the inevitable and I'm not going to miss out playing a game I want to play on a principle I can't change.

@Anti-Matter Time to step off the hobby then and just go retro.

Hate is not a good emotion to carry so perhaps the future and playing new games is no longer for you.

Just don't take it as an excuse for game-key cards please. There's no excuse for them to even exist. If you release a physical game, put it all on cart. Yes, it will be more expnesive for you, but you'll treat your customer with dignity and respect. Your product will sell better as well. I don't know, what's here more to explain?

@KociolekDoSyta I genuinely think the average gamer not on these threads that probably makes up the majority of sales won't care.

@Duncanballs um...I think you might wanna rethink that last part with movies. Last i saw...plenty of companies are still releasing films on 4k and Blu-ray by the numbers. might wanna do some research first.

Games...i can see physical media dying off. but don't think it'll be the same for movies. they take up less space depending how they're compressed or uncompressed. Plus...and many will often have an extra disk for...you know...special features and stuff. It's one of the reason why i by movies more than games nowadays. plus...blu-rays are cheaper anyways.

Always trying to look on the bright side, the quicker we get to the inevitable all digital the quicker competition will emerge in new digital store fronts. Competition gives us choice and cheaper than RRP prices.

We have a ton of game-key cards and even three code-in-a-box games before the Switch 2 is even out. If publishers are opting out of physical that early, it's only going to get worse.

@DanijoEX-The-Kumiho just Google overall blu ray sales decline. Yes the availability is still strong but sales overall are declining. Disk media is cheap so I expect physical release costs are more bearable for distributors. It's just a slower path to all digital but the trajectory is there.

I'll happily be corrected, but I did my research and have read many an article on the decline of physical film sales.

@Duncanballs then you oughta check out on Blu-ray.com and then come back to me. That's why i'll be glad to retire from gaming. I couldn't care less about physical games dying...i'm done.

Look at how releases there are and maybe talk with the folks there. many buy 4K discs movies. Think about it...and think about it real good. i'm not buying into the idea that Blu-ray sale are declining. Not to mention that DVD's are still making up the large percentage. Look into that also.

Also...I think it's time for me to stop coming and commenting in these articles. Cause it's not doing me any favors and I'm a big supporter for physical media...

I'm not going to fall for this digital BS. i'm sick of it. But at this point...I think I should take a hiatus for while. Just for the sake of my sanity.

@DanijoEX-The-Kumiho Let's leave it there with a difference of opinion. Your wording is getting a little argumentative. Always happy for a good debate but I'm not on here to fall out with anyone. Have a good one.

@Duncanballs Yep, you're right. I hoped that game-key cards wouldn't sell well, but the more I read comments everywhere the more I start to think that next iteration of Switch will be digital only. They will be happy that they can resell it and that's it. People who won't be buying them are just a small percentage overall. It's already done, before it even started.

@Duncanballs Well that's why I'm taking a week break from this site.

The 8-4 Play podcast or Nintendo World Report discussed this issue a week or so ago. The cost of storage would mean slimmer margins for publishers. It wouldn’t make sense.

@Bunkerneath
People didn’t have an issue distinguishing the PS4 from the PS3 or any other PlayStation console.

I'll just state that for the most part, buying physical games on the OG Switch was a very satisfying experience. I bought several hundred! And for each one I bought, despite often having a day-one patch/update, the game was present and playable on the cartridge. No worries about my internet connection or logging in or whatever.

Now on Switch 2, these pseudo-physical "game-key" releases are a real downgrade compared to previous. Sony and XBox players have been coping with this shrinkflation for years, but really it's a new (and depressing) phenomenon for Nintendo fans. I can grudgingly understand going with game keys for huge cinematic games in excess of 64GB, but it's alarming to see game keys used for small games like 3DS ports and Puyo-Puyo. The physical media is not fulfilling its purpose at that point.

I don't know where the blame lies for all this, and at this point I don't want to keep stressing over it. I just have to accept this unfortunate reality and buy the legitimate physical games I want (like Cyberpunk and Nintendo's games) and forget the rest. My policy since the Wii U is I don't buy digital unless it is deeply discounted, and for the most part that policy will apply to game keys, too. It will really reduce what I spend on games on Switch 2, but in this economy, that's kind of a good thing.

