Remember when you use to buy a Switch game and the game would atleast partially before updates, be on the cartridge?
Well imagine buying a key cart for your Switch2 and, you have to download the game from their servers from scratch. The game doesn’t download itself to the cartridge, but onto your Switch 2 consoles internal memory.
Now imagine getting a bad update and trying to delete some data including the update, just to play with the original games version.
physical Key cart games are treated just like they are digital which means you can’t revert the update.
Even if the game is saved onto your Switch’s internal you cannot legally play a key cart game, without the key carts inserted in your switch.
The game data is not stored on the key cartridge but on your switch’s internal memory.
$80 $70 Nintendo Switch 2 carts
“Oh noooo I can’t downgrade from an update, which all modern games need 'cause they all come out broken and unfinished”.
Game key cards are a fix for the previous problem, which was one time game codes that get account locked after one use.
Yeah it sucks you have to download the game, but you can SELL your old game key cards and buy them second hand. This is the closest we’re getting to selling digital games, get used to it.
And when they disable the download because “game is old” or “we want to remake it” or “servers are too expensive” then what?
You don’t own the game and you don’t sell the game. You own a temporary license to play the game and sell that license.
Just like on Steam or any digital store front.
Sure the advantage is that you can resell your license, but let’s see if those cards still do anything in thirty years, like games from thirty years ago do now.
They made a really shitty situation (not owning your games) a little less shitty.
p.s.
Obviously we are also in this mess because convenience trumps ownership, that’s why Steam and business models like these grew so popular.
Then I will download it from other sources and continue playing it.
I won’t say “pirate it” because I still own it.
The fact that Nintendo can pull the game, change the game, or disable a game key card is why I will never purchase a used one; there is no way to know what you are really getting from a used game key card until it’s too late.
Did they? Sounds to me like they just added extra steps and a physical item that locks you out of your game when you lose it.
Over my twice dead body. This is effectively just waste for the sake of producing waste, as the article pointed out. It’s the worst of two worlds, you no longer own your game and you have to find a little nubbin to play it. Piracy should not produce a superior product.
Are you dead yet? These carts existed for Switch 1.
How do you think I died the first time? Gabe Newell himself gave me mouth to mouth and as I coughed out my thanks, he leaned in close to whisper “game trading is available through European accounts” before leaving through the office window.
I think you need to reciprocate a little. I always give him a lil kiss.When he visits me I always find steam cards and discounts under my pillow after he leaves.
To be fair I was talking about degrading from bad updates not just any update. Also, what I think is the most notable detail is that these physical key carts are treated as if you bought a game on the eshop, and downloads the game on your Switch. Not even onto the cart itself.
Do these key carts even have any internal storage on it at all? Probably does, for confirmation purposes.
It really is just e-waste. Because look at what Nintendo has degraded physical media into. Might as well just buy it on the eshop just so you can play the game without worrying abut having the cart in the console. Since the key cart is literally not much different from the digital.
If they don’t restrict the key cart to one switch via a license, you might be right about selling digital games. Tbh I would prefer to sell a physical game, on the cart knowing that the game would always be available.