Everyone was reasonably surprised when Ubisoft announced that Star Wars Outlaws would be coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. Despite recent footage looking like it needs spit and polish, it turns out that the physical Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game won’t be on the cartridge and will be a Game Key Card. The news comes courtesy of the ever reliable Wario64. Star Wars Outlaws is currently priced up at $60 and due to be released in September.
Star Wars Outlaws physical for Switch 2 confirmed to be Game Key Card
Not surprising for this one, but it just adds to the concern about the real viability of this platform.
With all this key card shit, its making it so there is like 5, maybe less, games I actually will be willing to buy for the Switch 2.
This key card model is absolutely atrocious.
It’s the same shit on PS4 and PS5, it’s ass but it’s not new
No its not. In fact, its going to make me switch over to ps4/5 for all 3rd party now.
I will definitely not be buying key cards, in fact I would rather wait however many years and just get the games digitally when they are heavily reduced, I’m not fussed about playing the latest, greatest games on release anyway as I have a huge catalogue of games to play through anyway. I will get Metroid prime 4 on release and that’s about it if this key card scenario is gona be the new physical.
What’s so dab about game key cards? Can someone really explain?
It’s worse than the game fully in the cart, but better than just straight up codes since you can actually resell it. Honestly there’s a high chance the Next gen consoles including PS6 and the next Xbox will go fully digital anyway.
It means a lot of the game isn’t actually on the cart. You have to download it. So people that don’t have Internet or something similar can’t just pop the cart in and play. Personally I’m not surprised since as the games get larger in size they require more space. Micro SD cards memory gets expensive the more room they need to have on them so the developers are skipping paying for a cart that has more space.
Ps5 games are mostly key discs, so the key card concept isn’t unique to switch 2.
Incorrect. PS5 games have the game content on the disc. When you download the game from the disc of a PS4 or PS5 game, you do not need a connection to the internet unless the game has an update file from the PSN store. Most PS4 and PS5 games have the content written on the physical disc and downloading them to the console allows you to play them. Once the PSN store shuts down in the future, your PS4 and PS5 game discs will still be functional.
Switch 2 game key cartridges do not have any game data written on them (only containing the license to download the game), and an internet connection is required to download the full game from the eShop. Once the eShop shuts down in the future, any game key cartridges you own will essentially become useless. Unless Nintendo offers a solution to this problem when it arises in the future, game key cartridges are just waiting to become obsolete and useless.
Game key cards are resellable digital keys for all practical purposes. The “obsolete” arguments are also true for all digital games which is even worse since you can’t resell them individually. Meh the future is pretty grim for all consoles since full digital seems like the way things will go.
Right, I agree that digital games have their drawbacks and strengths, but that still doesn’t change the fact that game key cartridges don’t have the game files on them. I plan on buying a few for myself and know the difference, but calling the key cartridges the same as PS4 and PS5 game discs is just factually incorrect. Game key cartridges have strengths and weaknesses unique to themselves- I was simply pointing out misinformation in the hopes people can make better and informed decisions while they make their gaming purchases
Why are you lying? The store for the old Wii is closed since ages and I could still redownload the games I purchased back then. 🤷♂️
Also why, when the topic is about physical and digital games, suddenly no one seems to have internet access?
Be honest though, how many of the Xbox and PS games don’t need an update and are completely playable without game breaking bugs at launch?
90%+. The amount of outright broken games that need a day 1 patch or extra download to function, is actually a very small amount and usually from the typical culprits of shit.(Activision, EA, Microsoft) There is a site people made designed to track exactly how many physical releases really are effed without an additional download.
Interesting, mind sharing this site were you’re getting all this information from?
That’s completely incorrect
I think using key cards is the only thing that people are worried about on Switch 2. Some believe there won’t be s actual physical game in it.
Alot of People also don’t want to pay $80 for individual games and they don’t want to purchase controllers that develop stick drift.
