How big of a problem for NS2 will Keycards ACTUALLY be?

you just dont understyand kino then, this is what a videogame should look like

For starters, it means broken street dates won't result in people playing early, and no xci leaks. Shit sucks.
They do mention that it's NOT required to use eshop/login/create nintendo acct to use these cards, so good for the dozens of countries where N doesn't support shit, I guess.
But the big question is... would a banned system be barred from downloading the cart games? They work with an online service technically.

Overall, fuck nintendo. I'm not buying a shitch 2. unless it gets fusée'd again

You can literally still redownload purchased games on your fucking Wii.
This idea that in 10 years Nintendo will flip a lever and make millions of switch 2 cards worthless is fearmongering bullshit.

Steam cultist detected

the point of games is playing them, not filling your house with them like trading cards

gaben is not going to have sex with you bro

Be developer

Nintendo says you either pay 10 usd per copy made to use the 128 GBs cartridge for your game.... Or 1 usd for the keycard option

Anon... Everyone and everything that doesnt fit on the base NS2 cartridge is going to opt for the keycard.
Yeah, it fucking sucks- but you're painting it like only evil twisted people are doing this when 99% of the games will be like this.

i get why they're doing it from a business perspective, but I am the customer and not the business so I won't be joining you in eating their slop and thanking them for it.

Major problem; it's said that the only options Nintendo offers for the Switch 2 are 64 GB carts (expensive and overkill 90% of the time) and key cards. They are definitely trying to push A and AA publishers to the key cards. And the AAA publishers (especially western ones) will probably need more than 64 GB, so they'll likely start adopting the key cards as well. Expect ~80-90% of third-party "physical" releases to be key cards.

(expensive and overkill 90% of the time)

I don't think this is true at all. Flash memory size and speed are related, and smaller carts wouldn't be fast enough to match the internal storage. Additionally, next gen games will be much larger than Switch 1 games - Cyberpunk is only barely able to fit on a 64GB cart.

Nintendo is the evil one for not offering any other viable options for smaller publishers and because they're blatantly doing this as a foot-in-the-door for digital-only.

Kek is this true? So everyone is fucked then, pixelshit games are barely a few GBs and AAA slop needs over 100+

they're worthless garbage

Cyberpunk 2077 is a AAA release. Now what about those niche Japanese games that never went above 10 GB on Switch? They'll either do digital-only or key cards because 64 GB is overkill (that is, when Nintendo even lets them release since they're even worse than Sony now about bullying niche Japanese developers).

But they did off a viable options devs chose to be cheap about it you can't excuse a 3DS game having a keycard option.

so how can marvelous afford these cards and not shit like sega or capcom

It's not that they can't, they don't want to.

Supposedly it was revealed in the ArcSys hack.

thegamer.com/nintendo-leak-arc-system-works-suggests-64gb-cards-or-game-key-releases-only-negative-reaction-preservation/

xcancel.com/necrolipe/status/1921315875929350549

Like I said, smaller carts wouldn't be able to reach SSD speeds. There's a technical reason not to have <64GB.

Why is it that the Switch offered 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB but Switch 2 is now Keycard or 64GB?

i get capcom, they've bitched out of physical before with the mega man shit, square too
but not sega
but i didn

Same.
Key card is the combination of physical releases' unwieldiness with digital's not actually owning what you paid for. It's the worst of both worlds.
And Nintendo has a history of shutting down shops just a few years down the line.

It gets worse, the switch 2 carts are using Samsung 64GB modules (at 400MB/s) the same ones they use for Microsd expresses, and a 128GB MSRP is 50 bucks meaning likely these cost 25 bucks a pop.

A 100GB bluray disc (on Playstation) is 8 bucks. (it's 17 bucks on Xbox because haha Sony fees).

Realistically Mario Kart World only rakes in 55 bucks because they got jewed by Samsung.

Stealing a gamecart hurts them even more than a stolen blu-ray disc, and you should.

