Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards Information from Nintendo [Not regular games]

EverydayBeast said:
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bender said:
You get a benefit with lending, trading, selling this that digital doesn't afford you but sacrifice some of the convenience.
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jshackles said:
It's not all bad stuff. You can still share the game between any number of friends and family members, and you can still resell it when you're done.
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Hmm, alright, but then I'm missing what the benefit of this is over a regular physical copy. It'll be cheaper than physical copies? It'll be priced the same as digital?
 
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GrandlyBodacious said:
Hmm, alright, but then I'm missing what the benefit of this is over a regular physical copy. It'll be cheaper than physical copies? It'll be priced the same as digital?
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There is a benefit to publishers as presumably that will be the least expensive cart size they can buy. Will those savings be passed on to you? Sorta. Games are large and the most expensive Switch carts were much more expensive for publishers than a Blu Ray. If we take Street Fighter 6 as an example. It's 70+ GB on PS5. It will probably be smaller on Switch 2 but Capcom would still need to purchase a 64GB cart to fit that game on the cart. That game is launching at $59.99 on Switch 2. If the game was on the cart, it probably launches at $69.99. And in the case of as a service games like Street Fighter 6, the data on the cart is going to be outdated in less than a month and you'd be forced to download data anyway.
 
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GrandlyBodacious said:
Hmm, alright, but then I'm missing what the benefit of this is over a regular physical copy. It'll be cheaper than physical copies? It'll be priced the same as digital?
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It'll exist. I think that's about it.

For a game like Street Fighter 6, Capcom wouldn't bother making a physical version because a) it's too big to fit on a cartridge and b) it'll get frequent updates and require online updates anyway. So, rather than make the game digital only they put it on one of these Game Key cards. You can't just pop them in your Switch and play them like regular game cards (there's no game data on them), but they'll let you download the game then play it offline when that cartridge is inserted.

In a lot of ways, these are pretty similar to most PS4 and PS5 disks for games like Call of Duty. You can put the disk into your PS5, but it's gotta download most of the content and updates anyway. Lots of PS4 and PS5 games don't actually work totally offline / from the disk and just use the disk as a form of DRM to check to make sure you're able to launch the game, just like these cards do.
 
jshackles said:
It'll exist. I think that's about it.

For a game like Street Fighter 6, Capcom wouldn't bother making a physical version because a) it's too big to fit on a cartridge and b) it'll get frequent updates and require online updates anyway. So, rather than make the game digital only they put it on one of these Game Key cards. You can't just pop them in your Switch and play them like regular game cards (there's no game data on them), but they'll let you download the game then play it offline when that cartridge is inserted.

In a lot of ways, these are pretty similar to most PS4 and PS5 disks for games like Call of Duty. You can put the disk into your PS5, but it's gotta download most of the content and updates anyway. Lots of PS4 and PS5 games don't actually work totally offline / from the disk and just use the disk as a form of DRM to check to make sure you're able to launch the game, just like these cards do.
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bender said:
There is a benefit to publishers as presumably that will be the least expensive cart size they can buy. Will those savings be passed on to you? Sorta. Games are large and the most expensive Switch carts were much more expensive for publishers than a Blu Ray. If we take Street Fighter 6 as an example. It's 70+ GB on PS5. It will probably be smaller on Switch 2 but Capcom would still need to purchase a 64GB cart. That game is launching at $59.99 on Switch 2. If the game was on the cart, it probably launches at $69.99. And in the case of as a service games like Street Fighter 6, the data on the cart is going to be outdated in less than a month and you'd be forced to download data anyway.
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Making much more sense.

Thank you for explaining.
 
jshackles said:
.In a lot of ways, these are pretty similar to most PS4 and PS5 disks for games like Call of Duty. You can put the disk into your PS5, but it's gotta download most of the content and updates anyway. Lots of PS4 and PS5 games don't actually work totally offline / from the disk and just use the disk as a form of DRM to check to make sure you're able to launch the game, just like these cards do.
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"Lots" as in a few percent of all discs. The vast majority of disc games on PlayStation require no download or internet. And the few that do are almost exclusively from EA, UbiSoft or Activision.

