Publishers Are "Thanking" Nintendo For Game-Key Cards On Switch 2

...and the consumers are not thanking Nintendo.

It’s a good move for smaller publishers and indie studios who want physical space on a store shelf and a cartridge in the box without doing the whole code-in-a-box nonsense.

It’s a step up from the code-in-a-box nonsense as they can be resold, but it’s not the most ideal situation for game preservationists. I’m personally not too bothered as Xbox and PlayStation both do the same thing with their disc games (which often require updates, so the game disc is forever incomplete anyways), but I understand why it’d bother some people. Nintendo is at least being transparent about it and offering the option for smaller companies.

i understand getting a game onto a cartridge is not easy for certain publishers, but i still dont see why bother? its just a digital game with an unnecessary piece of plastic. Either have the game on the cartridge or dont. I actually kinda dont get it. Is it to satisfy collectors or people who insist on having something 'physical' so they feel better about having the game that way (even though its a totally empty gesture of sorts)?

If customers don't buy them, they are likely to change their tune.

@EarthboundBenjy

Well they should because it would then be code in a box or digital release only for a lot of third party publishers.

Game-Key cards is the most elegant solution to this so they at least retain resale value.

And I will be buying every key card game on the second hand market as a way to thank the developers for their efforts on the 'physical' version.

>> Nintendo should "take preservation a little more seriously". <<

Should they shut down the eShop and force every other publisher towards full games on cartridges? So basically back to the good ol‘ days of Gamecube and DS Lite? This won’t happen!

Customers want third-party games on Switch, so Nintendo must please these publishers. And with the four options of distribution (full cartridge, game-key, code in a box, eShop), Nintendo is exactly doing that.

Look at what’s happening with discs on PlayStation and Xbox. Some are just slapping on a tiny launcher making the disc pretty much a waste. They all want physical to go fully away and this is their latest move to make sure it happens.

@MrGawain I'm genuinely curious to see how that pans out. Will the average customer even notice/care that the game isn't technically on the cartridge, and what percentage of the game buying public would actually care enough for a boycott to make a dent in overall sales?

@FragRed yeah, I imagine there is a fair portion of games on PS/Xbox that don't launch properly without some sort of required /update — effectively making them a key card on a disc

@MrGawain The excuse will then be to not put their games on Switch citing ’lack of demand’.

Yes, make the consumer spend more on external storage by selling us a empty cartridge at full price, disgraceful.

@EarthboundBenjy I am. If Nintendo would force every publisher to buy 64GB cards for their games, all game prices would go up even more.

So. From me, a consumer, THANK YOU NINTENDO!

Somebody think of the planet.
Seriously, waste of plastic.

@Andee This is the main point. My daughters don’t care about game preservation. My brothers in law who play FIFA and COD don’t care. It’s an extremely specific demographic of 30+ neckbeards (of which I am one) that care. Physical games (and ownership) are on the way out, s and EULAs are the future.

My main issue with digital codes in a box was always that they couldn’t be resold or lent to friends. I’m glad this somewhat fixes that problem — but then again, most games that use game key cards nowadays wouldn’t have been the typical “code in a box” titles anyway. Plus, it sucks that storage will now fill up much faster.

Haha, oh the irony.

@Andee I had this same thought as well, but I think with the high cost of the new SD cards it may bother some when they need to delete/re etc to prevent needing to spend the extra money?

Also, something that can’t really be understated, switch was the only console where you could buy a game, put it in and it just play right away. For kids and people on road trips/travelling etc, this was a pretty unassuming thing. It’s a portable device, the carts sort of need to work when not tethered to the internet right?

@vyseofhr Gamers could easily create a petition to stop with the key-cards unless absolutely necessary.

I guarantee a petition like that could easily amass over 1 million signatures

Not a fan of this practice whatsoever, for two big reasons:
1) The game is not on the cart, so it is, in effect, just a digital copy. Sure I can sell it, but will I? Probably not; I don’t buy games just to resell them…
2) My hand is being forced to buy more storage, which I do not like. The big advantage of having the game actually on the cart is only needing a small extra amount for a patch or two. Obviously this aligns with PlayStation and Xbox, of having to install a game, but my Pro has 2TB, so…
I will not be ing game key cards. Nintendo, give publishers more options for card size!!

I can see this working out for games with broad appeal as let’s be honest, many buyers of such games will know no better or just won’t care.

But for more niche titles, where a large portion of their clientele value full data on cartridges and preservation, this could backfire.