I just want to know if the Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza carts function like Switch 1 carts.

It very much a tech and production issue. Remember, most Ninty games themselves barely went above 15GB, it is hard to imagine they would purposely use a format they themselves barely use unless they just have to. It is likely sizes under 64GB don't exist in their pipeline and they have no plans to change that unless A LOT of niche indie games/3pp demand 12GB carts, which would be an expensive and kinda useless endeavor.

SEGA is weird and late to the punch as usual.

Yes there are 3 things in boxes.
No labels = Same carts like Switch 1
Key card = Reusable Digital Key that dies with the servers
Game Code in a box = One time use, locked to your account forever.

they have no plans to change that

proof, the switch is packed with indie/AA physical releases I can't imagine they'd shoot themselves in the foot this horribly

They dont care because digital sales are far superior since the switch/ps4 era. So most people will probably give up on these keycards and buy digital(which is the same)

anonying bullshit that faggots on this place will use to shitpost

people ask in each release thread of a game if the thing will have a game key card, mourn for the fact that it will, and then retards acting proud of being a digital fag as a joke or for real, like this piece of shit

Not a problem at all. You need to leave the echo chamber. Normies don't care.

Switch 1 carts were made by Macronix at those sizes at 90MB/s, a 16GB switch cart cost the same as a 50GB Bluray disc (at 144MB/s)

Switch 2 is using Samsung's VNAND 3D (400MB/s) and they come in 64GB modules, technically they can make 1TB cartridges, but likely 64GB will the defacto size with some rare 128GB cart once Samsung goes to the next gen memory

All it takes one faggot CEO with a wild hair to pull the plug and your precious games are gone forever
Physical > everything else

a 16GB switch cart cost the same as a 50GB Bluray disc (at 144MB/s)

this sounds like bullshit

Carts cost more than discs, a 32MB N64 cart cost more than 3 PS1 discs

64 gigs being the lowest makes sense for AAA games but the switch had so many physical releases for indies it's kind of shocking they wouldn't try to add a 16gb tier or something.

Key card = Reusable Digital Key that dies with the servers

It's not the key that dies, it is the game on the eShop, same with the code-in-the-box. You are still downloading the entirety of the game onto your system, the key inside the cart just lets you play and share it. So theoretically in the event the eShop dies, you still can just pop in the key card and still play the game.

Most indie games are digital-only and only get physical releases with shitty producers like Limited Run Games. Unless they are super big on game preservation, they wouldn't really complain about a production cycle that is ultimately cheaper for them to maintain. And most AA producers already used coupon codes back in the Switch 1 era where they COULD use different size carts. It was generally stuff like Idea Factory that used physical releases for market share and even then it was mainly to push sales of their Limited/Collector Edition junk, since physical releases are more for those kinds of players nowadays.

It's not really Ninty's decision. They would have to create/edit all their existing manufacturing plants to create that specific kind of size and why would you do that. They aren't really the ones that are making the SDXC format so much bundling it in a properitary cart that flash loads it. It's like saying why don't Sony make smaller blu-ray discs

I mean Switch carts being anywhere near that cheap. You can buy 50GB BD-Rs for about $1/pc. Pressed discs are even cheaper. I don't believe that a Switch cart costs less than a dollar to make.

For most people, it's nothing.
If you think of yourself as a games collector, big deal.

keycards are the worst of both worlds. it's a digital download that takes up space on your system that you can't play without unless the cart is inserted, and it's a physical game that requires a full download of the game to play. they are stupid and not worth the, "but you can resell digital downloads now!" claim that people seem to be tossing around.

