Ex-Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry lead Alex Hutchinson has often spoken of his love for physical media, which sadly seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. Asked about Nintendo Switch 2 and Game-Key Cards, Hutchinson said that the new way of distrusting physical cartridges loses some of what made the business special. Unfortunately it seems more and more third party developers are selling their Switch 2 games as Game-Key Cards, with only a minority distributing actual cartridges with the game on.
“It’s funny that Nintendo is going to get away with it. It just shows you the power of nostalgia in our business that the way they will beat up Microsoft versus Nintendo is just not the same, especially in Europe. It’s like, ‘oh, Nintendo’s doing it, alright we’re not gonna say much.’”
“I hate it,. I think it’s sort of lame. I don’t know, I just feel like it’s getting away… we’re losing some of what made the business special. Trading Game Boy cartridges at school, or, you know, DS for the modern audience. There’s something nice about that.”
I thought we went over this. Game-key cards are keys to download the game. You can still trade them.
What is ruining the gaming industry is when developers make a game and put the whole game on a disc or cartridge and it’s so busted and broken it requires an expansive day 1 patch that still doesn’t fix things.
In that case trading the game with the full broken game would be worse off than a key to download the complete fully patched game.
Yeah, I’m with you on this. The moment day 1 patches became a requirement was the day physical carts had already lost a lot of their meaning. In practice, this key card thing is hardly different. You still have to sit and wait through a download to play the game regardless. The only real downside is that it’s pushing the cost of memory on to the consumer, but that’s really it.
This sounds like coping, not trying to be rude. And it typically comes from those who have probably poured a lot of their money into digital purchases and regret it.
Speaking from personal experience – I own a (very) large amount of modern games on physical media that do not require day one patches or downloads to run. That may be the case for awful publishers like Ubisoft and EA, but it is certainly not the majority. Key Cards are absolutely going to ruin the physical games market for Switch 2 though, especially with 3rd party companies (evidently). Which is a damn shame. Saying it’s “hardly different” than what we have now is not just over exaggerating, it’s blatantly wrong and misinformed. Ignorance is a choice. Feel free to research it if you don’t believe me.
Game key cards gives you all the advantages physcal cards had with the two exception being having to download the game and not being able to use it many years from now. But you can trade cards like physical games. you can share with your friends for sometime and you can keep it as a treasure if you want
Plus you need to manage the storage on your system.
So what you’re really saying is. There are no advantages.
I have to agree with you there on that. The game key cards are fine but it’s really a bit confusing to others out there who doesn’t know what it is especially when third party developers are developing their games with key cards with different serial numbers on the cartridges. Here is my question. is this really a bad idea for the gaming industry to provide developers with just that type of procedure?
How would one trade a key when ithey are single use and bound to the account that registered it first?
I do not like how much people are talking about this Game Key Card thing as if it is a new concept. Yes it is shitty that you can’t just play the game out of the box. I do not like that. But, Xbox and Playstation have done this since the Xbox One/PS4 days. It’s not some new phenomenon. This has probably been common practice for about a decade now and i feel like people are only complaining about it now lmfao.
Ppl are only complaining about it because it isn’t a disc based format and it is something “new” to complain about that is an old concept and a currently active way that the gaming industry sells content. Nintendo just doesn’t use discs and that is why it is “new”.
This is why people are very confused what game key cards is and they believe if there is a actually game cartridges.
Yeah a part of this feels like the complaints are coming from people who only played on Switch or PC that just didn’t know this was a thing on disc-based platforms already? lol
Because it’s not. It’s an untrue perception. Only ~25% of PS5/XBX games REQUIRE a patch to play and, of those that do, 90+% house a vast majority of the data on the disc. You just have to install do to the read speeds of the drive. Not the same thing as these game key cards that actually ARE the nightmare people accuse PS5 and XBX of.
You just acknowledged that there are a percentage of Xbox, ps5, (and switch 1) games that already have a similar or identical function to game key cards. The main difference is that 1) nintendo is forcing them to be identified 2) nintendo appears to have a higher percentage of key cards.