Let's just cut to the chase. Nintendo is trying to kill off physical media and force people to an all digital future. The key card garbage is their way of "easing" consumers into it.

Sorry, I’ve been all digital on every system since the tail end of the PS3 era. What’s going on???

If you don't like it, don't buy it.

Money talks. Angry comments on the internet doesn't.

It's really that simple.

@Truegamer79 this is a very important question. If they weren’t above putting KH1-2 in cloud, they surely won’t be above using key cards for FF7

Nowadays, for (real) physical games the only advantage is, that it doesn't take up space on the console's internal storage/sd card. And this is only true for Nintendo consoles, since on the others you need to install the game and lose storage anyway. 🤷‍♂️

I'll add my voice to the chorus that sales are the only metric that counts here. I hold a candle of hope that virtually nobody will buy these worst-of-both-worlds bait-and-switch cartridges (I certainly won't, for any reason whatsoever) and Nintendo and all the publishers will eventually get the message. But consumers as a whole have legitimised phones without headphone jacks and software-as-a-service; there's a high chance that the target market for these things won't even be aware of what they're doing. "Oh, my game needs to download something before I can play it; whatever." And just like that it's the new normal.

@Spider-Kev Skoda diesel. Electrics in the engine. Luckily we were parked outside. Managed to take out 3 other cars and thankfully no one was injured. Only an hour early we were parked at an IKEA in the underground parking. Could have taken out the store.
Quick edit. My wife did manage to rescue the toilet brushes bought from IKEA that were in the car leaving coats, purse, switch's and games, son's favourite comfort blanket etc to burn. Priorities.

If it’s true then I’m guessing this is them making a choice due to wanting to wanting the speed of these to match the internal storage, having a larger amount of NAND memory increases speeds and 64GB was the number they kept hitting to achieve it, there could even be bizarre stuff where a 16/32GB option that hits that speed threshold is actually as much if not even more expensive than going with 64GB.

Surprised they didn’t offer a compromise where a game could ship on a slower 16/32GB card and just install to internal/external storage but still require the game card inserted to play, this would be better than key cards but unfortunately publishers are going to like how those are cheaper.

Just download the games - it's 2025, 64GB isn't all that much for the kind of releases people want to see on Switch 2 (e.g. Baldur's Gate 3 as an example, which on Steam clocks in at 144.7GB)

@AllBLK
It's always and ever will be greedy, evil Nintendo.😑
Please tell, what exactly are the advantages of physical games nowadays?

@Old-Red Switch 1 games aren't fully emulated on Switch 2.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-16-nintendo-switch-2-part-4/

"If we tried to use technology like software emulators, we’d have to run Switch 2 at full capacity, but that would mean the battery wouldn't last so long, so we did something that’s somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility."

The CPU alone is already backwards compatible, and noted by leaks and the recent SoC analysis.

@Anti-Matter
What's so bad about them? 🤔

I hate to call this out, but a lot of people do not understand (or do not want to understand) the technology and hurdles regarding this. In order for Switch 2 carts to operate at speeds similar to microSD Express to make use of the technologies in the system, like hardware decompression similar to what PS5 and Series have, they cannot be made with 2D NAND like what Switch 1 uses. It's too slow. They are likely using 3D NAND, which stacks the memory cells vertically in a cube-like manner as opposed to a single layer on a 2D plane. This stacking allows each vertical arrangement of memory cells to be read together as one group rather than one cell at a time, increasing the overall read speed. It is also cheaper than 2D NAND at equal capacity because the memory cells aren't what are expensive. It's the base material that they are laid on that is. Taking a 2D plane of memory cells laid out on this base material, and arranging them in a cube means they can cut down on the base material, cutting the cost overall.

The problem is that manufacturing 3D NAND is a much more complex process, leading to longer manufacturing times. This is likely why we have the possible 64GB-only scenario. They don't have the means to produce multiple capacities without spreading themselves thin. With game sizes becoming increasingly bigger, it made sense for Nintendo and Macronix (the manufacturer of the cart memory) to go with the 64GB variant for the time being. Does this affect games of smaller sizes? Yes, but it is a choice that needed to be made, as going with something smaller would likely cause greater negativity among developers.