Lets be honest, numerous publishers who have ‘embraced’ game key cards aren’t exactly small and are merely choosing the cheapest option. It’s no different to those that released Switch games on 8GB carts yet required an additional 13GB to get the full game.

Lol. I think they will be shocked by lack of sale on those game key cards. Most people will opt for either boycotting or buying the games fully digital.

@ear_wig The resell argument is actually completely moot when you see how low prices get on a lot of those digital sales they have on eShop.

Well duh. Of course they are. The GKC platform allows more publishers to secure a retail presence for their development partners due to decreased cartridge costs

@sanderev thanking Nintendo for not manufacturing different cart sizes to accomadate all kind of games? Don't you see they are offering a mediocre solution for a problem they unnecessarily created in the first place.

@Smithicus

its just a digital game with an unnecessary piece of plastic. Either have the game on the cartridge or dont. I actually kinda dont get it.

It's not the same as a pure digital game, because a game-key card is not tied to a , so it can be resold or lent to someone else. In a household like mine, where me and my spouse both have our own Switches, this is actually an important distinction. Both of us can play the same game with just one game-key card with no restrictions. So in that regard is the same as having a pure physical game.

The only reason I care about actual cartridges for the Switch/Switch 2 is to save on precious storage space.

Since the platform is an exclusives-only machine for me, I won’t have much to worry about since Nintendo itself will still use actual cartridges.

imo they will miss out on sales. Personally I don't view digital s (or key cards for that matter) to be the same value. Compared to what could have been a day one full price purchase I am gonna wait until a serious price drop. And will also limit my purchases, during the switch 1 era I bought a couple of games I was on the fence, such as diofield chronicles, if it was a key or i would have given it a . But that's just me ofc.

@EarthboundBenjy overwhelming majority of consumers don't care

@MrGawain Unfortunately, the vast majority of consumers do not frequent sites like this and will just buy what they see, without knowing what the implications of these things might be.

I'm sad this is a thing, but if it at least replaces 'code in a box', that's something. My main issue was Nintendo only offering one cart size to publishers as more will go down this route now.

Eh, they'll become worthless once Nintendo shut down the NS2 eshop in the near future and you can't them anymore. It'll be a weird thing to own once that happens, like, what do you do with it then?

Let's see how customers will thank you, publishers.

Booooooooo! Booooooooooooooooo!

Of course they are. They pay even less to produce a game, while charging customers more and making them foot the bill for storage costs. And the worst thing is that many people will not care, or actively defend getting less value for their money. It's insane.

@vyseofhr — exactly - I'm somewhere in the middle in that while I'm not thrilled about the idea of having to the game and have it take up extra space on the internal memory, I understand that manufacturing games beyond a certain size is prohibitively expensive for the solid state cartridge format. I'm just baffled as to why Nintendo aren't offering smaller sized carts for games that are nowhere near 64gb.

@Elldot true, but realistically what are the odds of little Timmy ripping the cart out of the box as they're leaving the store and not being able to endure the car ride home before he can get to an internet connection? Hell, it might give Game something to do if they had some sort of in-store facility so that the game is installed right there and then, should a customer wish

@Bizzyb I don’t think you would get anywhere near to a million, personally.

Well what the producers are thankful for, the customers are crying about.

I'm fine with Game Key Cards. I don't think they're going anywhere despite the protestations/threats of boycotts online. I already have RAIDOU preordered, and Amazon JP just shipped my copy of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

I'm digital only aside from single player games I'm unlikely to replay any time in the next several years. Those I buy physically and sell again once completed/if I don't like them. I suspect we're looking at at least 15-20 years before any activation servers could be shut down, so I'd have moved on long ago.

This doesn't save customers any money as microSD Express storage isn't exactly cheap. With an AU$80/US$60 256GB card, currently the only size available in the Australian market, each 60GB game is essentially costing you an additional AU$20 in storage space (and multiply that if you have multiple consoles for the kids and/or secondary consoles etc.).

Surely it would have been a far better value proposition to just charge an extra tenner so that the entirety of the game would be on the cart.

And perhaps most insultingly, these releases aren't particularly cheaper than full cartridge games, with games like Yakuza and Hitman retailing for AU$90 and $100 respectively, despite there being bugger-all on the cart. To put matters into perspective, The Witcher 3 on Switch, on a full 32GB cart, retailed for AU$100, but was readily available for only $79 (and further cheaper on sale).

I sincerely hope that these anti-physical releases end up pissing off a lot of customers very quickly so that third parties will rethink their contemptible business strategy sooner rather than later. Yes, it's the lesser of evils between that and a code in a case, but a turd by any other name still stinks.