Either way, I am not interested in key cards over real games but I would still take them over digital because they can be resold while the servers are up.
But… He was the main director of Assassins Creed 3 that released with game breaking bugs 😂 the game could become unplayable without the day 1 patch, but HES shaming Nintendo? Make it make sense.
Oh yeah cause new always equals to a better product sure buddy, I love buying phisycal cartridges with nothing inside, totally not a lazy way to not compress games for third parties and filling up my memory with games that I could have on the fly inside the actual cartridge.
Oh yes, god bless the new product
Im a little late in my reply, but you didn’t fully understand what I wrote. I didn’t say this is a “new & better” product. I said this practice is “NOT NEW” it just isn’t done on a disc-based format so it seems like something new to complain about. New almost NEVER means better, at least immediately.
Another misinformed comment. Y’all should really research the information you openly comment. Xbox has done with for a while now, yes. Playstation has far less games that do this, the vast majority are playable from the disc. Please do some research. Too much ignorance in this comment section – no wonder physical media is going away lmao. You guys were definitely tricked by someone.
Watch out guys it’s megamansurvives! His takes are so good they put others to shame! I’m speaking from my personal experience dude. I’ve played plenty of physical games that required I download them to play. Spare me the high-minded, backhanded comment. It’s giving loser.
Or here’s a thought, you likely never actually checked to see if the games played fine without an online connection and just downloaded anything the game said was available. That, or for whatever reason you are going out of your way to pick games from the publishers that do actually release crap that is incomplete and requires a download to get the full game. I have over 1000 ps4 games, and not one of them required a download to play.
Eh, you can keep that thought. Lmao
Of megamansurvives criticizes Nintendo you know Nintendo is doing something god awful
This argument is like a noxious weed. Chopped down and keeps cropping back up. ~75% of PS5 and XSX games are completely playable on the disc (they just have to be installed from it like an old PC game). Even with the ones that DO require a day one patch (stress require), the vast majority still hold most of the game data on the disc. That’s not even remotely close to these game key cards, which universally house NONE of the data. The entire storage burden is passed onto the customer, and a full download is required.
This information is easily verifiable via DoesItPlay.
Thank you. You put it into words better than I could.
Ok, so it’s not REQUIRED to play the game, but you’re still missing out on potentially a ton of content. How is that still not a problem? If I really want to play an old game, I’m not going to be interested in a gimped down version of it. If we reach a point where you can’t update these games anymore, the physical copy has already lost a bunch of value and I might as well look for the full game through other means.
Most “extra features” are not anything special, and in the case of physical releases, they usually get the extra content on the disc/cart or a complete edition. Thats exactly what we are getting with Cyberpunk on Switch 2. We could have gotten that with Elden Ring as well, but they are cheaping out with the damn key cards.
That is a good point. In my mind I just put it all into one bucket but that there is nothing on the cartridge at all does mean folks have to download more. Which it makes it even shittier.
Why everytime Nintendo does something insanely scummy many of you in this site go “BUT SONY AND XBOX DID IT FIRST” I don’t give a damn about Sony and Xbox I care about Nintendo, this game card key things are horrid and another step closer to the end of physical media. Keep telling yourself that “Sony did it first” while buying those empty cartridges man.
As far as I know, none of Nintendo’s games are Game Key cards so far. I’m also not excusing it, I said it was shitty. Just that it wasn’t new. I buy physical games too so this affects me.
Tentri you’re usually not this stupid. Console gaming doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The Big 3 are constantly copying each others.
“The big 3 are constantly copying each other”
Nintendo used to be known for creating entirely new experiences and never cared about what the competitors were doing but yeah I agree, it’s not like this anymore unfortunately.
Sorry you’re saying that Sony’s actions are irrelevant?
So why are you specifically incensed when Nintendo finally do it?
Why is Nintendo being given far more scrutiny and critique?
Make it make sense.