The reason why blu-rays are super cheap is because of economics of scale. We have gotten really good at packing a bunch of threads and data on spinning plastic, ever since the days of vinyl. Not only everyone knows how to do it, but every production plant is also basically already designed to make spinning plastic with a bunch of data on it. It is why blu-ray, despite being a "new" format, isn't that more expensive compared to DVD-R, even back in the day.
Switch carts are not only a proprietary format that is using a different proprietary format under the hood (SD cards), they require their own special production cycle. They are not spinning plastic you thread/laser a bunch of data onto. They have to be custom-made. And they have to do it AGAIN with the Switch 2, as SDXC isn't the same production pipeline as SD/SDHC, so the price reduction on using the same Switch 1 cart plants isn't that significant. Economics of scale haven't caught up with SD cards the same way CDs have, especially with how hard capped they are into entering mass market appeal. The Switch 2 and Handheld PC consoles have been the only device in the world that would even require SD cards that can stream at 400MB/s, your camcorder certainly doesn't!

Never understood the issue with key card games. It works exactly like Playstation and Xbox. You don't own the games they are on some server instead. Look at halo infinite or FFXIV, the discs are for drm checking. It's been this way for over a decade now. This isn't some sudden revelation.

The Wii was the last console I ever purchased physical games for.

0 even doom dark ages does that and switch 1 too

Can share

Can resell

What's the problem again?

What about the 3DS?

i've owned every system from Nintendo since the NES and Sony since the PSX. Switch 2 is looking a lot like digital only so even as a buyfag who owns a Pro i unironically cancelled that preorder.

Zero collector value and useless for preservation. They are virtually empty shells of plastic

The card is going to fail eventually - the ONLY way to preserve games is piracy

If you bitch about game key cards but own a Steam Deck you don't get the right to complain about them

that statement is as retarded and gay as you are

people will still collect. people who think collectors are doing it so they can amass a playable library when the internet goes out during world war 3 are delusional

It works exactly like Playstation and Xbox

Why does it NEED to work like with them? Why do you think people have been sticking with Nintendo? Playstation and especially Xbox are trendsetters for many of the worst fucking trends in the industry and Nintendo following them is a bad thing!

I saw a post saying that the Switch 2 64GB cartridges cost publishers $16(On top of the 30% fee that platform holders take) while the Playstation Blurays cost $2. Even at those totals, it's such a massive difference in profit between those 2 consoles that there is 0 chance third parties would want to put multiplats on an actual cartridge. If it takes away from a Playstation, PC, Xbox, or even a digital Switch sale then it costs publishers $14.

Think about that though, 30% of 70 is $21 taken by Nintendo then another $16 would be eaten by the cartridge. $37 of the $70 sale would go to Nintendo and that doesn't include the general distribution costs. If Sony and Xbox are taken $23 instead, that's such a massive difference in potential profit. There's really no chance that most third party games aren't on Game Key Carts.

digital is le bad on console but le gud on pc

nigger ass steamdrone.
digital only is either bad or good.

It's quite simple:
If you, because you've been conditioned - mentally and behaviorally - to just have the twitch of Fear Of Missing Out™, buy any of these, you will be the ones to give Nintendo corporation *IN JAPAN NOT IN REDMOND, WASHINGTON* the green light to say:

okay these poeple are going to buy pseudo digital says and are still buying digital for entire title software releases and are capping above 50% for every quarter in downloadable content so let's just remove physical and retail logistical stock overhead costs and losses and go all digital in the next console after the Switch 2

That's it. So if you can't stop buying games as you did before, if you can't be bothered to keep a backlog/finishing log, if you can't be bothered to replay old games and stop buying into the Zooomer Nigger "But it's old!" mindset, then at the very least don't buy these fob keys.
Because if this doesn't stop, I think it's time to consider buying Raspberry Pis and start digging for pirated old games, free games, and so on.

How do I mod digital games on console? Can I install 500 romhacks to play them in any way I please?

Aside from like 4 or 5 mainline first party games like Mario kart, Zelda - consumers aren't just going to eat those prices

People literally don't give a shit about your autism. See iPhone or Android or Steam Deck. They make 50x more gaming revenue than Nintendo or any console and they dont use physical media, hell even phones are getting rid of SD card slots. The people that care are in the minority like headphone jacks.

the inconveniences of physical (can only have one game card in the console at a time, can be lost or stolen, subject to scarcity)

the inconveniences of digital (can't install game if internet goes out, eats up your storage space)

only "benefit" from either is these can technically be resold like a physical game can, no upside otherwise

Why is this actual E-waste a thing? The EU environmental fags don't care that big wasteful plastic cases are made to store nothing?