Yes, thank the million dollar company and screw the consumers. Great move!

Game key card is a BS idea ever.
Don't ever the BS game key card, guys!

I think its BS too but then again all my games on PC are digital now. On consoles I have gone mostly digital aswell. Switch has been mixed but woth switch 2 im gonna go all digital aswell.

I have zero issue with key cards. For years we expressed concern about the huge cost increase of developing games, and when it comes to a small price increase and key cards, we moan our butts off!

Today I bought Street Fighter 6 on a key card, and it included all the year 1 and 2 extra characters. SF6 in the eshop cost $5 less for the base game. Without the key card, the developer and the retailer get nothing.

I really struggle with the hysteria over key cards. We will buy from the eshop freely and with all the non guarantees of "ownership", yet a key card causes conniptions.

I'm not a fan of these but I do understand why they exist.

For me they neither do what I want from a physical game entirely nor do they have the convenience of a digital game.

I'm generally happy with digital though so I will probably buy a lot of stuff digital and then just stick with 1st party stuff and notable 3rd party releases for physical.

Just need to work out how to manage multiple sd cards now though.

The alternative that pubs are disinterested in is Nintendo’s expensive proprietary storage express game cards. Which is reasonable. It really is.

I won't be buying key cards or much digital either, but I can't see Nintendo not releasing it's own stuff on actual cartridges and as I'm only going to be buying first party games and the odd good indie game this really isn't going to affect me at all.

Ugh. The businesses are thankful for them, no doubt.
The customers? No cussin' thanks.
My wallet? Happy for some relief, I suppose. I’ll be opening it less.

@Polvasti a lot of people saying it’s the same as a digital game. How does the fact that it’s an -free software purchase not with people, or the fact that this is the last thing standing between all third party purchases being tied to an , which pubs happily do on other platforms?

Maybe -free software is no longer a concern to people, as long as they can say they’ve got 3/4 of a game on-disk for their shelf..

These game key cards reminds me of the juicero juicer if anyone re that.

I'm sure they are.😆 They couldn't believe Nintendo would help them easily screw over consumers like this.🤣 These companies are saying the quiet part out loud. They hate physical media and want to do away with customer ownership. Mark my words, even when SD express cards manufacting comes down in price, companies are sticking with game key cards going forward with the rare exception of a few companies. It's also only a matter of time until Nintendo slowly adopts game key cards for their own titles instead of just ripping the band aid off and doing it now. They know the backlash would be absolutely intense if they did it right now too. Let third parties take the initial brunt of consumer anger but inevitably do the same thing in the future.

@Ironcore I that and it was hilarious how the company got exposed with those overpriced pouches that could just be squeezed by hand. They claimed people "needed" their machine that cost hundreds of dollars to use the pouches until people figured out quickly they were lying. Bankrupt the company. 🤣

@8bit-Man which one? They’re all billion dollar companies….

One good reason for me to buy physical was the physical manual… how I miss them…
Im an old NES guy, and I really loved Nintendo manuals…

@Bizzyb So many are already bending the knee and accepting the game key card bs. They are trying to convince themselves and others how this is a "good" thing.😐 The power is in the consumer's hands and some are willingly giving it away to these greedy and anti consumer companies.

Well for launch day I’ve ordered Rune Factory 6 and Cyberpunk on my vanilla Switch. Nuff said.
Can’t wait.

Well it's nice that someone seems to be happy about this, I suppose. I'm personally not buying a key-cart release unless it's at a heavy discount, and I'll happily take another opportunity to bang my little drum about how even full-blown retail releases will be scrutinized heavily at the price Nintendo seems to want for them this generation.

The first planned purchase for my part is still Hyrule Warriors this winter, but I sincerely hope the rest of you guys have a great release-week - and that whatever games you pick up lives up to the hype (and price).

@Smithicus The reason for game cards is because there is marketing value to having your game on store shelves.

A significant portion of customers still at least occasionally purchase by just wandering the game section and seeing what's on the shelf. Being on a digital storefront only hides your product in the digital sea and can weaken sales if other methonds don't alert peole enough.

Game key cards are actually pretty brilliant solution for publishers as it allows them to get their game on store shelves without investing in expensive chips. THose keycards are like ... the cheapest of the cheap. Their cost is probably near zero so they can be produced and sent out without any loss in production.

BTW as far as "taking game preservation serious" ... I don't know how to break this to people but physical releases aren't actually a promise towards game preservation. Physical media fails eventually. CHips and even CDs will degrade even if you keep them in box after a few decades.

