One of the more controversial elements of Nintendo Switch 2 titles coming from third party developers is the abundance of Game Key Cards, physical cartridges which contain a key to download an unspecified part of the game from the internet, rather than containing the full game.
Thanks to leaks from Ark System Works, who are rumoured to have a game exclusively for Switch 2 in the works, this has now potentially been explained, as Nintendo are said to only be offering three different formats to developers: digital-only releases, 64GB cards, or Game Key Cards. 64GB cartridges are notably more expensive than the 32GB cards that were the maximum for the Switch 1, which might be why many developers have opted for Game Key card releases alongside the digital release.
Don’t see why they’re not offering the 32 GB cards. Mario Kart World is only 23.4 GB. It would benefit some games, and at least, put them on my wishlist.
I believe that is the Max not the required
Because they want to push for digital for their 30 percent cut and to kill the used resale market like other consoles.
Other consoles games go on sale lol
“Only” three formats?
I don’t know if this is common knowledge; but how many formats do consoles usually support?
The Switch had 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB physical cards. So they got rid of nearly all the options for devs for physical releases.
Whre tf is my post? 🤨
What’s up with this stupid comments section, that you write a post, it says “comment sent”, but the comment does NOT appear??
To be honest, this game card key is the dumbest thing there is. If the game is too big for the game cart, simply make it digital and done. Why bother with a card, that only holds half of the game? It.makes no sense.
I agree that the system is dumb.
However, there should always be a “physical” option, especially given the higher price points for games.
I don’t want to own the digital copies as I’ve always, always traded. *Which is the only bonus I can see for key cards.
If you’re trading in games, you didn’t need to buy them in the first place. In the last decade I’ve been all digital I really looked at quality over quantity and have made maybe 2 bad choices in that entire time. You’re not a gamer if you trade in games, you’re a casual hobbyist looking to try as much as possible but not have any sort of memorable experience.
That’s a bad take.
You sound dumb. And who are you to tell people they’re not gamers because they don’t buy digital like you. Or because they trade in games. You sound like a snob that don’t know shit about gaming. You’re the casual.
Worst comment i have seen. Physical copies make gaming both a hobby and investment. Owning digital games means you actually own nothing. If nintendo went bankrupt tomorrow and you broke you switch all your investment would vanish. However, if you have the physical copies you just need a new switch.
What if the house accidentally caught fire house and the switch and the physical copies burned up you could still buy another switch and then put your account on it and then get all your downloadable games your physical games would be lost though having both could help you longer in the long run does that mean if you buy duplicates you’re better than an average gamer cuz you could have a physical and a digital
I guess you’re the expert on what makes someone a gamer or not…it’s not that serious. People trade games for all sorts or reasons. Go touch grass..
This is an absolutely braindead take. I lend games to my friends and borrow theirs. I sell games when bundles, remaster with extra content etc. are released for newer systems. Most importantly, I just refuse to pay for something unless I’m getting a tangible product in return.
You’re really projecting with the casual bit. Gatekeepers is for fools but no “real” gamer is going to support the industry becoming doubly anti-consumer by going digital only. You should keep your troglodyte takes to yourself next time.
How do you know that’s not a memorable experience for them?
Yet gamekey cards have a certain advantage… notably the ability to resell the game, which is impossible with everything being digital…
It’s not half of the game, it’s none of the game. But it makes perfect sense. It’s better than a digital game. It’s not tied to your account so you can sell it or give it to a friend. It’s not as good as physical but it’s definitely better than digital.
Digital is the far superior product, key cards are garbage, and physical is keeping game prices high genius. No gamer trades in games, casuals do. If a friend wants to play one of my games I’ll gameshare with them and they’ll get my entire library without taking my access away, plus we can play together. You can’t do that with a useless physical copy. Nothing you said made sense, it’s all just a luddite rambling about some insane fear mongering nonsense. I’ve been all digital for a decade and have never lost one of my games, which collectively numbers over 800+ titles.
