Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards are a hot topic at the moment and for good reason with the vast majority of customers preferring the complete game on a standard cartridge rather than a digital download key. However, publishers have said that they are naturally pleased with Nintendo for providing Game-Key Cards as it helps them lower the costs as they don’t have to purchase cartridges with 64GB of storage. The news was shared with Bloomberg by the president of Japanese video game consultancy firm Kyos Inc.
Thanks to SonicGalaxy27 for sharing the news tip!
Yeah thanks, thanks a lot….
I’m an OG Nintendo boy. I bought a bunch of games on the Wii. I can no longer play. I bought a bunch of music and stuff for rock band on the PS3 I can no longer play. I think I even have one game on Xbox 360 I can no longer play. So I trust them securing access to my games about as much as I trust a wet fart at my age. Publishers and developers if you choose to go the key card route, there is a whole slew of us who will not buy your game. I don’t care if you have to make it more expensive. If it’s not physical we will not purchase it period.
The only company I truly trust so far is steam, and that could change at any moment.
Signed gamers everywhere f*** digital.
When do we get Sonic Girls Strip Poker edition game??
Also, key cards suck.
Mmm… Furries. Although Strip poker with Sonic characters… They don’t wear a lot.
Yayyyyyyyy…. Totally not something that goes against the consumers and make big companies even lazier and greedy… yeeeeeeeeeee….
Yeah many people are still making a huge deal on game keys and they believe it’s not the actual cartridge of the game.
Of course they will say that lol. Also have heard some discussion on why only 64GB for the Switch 2 Game Card. Something to do with the minimum Read speed needed to support Switch 2 games. Let’s see if that’s true or not later when Nintendo still haven’t release <64GB card.
This is the first reasonable explanation I have seen anyone give, if its even true to begin with. That would be a major screw-up on Nintendo’s R&D part if that turns out to be the reason and I would be shocked by it, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Hopefully it would be an issue that Nintendo would be able to figure out a solution for that does not involve using the game-key method. It’s definitely obvious something fishy was going on when you had Switch 1 games complete on cart, but the Switch 2 version is not (Sonic Generations, Raidou). I could see such a technical f-up as being something Nintendo is also not willing to publicly admit and hence why we have gotten no explanation from them as to why the multiple size carts option like the Switch 1 is no longer a thing. I guess we will find out regardless not too long from now once people begin a physical tear down of the system, though I wonder how this issue does not effect Switch 1 carts running on the hardware..
Key Cards are Disgusting. I have over two hundred Games for my original Switch, looks like my Switch 2 Collection is going to be a lot smaller…I really do hate it. Like I have a Gaming PC but I’d still choose Switch 1 Versions of games when they released because at heart I’m a Console Gamer and like Physical Games. I wish Game Key Cards were not an option. It’s taking more away from the Consumer.
you are the OG….. original gamer…… rock on bro -8-/
You should know what you want, people…game key cards allow you to lower the price and bring in much more money for publishers! Especially since you can resell the game, which is impossible in digital format, while the second-hand market is also a loss for publishers.
No, I really don’t understand…
They don’t want digital; they want their games to be fully playable on the cartridge they bought. It’s really that simple, Sofi. You don’t have to understand why people want things that are different than you, but you can at least understand that, right?
eloquently put. Totally agree.
Key cards cost less, while cartridges cost a lot, and we, the gamers, are the ones paying for it, and here you are the first to complain about the price! You should know! They are limited to 64 GB, we will inevitably have games that exceed this limit, it will necessarily go digital, and key cards will allow us to resell them, which is beneficial for us too.
Do you understand all this too?-_-
If someone’s willing to spend £450 on a Switch 2, I don’t think the cartridge costs are going to be their main hang-up. Your endless fascination with publisher revenue and partial download codes doesn’t magically alter what consumers actually want. The point, which seems to keep flying over your head, is the desire for a complete, playable game on the cartridge.
Let’s just see how the market will react instead of theorizing and fear-mongering. My hunch said that the Switch 2 will be a success anyway.
The market just reacted already about the thing.
Sonic… You’re not very bright aren’t you? The internet reaction != real market reaction. The latter need time to truly see the result.
What do you mean it need time to result?
Gee wiz, its almost like technological advancement has consistently allowed means to provide larger physical storage capacity options, but i guess 64gb is the limits of human civilization.