We're starting to see this occur with some GBA games where the internal battery died, but the problem's only going to get worse.

Now I'm not saying I don't want proper physical releases. But there is a point to the key cards and if you're reason for hating keycards is game preservation a physical chip wouldn't be a gurantee.

For the time being the best way to preserve games is to make sure to back up any game released on a good external drive and be ready to transfer it to other mediums.

Honestly what I'm relaly hoping for is that fans, or maybe even Nintendo, release blank cartridges made for storing singular Switch 2 games on. Meaning since it wasn't sold physically you just put it on physical yourself. It should be possible in theory so I'd like to see people really step up and create their own solution.

@Max_the_German Except they're offering only one option for full physical cart size which is probably why so many opt in for the game key card. I still call shenanigans. More would have gone full physical if they offered smaller cart sizes.

Pretty sure I’ll be saying “no thank you” to these. The whole point of the cartridge is to have some form of convenience for others to play an game and not have to store the game data.

I'm that keen on the idea, but if some publishers like it that's their opinion not mine.

@AllBLK it's not bending the knee it's about actually thinking about it instead of just picking up the pitchfork and ing the angry mob because your first thought was anger.

Keycards are not really a replacement for physical releases, they are more to allow digital releases a way to be put on store shelves without investing in more expensive physical game carts.

Do we all want physical releases? yes. But even if keycards didn't exist a lot of these games would probably NOT get physical releases and just opt for digital storefront.

THis is due to Nintendo not offering variable cartridges so smaller games aren't overpaying for big cartridges, and this is an issue. But the keycards themselves are not to blame.

I feel like I'm missing something here: if you're a small publisher and want to reduce costs, why would you bother with a game keycard at all?

Surely that extra plastic is an added cost that you can't afford. The only ones I can see doing well out of this is the big publishers looking to cut corners, as the smaller developers would just release digitally, no?

@Yosher I agree, having only the option for 64 GB cartridges is not great. But I argue that we will likely see smaller cartridges soon, and many publishers will still prefer the cheaper game-keys. „Complete game on a cartridge“ will be the exception.

It will be very interesting to start seeing sales data on these key cards and how the format will fare with consumers. I myself and others I know are not buying any Day 1 Switch 2 games because of the key card format. I would have gladly bought Radiou, Bravely, and Yakuza if full physical. Maybe I’ll have to get on board if the market drags me there but for now I’m holding the line.

My wallet thanks Nintendo for Game Keys.

In the Switch generation, I bought ~150 physical games, usually close to launch. If I want a game, I might as well buy digital, as for my purposes it's the same but I don't have to swap carts. (I don't sell my games, and it's now easy enough for me to share digital titles)

With physical for certain games, there was the possibility that the game would go out of print, and 2nd hand copies would sky rocket.
With digital, there is less risk of it not being available (until the eShop closes), so I might as well wait for a deep discount and play my backstead 😅

better then nothing(imo)

@EarthboundBenjy not that we are generally known for doing that anyway.

Thanking them for helping to scam the customers. I had a feeling that I won't be buying that many Switch 2 games in this new would-be terrible generation. At least they are generous enough to tell us on the case that those are just game key card title so that's good to know. Those who buy em knowing that they are game key card and still complain had no excuse to blame anyone else but themselves.

@JumpingJackson cheap chips for storing keys cost basically nothing so your wrong on that.

The reason for small publishers has already been stated. But everyone prefers to complain so they don't spread the information.

The true value of key cards from a publisher perspective is to put the game on physical shelves without paying for actually good storage carts.

There is still a significant portion of the market that purchases or becomes aware of games through presence in physical stores. It's also more popular to send people something physical as a gift so your can hand them something.

Keycards are actually VERY pro indie and pro small publisher because production costs is one of the reasons most indie games, even good ones, don't appear outside of online stores.

I'm not saying game key cards don't have issues. But they aren't scams like the rage mob is shouting and they aren't simply for big publishers.

Also just to quickly reiterate another post I made but gamekey cards aren't the death nail to game preservation people think it is ... Not unless people stop even trying.

Sorry Nintendo, but I don’t plan to buy any key cards. Retail games should stay physical.

Hopefully, they will sell like crap and stop thanking this anticonsumer bullcrap.

Nintendo and them can go f themselves

People seem to poop on the game key cards just as bad as cloud gaming. I don’t think they are particularly close to being as bad as each other.

Of course they would thank them. They, not the customers, are the intended audience, after all. ^_^

@Smithicus It is, quite literally, an empty gesture!

When the servers go offline as per the 3DS and Wii U servers they are useless.