I think this signals that it'll be way more prevalent on Switch 2. As a comparison, Capcom has never released a offline playable game that requires a download on PS.
 
As long as the game card is not tied to your Nintendo account, and I just need the code on the game card to download and play the game and can sell the game card when I'm done everything is fine by me. If the download code on the game card is tied to your account, then I'm out.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme said:
I'm disappointed that Bravely Default is a Keycard edition.
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Damn what the fuck? So.....we going to have to really think about this one, I might have to hold off on that Switch 2 pre-order.

So basically we are just getting some box with a download code or some shit?

dave-dave-chappelle.gif
 
Rumor is that Nintendo is letting partners choose between a small cartridge size (4gb?) and the larger one (64gb), nothing in between. So if your game weights more than the small cartridge you either pick the 64gb one or go digital / game key card. The price for the 64gb card apparently is about USD 16.



I've had a little bit of insider information. Which could be bullshit. It's probably had to go through four levels just to get to me. But I trust the person who told me this.
It does appear that Nintendo are giving their publishing partners fewer options when it comes to their physical releases.
If you look back at the Switch 1, if you were a publisher, you had a lot of options when it came to the physical release. If you were a very small indie game, you could get a 1 GB cartridge for a reasonable price. They also had incremental increases in cartridge sizes: 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB all the way up to the big, chunky, and very expensive 32 GB cartridge. And when I say expensive, more expensive than you'd think. In the entire Switch library, you could probably count the amount of games that used 32 GB on one or two hands. Nobody wanted to use it.
However, I have heard that Nintendo are giving fewer options to their publishing partners [on the Switch 2] and essentially offering only a couple of options: like a very smallish cartridge, or a full-fat 64 GB cartridge, and nothing really in between. So for the really small indie games, it's not a big deal. But it's those middle ground publishers that may suffer the most. Because if their game is like 7 GB, they are essentially being forced to either choose a big fat 64 GB cartridge, or go the cheap option and go for either no physical at all, or the Game-Key route, which will obviously be far cheaper for them.
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(via Reddit)
 
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Ritsumei2020 said:
I still don't understand the way this works. Why are they doing this?
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Everyone wants to go digital and they are looking for their own path. Epic, GOG and similar give away games for free, Microsoft gives you a subscription, Nintendo is trying with these key cards. And companies will love them because they can make their games huge without having to pay those 16 bucks per cartridge.
 
ReyBrujo said:
Rumor is that Nintendo is letting partners choose between a small cartridge size (4gb?) and the larger one (64gb), nothing in between. So if your game weights more than the small cartridge you either pick the 64gb one or go digital / game key card. The price for the 64gb card apparently is about USD 16.





(via Reddit)
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That makes absolutely no sense so it's probably 100% true.
 
GrandlyBodacious said:
Hmm, alright, but then I'm missing what the benefit of this is over a regular physical copy. It'll be cheaper than physical copies? It'll be priced the same as digital?
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The point is a lot of games that would never come as a "physical" release are much more likely to get this kind of release than nothing.
 
ReyBrujo said:
Everyone wants to go digital and they are looking for their own path. Epic, GOG and similar give away games for free, Microsoft gives you a subscription, Nintendo is trying with these key cards. And companies will love them because they can make their games huge without having to pay those 16 bucks per cartridge.
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This would only make sense to me if you could sell the key card or give it to your friends?
 
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Mozza said:
Have you emailed Nintendo. They may change their mind at the thought of losing your custom. ;)
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No need.

I did get £650 for my Switch and all the games. Put the money towards a week in Milan with my family in October.

Money well spent.
 
Physical died the instant internet connection and patches became a thing. When you insert cod into your old ps3 20 years from now you know you're playing the worst version because ps3 patches are offline.