…because I care about Nintendo and I don’t care about Sony. And nintendo is becoming so corporate that it’s becoming just like their competitors?
“When nintendo finally do it”
OH FINALLY THEY ARE DOING IT!
I was waiting for them to sell me empty pieces of plastic with a silly code inside!!!!!!
Glad they are becoming like SONY!!!!!!
We all have talk about this before. Game key cards does have gaming cartridges on Switch 2 with different key card numbers on them. It’s not a actually game in it. It’s just for you to download them right through your own system data.
I was just looking at a game I got from limited run games and said I guess I know who will be getting all my money when I buy video games 🤷🏾♂️ #don’tletphysicalgamesdie
Yeah great, except they are using game key cards too so don’t go praising them too much
Physically has lost it’s appeal quite some time ago. If it’s not a special- or collectors edition, you mostly get an empty box (besides the storage medium, of course) and on PS and XB you STILL have to install every game, taking up space on the SSD. On Switch 2, real physical games at least don’t reduce your console’s storage. 🤷♂️
That when they don’t ship two discs, one of them just to install data. Which a fair amount of PS games do.
People might whine a lot but physical stuff lost its appeal for a while now. They don’t even make good instruction manuals anymore.
The appeal is im not restrained to a companies online servers. As long as a system can remain fully offline and play physical copies, the appeal will always be there.
Yeah, I remember trading my Stadia cartridges on the playground Alex, good times. :)
I thought Stadia run on RedRays … :)
To me, the more hilarious thing is that a similar sort of practice was already going on with the discs…but Nintendo does something like it and suddenly it’s a bad thing.
“Something like it” is really “something worse”. Most PS5/XBX games are completely or partially on the disc, you just have to install. Game key cards contain no data whatsoever and are just eWaste.
What’s the practical difference between installing from disc and installing from a download, apart from needing a WiFi connection? Both will either way take up storage space.
The disc option frees you from needing to be online to play a game you bought. Its that simple. Its more baffling that people defend the shitty decisions of these companies.
It is a bad thing, no one was praising those companies for doing it. Why do you want Nintendo to also embrace such shitty practices? Do you want them to fill the next Zelda with microtransactions?
I’m confused. Didn’t this essentially already exist on Switch? Gamecards that didn’t actually contain the game? Ironically, the Assassin’s Creed Ezio trilogy is one such game. Maybe one of the three is on the card, but the rest you have to download. And MGS collection had none of the main games on the card, you had to download them; the card just had some side content. I don’t understand why these Key Cards were given so much attention by Nintendo and everyone else; they’re just giving a name to something that already existed, no?
People just want to bitch at Nintendo because it’s “edgy” to hate on Nintendo for anything.
They forget that some Switch games were kind of incomplete. Doom 2016 removed the multiplayer. Youngblood was just a game card. Spyro Trilogy only had the first title on the card and you had to download the other two (that’s true even in the PS4/One versions). It’s a practice that already existed for a long time.
You honestly dont see a difference between what was a small minority of releases on the Switch out of the now thousands of normal physical releases on it, compared to nearly every single 3rd party on the Switch 2 announced, including very small games, are now going to be these mandatory download versions? This is entirely a problem Nintendo created by offering it.
You are wrong about Spyro. First release, yes, but PS4 version atleast got a 2nd version printed that was complete on disc with all 3 games. One can only hope these shittu keys bomb and companies do similar and reprint complete versions.
Ps5 has game key discs but doesn’t label them as such. Not all PS5 games are key discs, but a lot are.
Another note with key-cards is that you have to download entire games, and you only have 256GB without a MicroSD Card Express. Let’s say you have 40GB games on each physical copy. Guess how quickly that storage is going to fill up? Only six games, so your only option would be to (hopefully) find a MicroSD Card Express for cheap and have decent storage, or just go through the hassle of uninstalling every time.
As long as storage continues to be a problem, full games on disks/carts will still be superior.