I'll be honest, the game key card issue is the main thing holding me back from purchasing a Switch 2. Having something take up space on your hard drive that you can't use if you've forgotten the cartridge is way too inconvenient. It's the worst of both worlds.

@Metazoxan I feel like this issue was solved with the 'code-in-a-box' releases though? This is the same thing but adds the inconvenience of having to put a piece of plastic in your console every time you wish to play.

It makes me sad this partial truth being propagated.

That all PS XB games are just keys on the disc, so why shouldn't Nintendo do it?

This is just largely not true. Visit doesitplay.org
and you'll find nearly 75% of physical games /install the content from the disc/cart and are playable offline without a mandatory software update.

People have convinced themselves that such games don't exist anymore. Or they don't care maybe.

I do, and have hundreds of switch, PS4/PS5 and XB1 games that can be installed and played without an Internet connection.

I also plan to these games down to my daughter someday.

The people that say they just won't miss out playing a game because it is digital only or a game key card are weak consumers. Sorry but that's how I feel.

In an age of anti-consumerism everywhere you need to communicate using your wallet. It's the only thing corporations understand.

By saying you disagree with something but plan to buy it anyways tells corporations that you actually agree with it.

So I am part of a minority, but a vocal one! I won't be buying a single Game-Key card. Hell, I'm not even buying a switch 2 for years until they lower that price.

Maybe I'll miss out on some games...probably. A lost sale says a lot more than a guaranteed one.

The Game carts are good for consumers as you can lend, trade or sell them on.

They are good for developers as they keep costs down which in theory means they don't have to either charge alot more for a physical on the shelf release or go digital only or go with likes of limited run etc..

In the end its probably only a stop gap on the way to an all digital future. (And before people start shouting that will never happen etc just look at sales figures and PC gaming (Steam etc) consoles are just few steps behind really).

@ieatcrayons but you can't resell or easily lend out a code in a box

The situation of developers / publishers granted for game key card feature for Switch 2 reminded me of the situation in Final Fantasy XIII during the speech of Galenth Dysley before having Final Boss form.

Developers / Publishers (Galenth Dysley) :
At last, my errant customers (L'cie).
Players fight players. Players battle beasts.
Physical games (Cocoon) wars with Digital games (Pulse).
There can be no end to such conflict.
But Physical games' (Cocoon) end is imminent and inevitable.
Will you not at least try game key card and make it quick?
As an act of mercy?

Customer (Lightning) :
Mercy? You mean "murder" (murder = killing the physical games).
And Physical games won't die.
We're not here for that.
We came for you (pointing weapons toward game developer).

Developers / Publishers (Galenth Dysley) :
Such willful insolence. Disappointing.
You prolong Physical games' suffering.
And to what end? Refusing me but condems our game key card products to preserve your games tomorrow.
If you truly seek video games, you will obey!
(Transform into Barthandelus and made million of game key cards)

Full disclosure: As much as I despise game-key carts, I preordered and picked up Yakuza Zero (a game-key cart) last night along with my Switch Deux system and other goodies.

Here is why:
On preorder day back in April, after waiting a long time in line, I couldn't if Yakuza Zero was on the cart or not. (the store attendant couldn't confirm either!) I wanted the game so I decided to gamble. And lost. But I decided to keep it, rather than back out of a preorder, as a courtesy to the store I'm fond of.

It's an all-around shame my "copy" of Yakuza Zero will be wholly and forever conditional to the good graces of Sega and Nintendo. We'll see if it lives on as long as my copy of Cyberpunk!

“Thank you Nintendo for enabling us and allowing us to give money to our soulless executives instead of giving the people who actually make the games good working conditions and job security!”

Thank ?
Ahahahah-ha

What ?!
Thank for what ?

@Teksette
Yes. That.

I refuse to buy GKC, nomatter how much SquareEnix """thanks"""" Nintendo

I'd say I'll "never" buy a game on a key card, but if the next Zelda or Xenoblade is only available that way, I and likely many other fans will hold our noses and buy it digital or on a key card, depending on our post-game wishes (keeping or trading/selling). I won't miss Xenoblade X2 or Xenoblade 4 because of my principles, even though, yes, I agree it is smeggy for ownership and preservation.

....

....

All that I am is hatred

Meanwhile consumers are not thanking them. I don’t buy any of those cut corners.

Publishers unfortunately are abusing them. In theory they were meant for games that were either too big or indie publishers that couldn’t afford the carts. Meanwhile crap like the Bravery Default remaster is not a true physical.