All my switch 2 games will be downloaded it makes no sense in buying a key card if you still have to download the game and buy the new micro SD card gives you all the space you need and to say you can resell them is crazy who would want to buy them if there’s no game on it I still find it funny that nintendo isn’t using the key cards for their own games crazy right they know it’s a bad idea
Apparently some people didn’t understand anything… The key cards are licenecs that allow you to download the game but you can resell the card without any problem, the other person will be able to download it too.
On the other hand, without a card, it is impossible to launch the game anyway so even if you download the game and then you decide to sell the card, well you will not be able to play it anymore
It’s still a system with certain advantages even if we have to admit it, the prospect of closing the eshop breaks the whole thing a little but we’re still far from it obviously
What exactly are the advantages ?
Already, publishers will make more margin which implies price reductions like eshop so profit for players, some seem to ignore that a cartridge is very expensive and the 64 GB (supposed) will be quickly reached with some games, the key card breaks this limit
Then, another advantage for me, I often blame digital games for the impossibility of reselling it (that’s partly why I don’t like stores like Steam), here, even if you have to download the game, you can always resell the key card if you want, Nintendo implicitly authorizes the second-hand market while it’s a scourge for them (they don’t touch anything from the sale of games via second-hand!)
In the department of defects, the biggest one remains for me the day the eshop closes, what will happen? But since Nintendo tends players towards digital in an increasingly implicit way, I think that the eshop still has a (very) long and beautiful future ahead of it
Its laughable to think the consumer will benefit from these with lower prices. People said the same thing about digital distribution, and the big companies still charge full physical price for a download. These keys are the same way, costing just as much as a real cartridge would. They NEVER do this to benefit the buyer, its always to save the company some profits by doing things cheaper and lazier.
I hope in limited run releases. I never Pay for nothing. If this is future i jailbrake switch 2 and i start stealing games 👍
You are such a bad rebel. 😱
Same. If im forced to go all digital, i wont be paying for the inconvenience to do so.
Buy on eshop and stop complaining !
I have a theory, what if Nintendo isnt giving the option of different size cards apart from 32gb and 64gb, it would make sense as to why the smaller 3rd party games are Game Key Card
OR most publishers are opting for the cheapest (physical) option, no matter what? 🤔
Not surprising with Ubislop. They add mandatory online checks even when the game IS fully on disc like Shadows. Just adding to the fire since this has become a huge glob of misinformation and assumptions: the vast majority (almost 90%)of ps5 games are playable from disc and without the day one patch. The wii shop is still downloadable from, but how much longer? Do we really believe the companies that are jumping to 80$ prices when they are at the top of their games aren’t going to cut costs by shutting them down prematurely, plus what about all the people who never had a chance to buy the games in the first place? Thirdly, there’s a big difference between internet access and downloading 100GB files at will access. If gaming even had an online check requirement I wouldn’t have been able to play as a kid because Appalachia has horrid pockets of dead zones where cables still haven’t been run, and that’s in the US. Plenty of other places that have it even worse. Fourth, even if Nintendo isn’t publishing these games, they should’ve only allowed key cards for games larger than 64GB that compression would never solve. They made the option so prevalent it was part of the reveal for $#!% sake, and now 3ds remakes are gamekey cards. They may be resellable in the short term, but after that they literally become wastes of plastic long before they’d actually become unusable. Game keys are the epitome of modern gaming: the potential to lose access just by misplacing it, having to have internet just to start the game, the inconvenience of swapping carts to switch games, making you buy extended storage options just to store you game data (adding to the already high cost), taking up physcial space, and you still have 0 control over what you bought. If there is a game key you really want, I just ask you to consider a used/2nd hand purchases. I personally will be buying these games on other platforms, and if theres something that i just have to have, you can bet it will be down the line for $10. The part that kills me is that companies like this want to charge full price but give us less value than other games that are fully on cart for the same cost.
This guy gets it.