99% of games will be like this

If you support these practices, then yeah. What Nintendo is essentially doing is forcing the 64gb cart on devs to make it too expensive for them to put games with smaller sizes on them, forcing them to migrate to digital. Stupid people here will eat that shit up and just buy the key-cards like the cucks they are. The even sadder reality is that devs are just going to license their games to companies like LRG to print super expensive physical copies, if they care enough. I hate this and I'm not supporting this console, it fucking sucks.

I think part of the reason why you see the rush for Switch 2 consoles right now is because they don't even want to pay $80 for Mario Kart so consumers want the bundle where it's only $50 instead. But that bundle is a trojan horse that gets people used to buying and owning digital games. The cost of cartridges is getting too prohibitive again like we saw with the N64, the user experience on the Switch 2 sounds legitimately awful when you realize just how many games are going to be Game Key Cart, how small the internal storage is, and how expensive the Micro SD Express cards are ($60 for 256gb when a 1TB NVME is cheaper).

Yes.

But that bundle is a trojan horse that gets people used to buying and owning digital games

Anon, you are aware that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle was always for a digital version of the game, right?
All of their bundles are digital.

Physical is still their biggest seller.

i've never played a game that was released after 2012 and you can fact check me on that": http jews/.www.911was an inside job. com

Anon, you are aware that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle was always for a digital version of the game, right?

Don't quote me on this but I think the 7th gen is the last gen where we had physical games included in bundles, it's been digital only bundles for a while now but that does groom consumers into being more comfortable with digital. Sony used to include coupons in PS4 boxes where you'd save money on digital orders, I think it might have been 25% and it included the entire cart. There's a massive push towards digital in general. Sony still sells more physical than digital too despite this, we saw that in the Insomniac leaks.

They just didn't call them key cards this gen. Pokemon BDSP only shipped with half the game and most of those have 2024 reprints.

2024 reprints with all the content, but you have to get them from Japan or the Middle East

Who says you have to pay for digital games on a steam deck? It's just a linux laptop with controller buttons. You can use the thing to pirate and emulate romsets, play free games like Cave Story, or use it as the word's most awkward college assingment machine. The "steam" part of the name is just for the fact valve themselves are making it, and have games optimized for its hardware specifically.

There's a massive push towards digital in general.

Yeah, the problem is that it's not working.
Digital adoption for retail games has sat at 70/30 to physical for years on every applicable platform. That's why you have paid journalists making deceptive articles about how it's rising but the reality is that it's being skewed by digital only games.

Well the Virtual Cart update is already terrible so i don't have any hope for this

SEGA games have malware on PC so the only option is Switch

No one bought Bravely Default 2

Yeah, the problem is that it's not working.

The issue is that they're trying to brute force it instead. You can see that with Xbox, they had Game Key Cart equivalents since the start of this gen and then released a new digital only Series X and stopped releasing some games physically altogether. The new Doom is a GKC equivalent on Playstation as well despite discs being so much cheaper than cartridges.

If consumers want to buy physically then these companies are going out of their way to make sure it's as inconvenient as possible so digital seems more appealing.

buy disc

put it in

have to download the entire game anyway

need the disc in the drive to even play the game (same thing with the Switch 2 but with carts instead)

vs

buy digitally

play whenever lol

They will drag us kicking and screaming into the adorably all digital future and it's going to suck. Nintendo might still release their games on actual cartridges but it's obvious most third party games will be using the GKCs so if you want to play them.

Bro, the "Limited Edition" for Raidou on switch 2 in LRG is STILL a lame key card.

Pokémon, really? What other games did this that didn't advertise it on the cover?