Sorry, but you can’t convince me that Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, etc couldn’t fit even their old port games on a 64 cart (especially after compression) or it was too expensive when CyberPunk with dlc was able to accomplish that.

Guess I’ll just buy Nintendo first parties + third parties that don’t cut corners on product delivery.

Yeah, sure... Thankful.

Easy to do when you're ing the buck of not only the price, but the space to play these games. Not long now when people claim that 100gb is the norm and just buy more space for more games.

Or maybe that's an end goal. To essentially shut down your compeititon by moving the battlefield from store shelves to your hard drive.

Not happy about the idea where I am now responsible for buying 100s of dollars for storage because the publishers cannot be bothered. Eventually it may be us patching their broken games, with the devs simply not running QA.

LOL I'm here to read the comments.

Nope not buying them!

Game-key cards seem like an improvement over the older code in a box releases. That said, I'm planning to avoid either physical release.

One of the reasons i wont get a switch 2 for at least a few years..what they are doing is not ok with me and cant some of the stuff they are doing...

For better or worse, the world has been going digital for entertainment for a while now. This seems like a stop-gap measure, but don’t be surprised if physical completely goes away for games soon.

Personally I don’t mind much (as I’ve gone digital for quite a while now), but obv for consumers as a whole it’s always best to have more options.

@MrGawain We can stop Game Key Cards like we stopped UMD Videos!

@Metazoxan "Honestly what I'm relaly hoping for is that fans, or maybe even Nintendo, release blank cartridges made for storing singular Switch 2 games on. Meaning since it wasn't sold physically you just put it on physical yourself. It should be possible in theory so I'd like to see people really step up and create their own solution."
Well, copying a digital game to SD card is technically that.
The other way of interpreting that would be to suggest Nintendo do exactly what they did for the Super Famicom and Game Boy in Japan (which was itself a recycling of the Famicom Disk System idea). They had kiosks set up in stores in Japan for exactly that purpose. They pulled them just after the Wii was released. The former had the limitations that you could only fit enough games to fill the cartridge memory capacity and that, since there was no "ownership" system put in, once you delete a game you have to pay for it again if you want it back another time (which is what Nintendo would do if they followed your idea).

This feels like a bad wrestling angle.

It only offsets the cost of game development if people buy them…

I'm already accustomed to them.

Would I prefer the whole game ON the cartridge ? Well, yeah, obviously. But since this is not happening for a lot of games, I can work with those cards.

Microsoft and Sony are already doing it, for a lot of games. But without advertising it. They're doing it quietly, keeping it in the shadows. At least, Nintendo is transparent about the full process.

And it works just like I had imagined : just put the card in, and it installs automatically, no eShop selection needed or whatsoever.

So yeah, it works for me.

But I'll always prefer real game cards off course, with the actual game ON IT.

But that's the new world we're living in, I guess. I've bought Mario Kart in physical (so, not in the bundle) and guess what ? It did an update straight away.

Just a small one. But it did.

So the whole "full game on the card" narrative is really becoming some sort of a memory, I guess.

I hope they change their tune due to lots of bad sales.

@KingMike Yeah an SD card would work. But I'm thinking more ... actually game cards. Maybe you could even print out a sticker to put on it.

My thought is that if those cards are really so expensive then maybe have a service to take a key-card game and have it put into a card you purchase yourself. Obviously you'd loose access to the keycard and if you somehow lost if you'd have to buy another like if you lost a physical game.

But since that's exactly what some people want I think that's fine.

The big issue here would be making the game even more expensive overall. But if it's a seperate charge you can deal with later and if it's your choice then it's fine.

Plus you could even have resellers who could do this in bulk and then resell the physical game on actual cards in stores. You could make a whole market out of it with the right set up and it would go a long way to game preservation.

Even if Nintendo doesn't do it themselves a company like "limited run games" could probably offer a service where you trade in key-card games and recieved physical versions with all the data on it. Again there is potential for people to make a merket out of this. It might be a tad but it can still work.

It's better than code in the box or digital only, because you can sell it. So I wasn't against it.

Not surprised to see some publisher this nonsense. Anyway Game Card Key must be one of the worst anti consumer stuff Nintendo has pulled so far.

@CutchuSlow

No but you must have internet or the servers must be on or you won’t get the game which isn’t that different from code in a box.

@Bobobiwan That’s interesting because I’ve played many PS5 games and it works without internet so you are wrong here.

Didn’t expect any less from the fanboys.

