They’ve been doing that for decades now. Lots of PC games had a box and CD, but the only thing on it was a stub installer to run Steam. Or even if it had the full game, you’d have to download a giant day-one patch to fix all the bugs fixed between the image going gold and the actual release day.
Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview
kipo@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
So they essentially stuffed a download code into a physical cartridge to make people feel like they are getting something?
Isn’t that needless and wasteful? Isn’t it also going to trick unsuspecting people into buying something they think is a physical version of a game but isn’t?
catloaf@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
EowynCarter@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
They better have a proper label / sticker there.
For collectors, and resell value compared to a paper with a code.
Deluge6062@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
One thing I don’t see people mentioning is that Nintendo Switch 1 game cartridges had 32gb of storage. We don’t know about regular Switch 2 cartridge storages, but they’ve already announced games like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy that are much bigger than that. Add in the fact that Switch 2 promises games in 4k (when docked) and there’s a very decent chance that these game-key cartridges because some games wouldn’t fit in cartridges at all and would otherwise have to be digital-only or not be on this console at all.
kipo@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I don’t think there is anything stopping nintendo from making 64GB or larger cartridges except the cost.
tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Nintendo a site say the cartridge must always be inserted in order to play the game, and so it is the cartridge that controls the game license.
On that basis it seems likely you could sell/give the cartridge to someone else, after which they can play it and you no longer can - they’d just also have to download it first.
velxundussa@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Until the download servers go down and you have a cartridge that’s just ewaste
tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Yes, which is a big part of why it sucks.
kipo@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Thank you for the clarification!
I still don’t like it.
tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Me neither. The age of genuine physical game ownership is toast.