@MrGawain
Why not get faster internet? Can you even really do anything with just about 0,4mb/s internet speed?

What happened to Nintendo’s idea of using mature, affordable, withered technology? I doubt every Switch 2 game needs faster speeds, Maybe some smaller games like puyo puyo, Tetris, indies, could use Switch 1 carts.

@Spider-Kev
Why do you say it was an EV? 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

@Vyacheslav333 a blu ray player would make the switch slightly cumbersome out in the wild haha.

@StewdaMegaManNerd
This doesn't even make sense. 🤦‍♂️

@Vyacheslav333
LoL, I for what I wrote, and I don't what you are referring to with the others, so, what is understandable?

@Beermonkey
I know all to well the importance of toilet brushes over a comfort blanket for a baby/toddler ...
Sorry for the loss of that more than anything!

@Michael0916
Those have a higher tendency to burn than an CV.

@Sine
You are such a hero. 😑

@ElkinFencer10 Clearly Nintendo has done the math and it works out, but right now 3rd party developers aren't willing to invest their money in increasing Nintendo's long-term manufacturing efficiency.

@Michael0916

I can get streaming TV, sometimes 2 tv’s at the same time during the evening, but I really don’t really use my computer for work and have no need to spend more money on it.

Which is sort of the issue with the Switch 2 being more expensive in every aspect than the Switch 1.

We are getting an extremely powerful handheld device. One that rivals the steam deck. The system is a powerhouse. The fact this thing can run any physical games is insane in itself.

@Anti-Matter So now we need data on the physical card to be collected? The card itself is not good enough? Man soon its going to be I need the card inserted at least 5 times for it to be collectible.

@DanijoEX-The-Kumiho Physical media sales, be they games or film, is down across the board. We have sales data to back this up. DVDs are still made because they're cheap and presumably still profitable enough to warrant them, but physical is a shrinking market. This isn't opinion.
Also many parts of the developing world never moved past DVD where they remain plentiful and cheap and the preferred type of hard copy.

@Spider-Kev About why Nintendo didn't jump to Blu-Ray.

@Vyacheslav333 ...Because the Switch and Switch 2 don't have disc drives? A disc is literally too big to fit in the system. I'd have thought that would have been very, very obvious.

@Vyacheslav333
Ah, Okay

@Vyacheslav333 Realistically speaking, Nintendo move to Blu-ray; Wii U discs are only technically "not" Bluray discs in the same way that Wii, Xbox, PS2, and Xbox 360 discs aren't DVDs. The encoding is different and proprietary, but for all intents and purposes, Wii U discs are modified Bluray discs.

I pulled the trigger on a 256Gb card. I intend to download most of my games, my kids switch game cards and how they look after them is atrocious. But starting to worry I’ll be flat out having enough storage for more than 8-16 games this way.

Yet another reason to hate Bridget mains

@TheExile285 If Nintendo is successful in its first two years they won't be incentivized to change anything.

I just keep wondering: from the business side of things, why only offer the one size? Is it a supply chain thing? Does it equate to saving oodles of money? I don't get it.

@Aerona I think it'll depend on how third party sales are. If console sales and first party sales are good but third party aren't, they might have a reason to make things cheaper. Or at least provide more options.

@Porco

"the big three are phasing out physical media to cut out used game sales entirely"

Let's not get conspiratorial here. The big three are phasing out physical media because, sadly, it's becoming increasingly more expensive to create physical media with steadily diminishing returns to show for it. In Japan especially, less than half of Nintendo's game sales are of physical carts and discs, and the rest of the world is slowly but inexorably trending in that direction as well.

That having been said, I'll buy physical until the day I leave this world.

It's no brainer here. Just buy the digital version because we, the consumer, have no choice. It's either that or to be a prisoner who cannot access their game without the key, even though you downloaded it digitally.

The conception of Game Key Cards are evil.

@SurprisedRobinChu Don't buy it than. Easy as that. I will enjoy playing my games. Downloading is not a big deal.

I'm not excited for Switch 2.