@Spaceman44 No fanboy here, sir, I mostly play on PS5 pro and Series X. I was especially ing some Xbox memories and a few PS5 ones. Some Ubisoft games, for example. Or the recent Indiana Jones (which is published by Xbox, so no surprise, here). And every time, the "mandatory " mention you can find on the box is a tiny little one, the kind of mention you can miss when buying the game.

My argument was just that Nintendo is putting it right in front of the buyer, you cannot miss it. But I always prefer the game on the card (or disc), I repeat.

One of my most pleasant surprises on Xbox, recently, was Tekken 8 : the game was delivered on two discs, a rare thing for this console, and was complete (well, at the time, before all the updates). Street Fighter 6, if I correctly, was not manufactured like that. You had to most of the stuff, right from day one.

@Bobobiwan

There’s a difference between ing day 1 patch and ing entire game. People shouldn’t have to a game just because publishers is being lazy or greedy.

but why? i gotta ask this because i will never waste my money on a game key card, i would rather pay more for a game and i mean by that, that even if the game was more then $80 i'd rather pay more for the full game on the cart then $80 for a game that may not work in 10 years time when the e-shop is discontinued

@Polvasti
Nicely said. I am fine getting the GameKey cards for games all of the family plan on playing. Rather do that then the Virtual Card lending. As for games just for me that are only on GameKey cards? I'll wait for a sale on the eshop, lol.

@Smithicus beacuse you can resale this

Yeah it would have been a step up from “code in a box”, but primarily turns out to be step down from “physical release”.

No doubt incentivized / promoted by Nintendo only offering the largest cartridges to third parties. Seems to be by design.

I am not. Nintendo chose poor storage options. Why can I not put a m.2 in the switch 2 or the dock, or hook up a SSD to the system/dock. Just saying.

I am trying to figure out how these games are going to sale if we cannot even store them.

I have always tried to paint myself as a physical collector but it is getting a but silly now. Does it really matter in 2025? At least the key cards allow me to put something on my shelf, and you can sell them on. I don't like it but I feel like I am holing on to something that I say I care about more than I actually do. I have the Mario Kart World code and it is way more convenient to have that game permanently in the console

People are rightly worried about game preservation, but in 50 years all these games will have been dumped online anyway, or exist in other forms. I can't see a situation where a well loved game vanishes forever. It's funny in a way because if we had s and the internet in the 80s then these rare classics that have been lost due to their limited physical releases being lost or binned would be more likely to exist as Roms somewhere.

I don't like it, but I have grown to accept it. It's when consoles go full subscription only that we are in trouble.

"Shoutout to the Big N for letting us get away with non-optimized lazy ports"
-said publishers

we will gonna have a list of game key cards and non game key cards soon....

publisher thanks nintendo, but does the developer too?
recent games shows that publisher is the bad guy here...

@Shepdawg1 A vast majority of PS5 games are on the disc.
https://www.doesitplay.org/

And an incomplete game that needs some updates is very different from something that needs online to work at all.

@Antray1984 It's not just about preservation. Also think about storage. Without a MicroSD Express, you can only fit a few games on the Switch 2.

***** off!
Nintendo you better teach them how to compress files then otherwise it’s 60-100gb s

I almost took the hint and went all digital this gen, then at the last moment said , nope! I’m buying Cyberpunk physical. Want to publishers doing the right thing while I still can. (And the game came with a nice lil sticker pack inside which I really appreciated— just a lil something extra like that goes a long way these days)

@Antray1984 good point I feel similar tho like I said I did decide to cyberpunk. I think I’m finally just gonna have to accept this is the new way soon. Curious if your 1984 is your birth year, if so were the same age ha!

Game companies do not care about preservation whatsoever.

The future is here AND YOU WILL OWN NOTHING.

I'm not thanking Nintendo for game key cards. Publishers won't be thanking my wallet, either. Hard on any title that is released on this format and not a proper physical cart.

@Spaceman44 On that, we totally agree

@Yosher - Although I agree with you in the premise of smaller cart sizes, there is two major hurdles that are not to blame Nintendo for.

1) lower SD cards are being quickly phased out, and becoming expensive to print for the requirements are higher than they were 8 years ago. So finding anyone to be willing to print propriatary media as lower than what SD cards just got "over" printing is going to be a challenge.

2) Everything from phones, to streaming, to audio recordings have quickly outpaced those old requirements. So printing anything less will become a warehousing nightmare when even phone photos require a gig a pic due to high fidelity demands.

Nintendo is still partially to blame for it, they did choose what they chose, but many things here are also symptoms of a bigger tech-related problem.

@TAndvig I doubt they are expecting anything more than you are. It’s merely an option.