The resale value of your key-cards drops to $0 the moment the download servers go offline, and their value as physical medium immediately plummets the minute you run out of space on your console. At that point, you might as well just go full digital.
The only way these would be actually useful is if the game data was freely redistributable even after the servers go offline. As it stands, they ONLY exist to give brick-and-mortar stores something to sell.

Honestly is they made a digital release 60 dollars and physical 70, id be fine with that.

$250 for a collector's edition of dubious quality and still don't bother.
What a great future

Physical games will become like 4KBD and vinyl. Very limited and only for prestigious titles.

How big of a problem for NS2 will Keycards ACTUALLY be?

Potentially big if the owners of Switch 2 has any one of the alternatives like Series X, PS5, Steamdeck/PC or even to a certain extent Switch. Basically every game releasing as a key-card on Switch 2 has a better version to play elsewhere and generally for cheaper. Which will kill a lot of interest for playing said game on Switch 2. Which will signal third parties are wasting their time even porting games to it.

There is no reason to buy Shadow X Sonic Generations or Street Fighter 6 on Switch 2. Even if you never bought a console outside Switch or were ""poor"". You could have gotten the Series S before the price increase or a Refurbished Steamdeck LCD to play both of these.

I mean seriously who is paying $40 for puyo puyo tetris 2 s when you can get it for $10 on Xbox and Playstation. Or wait for the common sale on Steam for $10 there?

Nintendo is legit the final boss of the "stop killing games" movement.

It's interesting to read some of the technical info behind these carts and them only being 64gb. It also helps make more sense of these companies' decision to not utilize an actual cart and switch over to key cards.
The question is, if costs are brought down over time, will developers go back to carts? For the AAA studios, probably not, but I could see Indies going back.
If all Nintendo games are shipping on physical, that means literal millions of these cards are going to be manfuacted in the first month. Hopefully, economies of scale will speed up the cost reduction.

I'm dumb so I still don't get how these Key Card things work. What do they actually do?

that's so grim. holy shit. like to an extent i get it with the ps5/xbox collector's editions that were codes in a box because the retarded digital only consoles existed. still gay as fuck but i get the logic. i have no idea why they can't put the full game on cart for a CE, there's no digital only switch to have to worry about.

Hopefully, economies of scale will speed up the cost reduction.

The question will be how much more do they cost than Blurays even when the cost drops, because if it's $5 more or even $10 more, they lose too much money on multiplats if people buy it on Switch 2 compared to another console(unless they charge $80 for the Switch 2 version and $70 for the others). So many Switch 1 games simply used smaller cards and made you download the rest of the game so that the cost between the Switch and other versions were about the same. With exclusives dead as fuck outside of first party Nintendo titles, basically every game will be multiplat. Meaning basically every game will be on a key card.

Nintendo found that digital games are more lucrative, key cards are a transition solution

Best part is that the Nintendo Switch 1 is fully on the cart and if you wanted to use that as a "game key" and hoping for a free upgrade like the ps4-to-ps5 versions you are shit out of luck, no upgrades

So many Switch 1 games simply used smaller cards and made you download the rest of the game so that the cost between the Switch and other versions were about the same

I only recall a handful of games being like this, mostly the collections of multiple games like the Metal Gear Solid Collection. I have a shelf full of niche anime games for my Switch and all of them are on cart. That's because smaller carts were available for the budget devs. Now the choice is between either a max size 64 GB card or a key card. All of those niche devs that had physicals on Switch are now either going to do key cards or digital-only on Switch 2 because Nintendo won't give them a decent budget option for physical. Like I said, key cards are the foot-in-the-door for digital-only. Nintendo is now complicit in pushing digital-only like their peers. The end of the Switch era really saw Nintendo lose their saintly image in many ways.

Yep. This is the first Nintendo generation that I'm stepping down.
Bought me a chinkheld and will play all i need to play there. Plenty of hidden gems. But I'm not supporting all of this.
Switch was pretty bad for what it could've been honestly.