Same with S2 90 $ cards, in 2045 all S2 are offline and your card copy of DK Bananza will be the worst version
 
Mozza said:
Nice. But only a weeks enjoyment for all that stuff. Sounds like a bad deal to me mate.
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A weeks enjoyment, but a lifetime of memories with the people I love the most. When I'm old and grey, I'll remember the family trip to Milan more than playing Mario Kart 8 in bed.

Money well spent in my opinion.
 
IDKFA said:
A weeks enjoyment, but a lifetime of memories with the people I love the most. When I'm old and grey, I'll remember the family trip to Milan more than playing Mario Kart 8 in bed.

Money well spent in my opinion.
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You could go to Milan as well......... Just a thought.
 
Hopefully nintendos security have gotten better. I can see hackers easily duping these key cards and Nintendo then locking the cards to your Nintendo account.
 
What people fail to realize is that only third parties (with the exception of CD Projekt apparently) are going to embrace the key card route, because they are too lazy to fully optimize and implement their games on a regular cartridge. There's no way a game like Bravely Default couldn't fit in one of it.
 
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Tarin02543 said:
Physical died the instant internet connection and patches became a thing. When you insert cod into your old ps3 20 years from now you know you're playing the worst version because ps3 patches are offline.

Same with S2 90 $ cards, in 2045 all S2 are offline and your card copy of DK Bananza will be the worst version
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No amount of patches would fix the PS3 version it would still be the worse version lol.
 
Ryu_Joestar said:
What people fail to realize is that only third parties (with the exception of CD Projekt apparently) are going to embrace the key card route, because they are too lazy to fully optimize and implement their games on a regular cartridge. There's no way a game like Bravely Default couldn't fit in one of it.
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I think the problem is the reverse of what you're thinking. Nintendo has set the minimum game card size at 64GB, and these cards are still expensive to manufacture. The Switch 1 had cartridges as small as 1GB, but they also offered 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB cards. This meant that even small indie games could produce physical versions of their games and keep the manufacturing costs down. Meanwhile, a game like Bravely Default is 11GB in size, so under the old system it could have easily fit on a 16GB cartridge but now has to be produced on a 64GB cartridge, which would eat into the costs and lower their profits on physical copies sold.

The download / eShop size for Cyberpunk 2077 is 56GB, meaning this game was always going to need a 64GB card anyway. The real kick in the nuts is that something like Street Fighter VI is 49GB download, but they still opted to save money by going to the Game Key Card rather than pony up for 64GB actual game card. Same goes for Yakuza 0 which is 54GB.

I'm hoping for total mass market rejection on these, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
jshackles said:
Nintendo has set the minimum game card size at 64GB
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Was this confirmed though ?

Definitely hoping for a huge backlash. Nintendo are disrespectful of publishers and in turn, publishers get disrespectful of consumers. Amazing situation !
 
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Gambit2483 said:
😂 No. Nintendo has actual games.
WTF are you people actually complaining about? Maybe rewatch MK World trailer. Game looks 10x better than anything Sony or MS are doing right now
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lol. MK World looks cool but 10x better than anything Sony and Ms are doing? Please. Those Nintendo mushrooms are rotting your brain.
 
So apparently the latest system update for NSW1 includes functionality to avoid virtual game cards, supposedly it "doesn't change anything" from how it worked beforehand. But I am seeing reports of people installing the update and now they can't play a digital copy of the game online with two systems at the same time. Nintendo seems to have scrubbed their website of the how-to article.

Hoping this is a bug, but I have little trust for Nintendo's behaviors when it comes to digital games.
 
fallingdove said:
lol. MK World looks cool but 10x better than anything Sony and Ms are doing? Please. Those Nintendo mushrooms are rotting your brain.
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It was an exaggeration but still, what is MS or Sony doing that looks extremely better (or more fun) than MK World? Fable? Ghost of Tsushima 1.5?
Edit: Maybe DOOM but it lacks multiplayer and is not exclusive.

Of course this could change in the next few months but as of right now I'm just not seeing it, personally.
 
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