You have to that in Japan, physical on-disc/on-cart makes for less than half of all game sales. So they're not quite as hung up on tying game data to physical media as the West is. As far as Japanese publishers and consumers are concerned, this is an acceptable compromise between digital convenience and physical possession.

@HugoGED Exactly. Of course they’re happy. They are now able to their expenses onto their consumers. Everyone’s a winner but us.

However, according to a short quote from Kaoko Kino, president of Japanese video game consultancy firm Kyos Inc, publishers are "thanking" Nintendo for Game-Key Cards, noting that the move will help offset the rising cost of game development (thanks, Bloomberg).
That is a joke...notice they never made any consumer survey to confirm this at all. This is all echo chamber talk. Sorry but this doesn't offset rising cost. Publishers aren't for the most part the Devs/Programmers. Digital games don't lower the MSRP. You put on Full cart and charge accordingly. Was it that hard? Make "Key-Card" and "Full" Cart and let consumers choose - I can surmise buyers will go "Full" cart first.

@MrGawain Correct. Unfortunately, they will probably go digital only as a kick in the teeth to those who want physical.

What a load to total horse 💩.

@sanderev For large games, I would rather pay an extra $10 to have the game on a card than pay about $15 worth of space on a Micro SD EXPRESS card. And I'd rather be able to pop the card in rather than and re- a 64 GB game onto a memory card.

So uh, I wouldn't thank Nintendo on those fronts either. You're footing the bill either way.

Upfront, I don't like the game key situation.

However, I don't think we're looking at it the right way for publishers who have games that are larger than the size of these cards. Those games wouldn't be sold anywhere but on Nintendo's store anyway, and I'm not really sure how that went for games that did that last time, like many Capcom games (that also had empty cases with codes sold at retail). No one is going to want to pay the astronomical price of multiple card, nor does anyone seem to want to figure out how it'll work, system side, needing to swap cards. Someone would have done that on the OG already.

And I know people who'll call for most of the game to be put on the card: Even if they put most of the files on the card, they'd still need to be finished off with a . Those servers go down, those games are gone anyway. It won't matter. The core of this particular leg of the overall problem of ownership and control is very much on the media Nintendo has stuck with using.

LOL these publishers are idiots the because I for one refuse to these game key cards and any publisher that uses them. If a publisher uses these and does not offer a true physical copy of the game then out of spite I won't buy your game on the key card or shop period! So ya keep thanking Nintendo lol, you're losing my business and I'm sure many others feel the same because I mostly see backlash and dissatisfaction towards these key cards.

And the consumers are crying their hearts out.

Game-Key carts are the main reason why I'm not buying a S2. If Nintendo changes their stance on this, so will I. Otherwise, I'm ready to call it quits.

Not even angry about it. In fact, quite the opposite. This watershed moment makes me realize I need to appreciate what I got, plunge into my S1 backlog, play my old consoles and relax.

Life is good.

I do prefer physical games but understand that more likely than not all games in the future will be fully digital only. I don’t know why people act so surprised. Most disc based games only have partial data which you then need to be online to the rest. The funniest thing is that the majority of people claiming to be furious HAVE AN INSANE STEAM LIBRARY BUILT UP 😂

Ah yes, I'm sure they are "thanking them" and the gamers who buy them

All I know is that as soon as I see that a game comes on a key card, I'm not buying it

@Shepdawg1 Many people keep repeating that about PlayStation games, but it's simply not true. The majority of them can all play from the disc without internet.

@MrGawain If customers don't buy them, they are likely to change their tune.
Unfortunately, the publishers are making those choices for Nintendo at this point. Now if they follow CyberPunk2077 maybe but I've seen plenty right now EA and some others by sheer greed are doing this regardless. They could care less about the consumers.

@Shepdawg1 Option for smaller companies? The major problem is printing the boxart, getting the case and the cartridge. If the cartridge is physical the difference between it being 64GB or 12MB is minimal in 2025, as the cost of storage becomes cheaper and cheaper.

Plus, the difference between writing a game or a code into the cartridge is... minimal. You still have to write data to a cartridge, the manufacturing process if the same.

Either Nintendo is really ripping publishers off with the prices of the cartridges or, which we all know is the real thing, they don't want us to play those games in 10 years.

@Spaceman44 I said it's better than a code in the box. Not sure why you said no. You obviously still need internet to it. It's different from code in the box because you can sell the card, but you can't sell the code in the box after using it. So it makes it better.

@CutchuSlow m

I said it’s not that much better. The best thing would be the entire game is on the cartridge.