Nintendo games are not that huge. My switch only have 64 gig storage and I have so many games on it. I have only one physical game but over 20 digital. When it gets full I just archieve games am no longer playing
That’s the good thing about some Switch games is that they have good compression. I’m mostly worried about games that are becoming more demanding and needing more storage. I know regular MicroSD Cards can be easier to afford, but the Switch 2 requires that Express version.
Nintendo approach with MicroSD express is still way better than the way Sony handhelds used (PSP & Vita) proprietary uber-expensive memory. At least MicroSD Express is an open standard so many companies will produce it and the price will go down, unlike Sony’s memory.
On PS5 and XB you can play directly from the disc, right? 🙄
No, you need to download the disc content. Xbox and PS do not live play games from discs.
Key cards suck, there is no way around it. The only good news is that nintendo is forcing them to report as a key card and not be confused with real games like they can be on current generations. Then there are games like the crew on Xbox where Ubisoft took the game off everyone’s system. That is why playing a game off a disc or cart is superior to downloading a game from a disc/cart and that is superior to game key cards/discs, and that is superior to digital. Last time I checked, only nintendo provides the potential for the best option of reading off the cart while playing.
Middle aged luddites stuck in their childhood.
Haha, agreed!
The difference is physical mediums once evolved to continue offering larger storage options. Watch downloaders shit their britches as soon as companies push full streaming of all games and you dont even get to have the games data on your machine.
It’s kind of ironic since all of the Assassin’s Creed releases on the regular Switch so far have essentially been Game Key Cards to get all the content included. That is, you have to download a lot of the games in these compilations and they aren’t on the cart. So, yeah, it’s a shame other developers are dipping into what Ubisoft and the Assassin’s Creed series has been doing.
What I am sick of is apologists defending anti-consumer practices just because they have poured TONS of their money into essentially “renting games”
What I am also sick of is the fallacy being perpetuated that most modern games are not on the disc/cart and require downloads to play. That is just plain FALSE.
According to doesitplay.org 74% of physical games have the entire advertised playable content on the disc or cartridge. 14% have a playable, but flawed (i.e. glitched) version on the disc or cartridge. While 2% have a very error-prone but beatable version on the disc or cartridge. Then finally ONLY 10% of physical games are not playable from the content on the disc or cartridge.
Another interesting stat is that 93% of games are playable offline. 3% of games require some kind of online functionality but have a base version that is playable offline. And ONLY 4% of physical games are completely unplayable offline.
Also I have to dispel the misinformation about what the cartridge or disc does when you insert it into a console. In the case of Playstation most of the games data is on the disc and is Installing FROM the disc, NOT FROM ONLINE. I see a lot of people just blindly repeating that all modern disc games are just license keys and download the content online. Now you know that in most cases, this is simply NOT TRUE.
For cartridges, they can sometimes install the game as well and in most cases, this occurs from content ON THE CARTRIDGE, NOT ONLINE.
Look, I own about 60 switch games, and at least over 100 PS4/PS5 games and every single one of my games DOES NOT require downloads or internet connections.
So don’t just regurgitate what you hear from others before doing some solid research on the topic.
Physical games are only being hampered by laziness, consumer concession, misinformation, and a steady flow of money to digital games from people who don’t know any better or don’t care that they are being hoodwinked.
Lets just get this straight, you are not buying digital games, you ARE renting them.
I don’t think anyone here likes the idea of game key cards. I think the point is that we would rather have them labeled (to avoid them) then not have them labeled clearly like all three systems on the current gen. But there are 4 levels of games. 1) plays off a disc/cart 2) downloads off a disc/cart 3) downloads online with a key disc/cart and 4) all digital. If you think there is no difference between #1 and #2, you are incorrect. The user agreements on type 2, 3, and 4 can strip the game from you in some instances. Look up “The Crew” on Xbox. It can and will happen again. A system update feature can prevent a game from playing or downloading in an offline scenario if the system doesn’t play the game directly off of the disc/cart. I only buy #1, not #2-4.
News flash like all the switch assassin Creed games are code in box….good job fact checking