You must be confusing me for someone else because I did not complain about the pricing. But it looks like you aren’t listening to me because you still don’t understand that people simply like owning the content they bought on disc/cartridge. There are plenty of people who don’t want their gaming libraries to be solely digital; it doesn’t matter that gaming companies want us to go full digital because there are people who simply don’t want that.
Don’t send another wall of text, otherwise it will prove that I was speaking to a brick wall. Good day, Sofi.
Exactly! This is why people prefer actual game cartridges instead of lousy game key cards.
Nintendo was making an ass load of publishers revenue by manufacturing cartridges for them on the switch 1.
Sickr is malfunctioning!
All of the GameStops in my City and I live in one of the most major cities in the US, closed due to low sells. Yesterday I walked into both Target and Walmart and nobody, not a single soul were in the electronic section during the morning and when I went back in the afternoon. But what was there were mountains of Switch 2’s and Mario Kart World…
Oh no now it’s confirmed the Switch 2 will flop and Nintendo will be forced to go 3rd party…
…/s
Same here in my little town. I called my local Wal-Mart and they had plenty. Rolled up there and got a Switch 2 bundle with zero issues and no one in electronics at all. It was 9:30 in the morning. But, I had seen videos of Gamestop and Best Buy having lines a mile long.
Well yeah they are. Because they gave them development kits for the system.
I don’t understand, what happened to 32gb cards or even 16gb ones? Why is Nintendo only making 64gb cards?
I’ve got some serious hater fatigue when it comes to conversations around the Switch 2.
You can pretty much be a hater and blame Nintendo for allowing game key carts (even though they aren’t using them for their titles) OR you could compliment Nintendo for manufacturing carts large enough that games like Cyberpunk can be put entirely on the cart and not require any downloads.
It’s really just a person’s choice to be positive or negative on the Switch 2 and looks like a lot a choosing to be negative (mostly to farm for content).
Yup. I tend to posit more towards positivity rather than negativity (I have enough of that in my life), but I can at least sympathize with people who are upset at things. Positivity and negativity aren’t fully a choice, but we can all take a step back from things from time to time and try to get a better perspective. In the end, we choose what we want to be in some small or big way.
I think many people on Nintendo fan sites write off most, if not all forms of criticisms as “haters”, not realizing its usually the most dedicated, long-term fans whom are the most vocal when they see their favorite companies pull anti-consumer or just bad policies. A hardcore Xbox fan who hates Nintendo, has no reason to be upset that many Switch 2 games are not complete on cart, or on hardware price or specs. It’s a good thing to be critical of these things as a fan. Even if we want to imagine these game companies are the good guys always wanting to do the best for their players, they are still corporations and no ones “friend”.
Finally some sane take. The internet is a hate machine especially for Nintendo. And this is not a recent thing. Nintendo keep trucking along and their exclusives still sold millions anyway unlike the other 2 console makers lol.
Nintendo is to blame for this. Just look at the Switch 1, it offered multiple cartridge sizes. Switch 2 is only one, the largest, most expensive size. Why would they do this? Why kill off all the smaller publishers that were paying Nintendo for the manufacturing costs? It’s just all around baffling and you even have multi platform games on Switch 1 that are completely on cart, but the Switch 2 version is a key.
The Switch 1 also didn’t offer large enough sizes to where we had a lot of big 3rd party games go download codes or even cloud versions.
And the Switch 2 will likely have the same exact issue, but now with the added insult that even the small games wont be able to get physical releases. Now your physical Switch 2 library will only be first party titles, with a small smearing of 3rd party publishers willing to meet the 64gb card costs or have titles just big enough, but not too big, or are actually competent devs that know how to compress down their games. At the very least you will have companies like Limited Run Games come back to relevancy since they may be the only means to get many of these game-key titles complete on cart. I guess this is Nintendo’s attempt to make people nostalgic for the N64 days…
I think it’s like your purchase is a vote. If you vote for the full game cartridge and tons of people will do it, then game card cartridge might disappear… Maybe idealistic, but why not give it a try? If you have choice, then live with it.
I won’t be buying any of those games.
Why is Nintendo insist on being constant dickheads on this topic?
You would think they would stop it. It is absolutely the worst thing about them.
Screw these cheap ass publishers. This is a problem Nintendo solved on the Switch 1 and re-made an issue on the Switch 2. Its called having multiple size game cards. Its why the Switch 1 has a huge physical library from large games to indie titles. Why is no one being upfront with Nintendo and asking them why the Switch 2 is only using one size cart?