Hey genius, physical is not keeping prices high. Companies are charging full price for digital versions. You are going to be paying 80+ for a digital copy. Companies are not going to suddenly make games cheaper just because there is no physical manufacturing. If you actually gave a damn as “le true gamer”, you would realize how stupid it is to put all of the control of access to games into one format. There should be multiple avenues to access purchasing these games and companies most certainly do not have your best interests in mind. As for your asinine “if you sell game you are no big boy gamer!”, did ya ever think that you are using that money you get towards a different game, and can always buy it back later cheaper if you really want?(a system Japanese stores have done for decades) Your digital hoarding sounds just as bad as the physical collectors im sure you whine about, but atleast they didn’t waste their money on a digital copy and can actually sell or trade or give away their purchases they actually own the copies of, if they desire. You sound like you are a 10 year old who has never known anything but digital downloads.
Dude that person is an idiot. His/Her take is ridiculous.
Holy hell, an actual person awkwardly trying to say his/her like that’s actually how people talk instead of using singular their, I honestly didn’t think y’all were real.
They’re a weird gatekeeping idiot, but you might be just as weird.
Once again, you snob. That’s your preference. You’re probably too young to even talk the way you are about other people’s gaming preference. Good for you and your 800+ titles. I bet they probably cost twice as 800 physical titles. And we all know that physical games go on sale much more often than digital. At least if a person decides to trade or sell, they can subsidize the cost of the game or even profit of that game.
You have an awful big attitude to only “collectively” have 800+ titles. Gamers are gamers, whether they have 1 game or over 30,000 collectively, like me. We all have our preferred formats. None of that makes anyone more or less. The difference is that some people are gamers and collectors like me, some are simply gamers, and others are gamers and elitist jerks like you.
Lame response
Yes, that’s why digital games are just as expensive with no tangible product lmfao You’re an absolute retard, pity I share a gene pool with dumbfucks like you
Because physical only luddites need to have a case on their wall collecting dust and taking up unnecessary space, and don’t realize the existence of digital makes their collection relatively useless. Especially when digital is superior, cheaper, and much more easily accessible.
Sony has removed people’s digital licenses from their libraries in the past. The reason we buy physical is because we actually own it. Digital purchases are not “purchases”, they are licenses to use the product. There’s a big court thing with Ubisoft right now over it where they are (unfortunately)correctly arguing that it’s perfectly normal and industry wide that people don’t “own” their digital games per the license agreements.
False, even in physical form you do not own the game (nor even the machine used to run it, by the way). In both cases, you pay for a license that gives you the right to play with the medium intended for this purpose, whether physical or digital.
If I’m offline they can’t come into my house to remove my access. While digital copies can require an occasional internet connection to check the license, no such system exists for physical copies because the license is transferable by ownership of the disc or cartridge. And yes, I DO own my hardware, just not the software rights, this is why I support jailbreaking and whatnot(which is 100% legal.)
I also don’t respect your opinion specifically because I’ve seen you post so many asinine things that weren’t correct in the end so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Difference is with physical games (I own hundreds), they’d have to come to my home to take them away from me.
Also, as I mention to all, visit doesitplay.org and educate yourself on physical media.
About 74% of physical games require zero Internet and have a complete playable version on the cart/disc
@Michael I heard that rumoured previously from another dev saying that 64GB was the only true physical option.
Doesn’t matter, possession is 9/10ths of the law, physically being in possession of the games/hardware means you own it regardless of any EULI.
You’ve blown thousands of dollars on “copies” of games you don’t control your own access to. Everything you bought is in the hands of a company, especially on consoles and especially if you are not pirating those digital copies at the very least. Your whining about space is of no concern to the vast majority, unless you live in a closet.
Ok, how is it superior, cheaper, and more easily accessible? You need to quot while your ahead. You’re getting cooked in these comments for your idiotic takes. You’re speaking out of personal preference and feelings. And to be quite honest, hard-core gamers were known for being the majority who buys physical games. You know like the ones that set on the shelf and collect dust.
I don’t like game key cards either however they do give the digital game benefit being traded in for cash.
Because you can still sell these, you can’t sell digital copies.
Plus, it’s not like it cost more than digital. 🤦♂️
you can still resell it
You want us to pay $80 for a game,make it a full game on cartridge or i won’t buy
Agreed… It’s freaking stupid and they shouldn’t make a physical if the game isn’t physically on the media. It’s just a slap in the face to their customers who like having physical media and kind of a smart a** gesture 🤔
Feel like a dumb idea for them to do this.