Low-key hoping they will backpedal on the 64gb restriction. I can't justify paying full price for a digital or key card game and I don't wanna wait years until the prices drop down to 20%.

So physical games will be a rare occurence on Switch 2? I dont want to say that doesnt bode well, but BOY that doesnt bode well

@IceClimbers likely or not, what a dystopian, pessimistic vision

@rallydefault My only thought is that they can't make smaller cards for a lesser price. In laymans terms, 32GB card costs the same to make as a 64GB card, so why bother making a card with half the capacity for nearly the same price?

I'm okay with offering options but why put Game Key Card in there? Why not just offered digital, 32gb, and 64gb? Game Key Card should had never been invented. I know that'll mean less games coming to Switch 2 but better that than having rental games. I'm already okay with Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Madden not existing on Switch so those not coming to Switch 2 would be even better but to have those coming and not be actual games is just lame.

@Overzeal There has been no confirmation if the game will be a Key-Card. Same with games like Elden Ring. There is a high chance that FF7R will be on one tho.

@Truegamer79 No confirmation yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it is on one. I've been holding out hope but if it ends up being a Key-Card I'll just get the game on PS5 or the Series X when it gets announced for it for $20. Nintendo is shooting themselves in the foot. Gamers will end up buying these games on other platforms for a lot less then they have it on their system.

Reliable or not it has some potential possibilities to it. With how much of a pointless thing these are and virtual ones for a limited time as well as yes they want to avoid reselling them I get it.

I'd take a poster in retail stores or a code in a box to tell you to go to the Switch 2 eshop instead. Still funny early 3rd parties had physical on Wii U and no digital and I don't think it was only because of the eshop/other services not on the console till was via an update as they could have added them any time later, what a rare situation that was. XD

From Doom 2016 or others with updates for multiplayer compared to Mortal Kombat only versus battles yeah it's not hard to be questionable of prior physical use cases and how modes, textures, gameplay inputs, NPC/enemy AI and more are. Versus just going eh we will cut it entirely.

I get segmented areas for loading times/how much can be on screen/on going in session or mode cutting and offering via an update multiplayer or so and solo is preserve/accessible on the card.

But even still some games just need to better balance how they present themselves, whether singleplayer and however much is the core to it or otherwise.

That and 3 or 7 game bundles are also an excuse too. Companies have tried every trick in the book and not even offer game select menus either.

I can question the same moving files to a USB/hard drive even if not the same as printing data to a non-read writable DVD or something but even still.

But a card with a code then a paper code slip is just pointless fooling customers and a joke. Again they do seem to forget people without internet still exist or would have to go into town to do it or whatever. Or people that have low data limits then companies with the best networking data transfer because they are too stupid to realise customers don't have that.

Companies always want an excuse to save money so why wouldn't I see it as not just Nintendo and them trying to do what they can with chips, storage sizes and more while third parties get particular or take the lazy option. Could they have others work with the chips sure but they don't due to control over it like in the past not the same but somewhat comparable of license holders and allowing for cartridge printing and licensed/unlicensed.

While not the same as Nintendo in the NES days (again referencing it) being more limited to offer cartridges due to chips or just the how many games can be made in a period of time and that may not apply here still. Their rules/contracts were what they were back then.

Part 2:

Nintendo with carts and the costs involved and other factors can be possible to fill in gaps for. However much so compared to however many companies would rather skip out on a game card anyway and go digital but do or don't want a physical presence for that particular sizeable audience still and codes on cards or paper/artwork to dress it up. It's all a bit ridiculous.

Whether large chip costs for the cards or whichever.

I mean SD Cards are what they are of course, branded Switch ones or not.

Obviously big games matter to have with any system so it makes sense & Indies have only so many that appear on game cards due to their popularity or working out deals to get a physical available at all, rather then game size as of course they can fit on these cart sizes due to how small many can be.

With how much we may continue seeing PS5/Xbox Series X games being lazy with data on the disk is enough in itself whether it was Halo Infinite, Doom, Indy, Jedi Survivor, COD and more. I think companies are just lazy to go 'eh were lazy to put enough data on them, make deals with the factories' or other nonsense reasons.