Terrible looking bezels, then switch v2 with the same bezels, then lite and oled. >Everybody wanted lite oled but nothing, >Switch sports barebones

Mario strikers barebones

Link to the past framedrops, chibi

Mario collectaton

Botw shitty non removable stamina circle

totk being an obviously blatant copy paste

nintendo fuckin prices

no nintendo selects fuck you consumer

no yellow background for my yellow switch fml

no browser no nothing barebones switch

no way to interact with friends through console

can't buy a fuckin gba game. Subscribe or nothing. No options.

metroid remaster. All perfect but beams don't have light effects wich kills it's main vibe since you spend most of the time shooting but hey look at that rock.

pokemon sword/shield the new gen, first true pokemon experience on switch LMFAO

pokemon S/V being an absolute fuckin meme

Like i can go on and on and on...
The good side is that they made an hybrid, which any company could've made. It's just the support what matters and it was terrible. I feel like all the buyers did the work. Did i mention joycon drift?
We want transparency nowadays and nintendo is far from that.
For me just the fact that there's no nintendo selects is just a total disrespect to the buyer.
Remember platinum games? For ps2. It was the nintendo selects. Half price. After waiting in line so the vips friends can buy with mommy and daddys money.
Now the games just are discounted a few months after sometimes weeks.
But with nintendo you go fuck yourself.

Well I'm fucking fed up. FUCK YOU NEWTENDO. FUCK THE DEI. FUCK THE NEW NORMAL. FUCK THE LAST OF US PART 2. FUCK GAME OF THRONES SEASON 4 ONWARDS. FUCK YOUR DLCS. FUCK YOU FOR WIND WAKER HD GLOWY. FUCK YOU NINTENDO.

they're doing the same shit with sonic too, sega is such a bitch

I only recall a handful of games being like this

Quite a few of the bigger releases were like that, because the bigger publishers are greedier. Some were region based too, FFX/FFX-2 were fully on cart in Japan but came with a download code for FFX-2 in other regions which was the worst way to go about it because it made FFX-2 locked to accounts and killed resale value. Making people download the rest would have legitimately been better there.

key cards are the foot-in-the-door for digital-only. Nintendo is now complicit in pushing digital-only like their peers

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the writing is on the wall, if you give publishers an inch then they'll take a mile. But Nintendo just gave them a straight up mile instead so we're probably seeing the last hurrah for physical games right now. Lord knows how bad it'll get when the next gen consoles are out in a few years.

Same here, but the breaking point for me was adopting the same bullshit censorship policies as their peers targeting moe and bishoujo anime games. Complete with implying people who enjoy such games are pedophiles and sex offenders.

The "Nintendo Guidelines" in question. I have never felt this insulted by a company in my life.

Lord knows how bad it'll get when the next gen consoles are out in a few years.

The PS6, when/if it comes out, will almost certainly be just completely digital-only. Sony already removed the disc drive from the PS5 Pro and demanded you buy an accessory to add it back. On top of the news about them closing down disc production plants, the writing is on the wall for everyone with eyes to see.

CompileShit

These guys are huge Sonyslurpers tho.

Which basically means there's no good reason to get a PS6 if all they're going to do is give you knock-off PC experience using apple tier walled garden logic.

They're still not going to just can an entire already prepared Switch release for no reason.

depends on if their games are gonna xfer over to ps6. they'll stick with the ecosystem if they do, they're not gonna want to rebuild the libraries they built up on ps4/ps5. sunk cost is a bitch.

At that point just put an account and password on a piece of paper that has the game in the library, same exact limitations but it frees up your cart slot.

the moment the download servers go offline

Ah yes, never. Or at the least so many years after the Switch is irrelevant that it doesn't matter
Preservationfags keep pushing this when not a single console with digital games has cut your access to redownload stuff you bought so far, even the Wii still allows it, and many of those like the Wii doesn't really matter anymore if it's available or not, either because most people don't care about playing Wii games, or because most of the ones who do will go straight to emulation or hacking their consoles

weren't those just rewritable discs?