If this is accurate, I can’t blame 3rd parties. Hopefully Express card costs will come down and they will be able to manufacture smaller sizes at even lower costs. If the choice is take a $16 hit to your profits or use the dumb key card, you can really only justify the cost if you have a very large game and are willing to charge a little more for your title.
That being said, I won’t be buying any game key cards at all.
Nintendo is being especially cheap and spiteful doing this, especially with how strong indie and smaller publishers support on the first Switch had. They were undoubtedly making ass loads of cash off of all the companies paying the manufacturer costs to them to produce things like a small run of a niche game. Hopefully this is like when they said carts were dead on the famicom and it would all be disks, only for a sudden drop in manufacturing costs for carts.
Where’s that $16 figure from?
Physical, digital, and corporate voodoo.
I wish everyone would start posting more of their comments on Bluesky instead of just on here. I never get to see what people are saying to MyNintendoNews posts anymore because of it. I’ve stopped posting directly here several months ago (aside from now).
Bluesky is full of undesirables and degenerates
No, that would be Twitter/X. The site where the world’s worst people gather together.
The price of the cards is a terrible excuse. For years the smaller memory cards have become more a dime a dozen (as it were). Then as time goes on the higher capacity ones become cheaper and cheaper. By now 32 GB & 64 GB memory cards are considered rather low capacity, and just blank ones can be had EXTREMELY cheap in varying formats on the retail level (meaning at a manufacturing level they’re a pittance of cost). Usually you can tell where the industry is going by what the highest end micro memory cards are available for. Last check you can start getting 1 TB (1,000 GB) micro memory cards on the general market. Plus if Nintendo tries to restrict capacity of the memory cards, it’s a poor excuse.
Mostly we see Nintendo switching to key cards is they’re way of trying to rein in control of content, and thinking about the future of whether or not they’ll want to pull titles off the market when they run into licensing issues and other problems.
I doubt this is true that they only offer 64GB cards. That doesn’t make any sense. I wouldn’t just trust some random leak like that. The new DK game is only 10GB. Mario Kart World is 23.4GB.
Also this whole asinine thing by Robyn… they are just trying to justify their bad purchasing decisions by gaslighting themselves into this weird viewpoint. Let them just be happy they have their digital library all locked down even though they are too stupid to realize most people don’t replay every single game they every purchase and being able to sell a game, is a nice way to cut the cost of gaming considerably and not being stuck with games you will never play again. Even a lot of my favorite game experiences of all time, I’ve only properly played through them once or twice. Seems like I might be wiser renting more games instead of buying. Save my purchases for my absolute favorites.
If you go all digital with a NintendoSwitch2 console, you will soon need an MicroSDExpressCard, with the maximum capacity in 2025-05-12, is 256GB.
Fourth way => Piracy 👍
Given how strongly independent and smaller publishers supported the original Switch, Nintendo is being particularly stingy and vindictive in doing this. Without a doubt, they were profiting greatly from all the businesses that were paying them to make products, such as a small-scale version of a niche game. I hope this is similar to the time they claimed that the famicom’s carts were dead and that disks would replace them, only to have the cost of making carts suddenly drop.
They did it on switch 1. I bought final fantasy x/x2 on ebay second hand and I could only play the first game the second game had a code you had to input and can only use once. I messaged the seller they had already used it so I sent it back and got refund and bought it on stream for my pc. If nintendo want to play dirty then I won’t get switch 2 I’ll stick to pc and maybe get a steamdeck when they bring the next one out.
Think Nintendo owes majority of everyone in the world a huge refund! Example: Where’s the heck all my Wii U Digital Games? Where’s my Wii U2 Digital games?! None of them transferred over to Nintendo Switch! But yet they rereleased them again digitally on Switch to make you buy them again!
Personally think everyone who’s complaining about the Keycards, we should Boycott not buying them. See who loses money fast before they start putting them games on those 64gb cards. Only game I’m buying at Switch 2 release is Cyberpunk since the whole game in on the card.
whats the point of having 3 types?
I like physical and digital. 37 physical carts and 84 digital. With maybe 20 games overlapping. Gamers are gamers. He’ll play a game of crib with me they are all games and gamers as such