People said, “I'm not going digital!” Digital sales have increased over the years.

People are mad about some of Nintendo’s decisions. But y'all will get used to it and move on with your lives. Same goes for the $80 games.

I really don’t understand the big deal

There’s really no reason to be buying physical cartridges anymore, unless you are in a developing nation without access to high speed internet.

I didn’t buy a single physical game for the Switch during the entirety of that generation. Why would I?

Just download the games and stop crying about it

@Overzeal Not that I doubt it, but where exactly was this officially confirmed as a Game-key?

@Serpenterror 32GB would probably save them $1 in costs, going from $16 to $15.

below 128GB microSD costs(non-express) from the same series go down by only $1 when halving capacity.
with the 3D nand used for the Switch 2 cartridges you almost certainly have the same diminishing returns going for lower storage capacities.
so following the way microSD prices scale you'd have prices like:
8GB - $13
16GB - $14
32GB - $15
64GB - $16
128GB - $24
256GB - $50

maybe after some time they can get 64GB prices down to something like $10, and they end up with 128GB at $16, and 256GB at $22, and it becomes reasonable to offer different sizes.

indies probably would benefit from releasing their games as "switch 2 editions", releasing a full switch 1 game on an 8GB switch 1 cartridge with a free patch to support 1080p120/4k60, mouse input, and gameshare on switch 2.

physical paradise a switch youtuber who always mention physical carts said his sources mentioned this story 10 days ago seems to be confirmed ..

This is inevitable, as internal storage speeds are becoming faster than those of external storage options currently available. The Switch 2 uses UFS 3.1, which is sufficient and faster than microSD Express.

As others have mentioned, faster SD cards, such as microSD Express, are not available in smaller storage capacities, similar to UFS or SSDs. We cannot use older microSD cards, like those used in the Switch 1 cartridge, as they are slower than UFS 3.1 in terms of speed, performance, and efficiency.

Digital-only future for gaming is very likely.

To me this is the biggest non-story about the Switch 2. Almost every game is patched to heck and back day 1 anyways. This is the same crowd that still wants cds and cassettes, it's over. Anyone who has steam deals with this with little to no complaints. Nintendo is giving companies the option and some companies are choosing key card. It'll be ok.

@iPharRaoH
I thought switch 2 would finally break the cycle of Nintendo systems being a joke to third parties but with this key card crap the jokes on us. Either they can't get the whole game on the cart or they just flat don't care to try. Not much different than the cloud version games on original switch. 🤦‍♂️

Considering the size of the reported games on Game-Key Cards, why would it matter?

They're all over 32GB and under 64 so they would require a 64GB card anyway.

There is absolutely ZERO new info in this article! 👎

@Captain_Kirk There are a ton of Game-Key Card games under 32 GB?

@blindsquirrel But those consoles looked completely different, Switch 2 looks just like a bigger version of the original console

@PikaPhantom only one I can think of Bravely Default?

@Captain_Kirk All of Sega's games except for Yakuza, Survival Kids, Kunitsu-Gami in Japan, Hogwarts Legacy, and Suikoden as well

I don't get it? so most of these games would fit on a 64 gb cartridge right? Some would probably not fit on a smaller cartridge... It's not all about the options, it's about the money.

I like big bytes and I cannot lie.... Other gamers cannot deny.

@PikaPhantom so why aren't all of those games you mentioned on the cart? If there were smaller carts available they'd still do the game-key route. Street Fighter, Hitman, Sonic X Shadow, Star Wars Outlaws, Yakuza 0, Hogwarts, Madden all could be on the cart but they're not.

Unless the full game is on the card, they can keep it.

Unless the full game is on the cart, and there is a way to rip it, and I'm in control of the rom of the game I bought, they can keep it. I'll only buy a Seitch 2 if I'm controlling it and there's no risk that Nintendo can brick it.

@Truegamer79 I agree. I'm annoyed by these "Key-Cards." I would have bought Hogwarts Legacy and Bravely Default day one if it was a real physical release. Now I'm not buying it at all. I have a huge backlog that will entertain me for the rest of my life so skipping these games wont effect me. Hopefully people vote with their wallet and these companies will do a 180.