Yes, anon deliberately left that part out.

fun. i love fearmongering.

The only point to buying the keycard is if you plan to sell it afterwards. It'll be interesting to see how Gamestop and other shops treat these cards.
Will they say they don't want to buy them considering they may have to deal with the eventual server shutdown for that generation of console?

Keep in mind even the wii eshop will honor all purchases and the server allows you to redownload your games. We dont even know if gamestop will exist in 20 years, so of course they will play ball with nintendo

soyl

Too be fair none of the consoles who had a significant digital footprint have exceeded the 20 year time span after their console generation ended. A number of people have highlighted waiting to see if they will dtill support servers 20 years llater.

Wii's run ended 2012 with Wii U. Currently 13 years since primary support was gone.

PS3 run ended 2013 with PS4. Currently 12 years since primary support was gone.

Xbox 360 ended 2013 with Xbox One. Currently 12 years since primary support was gone.

You can still use the playstation store on a psp and that's nearly there.

I guess we'll see what happens 6 years from now.

Physical games are a joke anyways. Like games need day 1 patches nowadays. Are games in steam like actually protected long term? It seems so goofy by Nintendo to do this stupid last ditch effort to throw a bone to fans of physical media. Go full digital faggots. You are not making anyone happy.

You are not making anyone happy.

The majority of game sales for retail games are physical. No company it's going to give that up.

I'm sticking with physical because it's making ME happy.

can still lend it out or sell it after using it

still provides retail shelf space (meaning you aren't subject to one single online store)

I'd prefer full physical, but these are still way better than all-digital. You have to be delusional to think they'll "shut down the server" and lock people out of millions of games, especially any time soon, when the Wii of all things still allows downloads of purchased games, and this time the system is built with it in mind. Also, as someone mentioned, if you already downloaded it, then in an apocalypse scenario wherein the servers are gone you'd still be able to play the game.
The only downsides really are the storage space usage and the need to be online for the initial download. Considering so many games get patches and installs, the latter isn't really a major concern.

If we use Japan as an example, where most physical games are key cards, it's going to be a huge problem because of the storage memory. 256GB is nothing, especially if you're going to use exclusively digital games (which is apparently going to be the case for most Switch 2 users, even if they buy physical games).
Most people can't imagine future situations, so we'll have to wait for the normalfags to start experiencing the problems of modern physical games having to be downloaded in their entirety from the Internet on a console with virtually no storage memory.

Note: expanding with a 512GB SD express card ($120?) will help, but it won't solve the problem. Imagine a PC for a Steam/GOG/etc user with only 800GB... it's simply unfeasible for those who play digital games.

would a banned system be barred from downloading the cart games? They work with an online service technically.

99% chance. A Switch 1 that has been banned loses access to all online services, you can't even enter the Nintendo eshop, you just get the message: "this console has been banned" or something like that, and that's it.

This shit will be used to hack the switch2 at some point, mark my word

this is true for me even though it is jewish as fuck and the companies are niggers for doing it, im just an adult with a career so i dont really care about recouping some money from a game i may be done with

In an effort to save costs and maximize profit, Nintendo actually creates unprecedented piracy

Would be kino, but realistically if that could be done so easily it would've been done on the Xbone or PS5/PS5 by now

A lot of those games suck but I still came

Daemon X Machina

I thought I saw that this was a download, is that only in Japan?

first xbox got hacked just changing sound system file you could listen from the menu for some reason and they preached for years about having the unbreakable console.

yup, for whatever reason Japan is more cucked than NA is in this regard.

it would've been done on the Xbone or PS5/PS5 by now

You say that like the PS5 wasn't hacked a few months after release. Just because Sony patched the exploit doesn't mean it didn't happen.

It's a CD-key you can resell after you beat the game. It's beyond fucking based. I don't care if the game needs to be downloaded from the internet or loaded from the cart.
I wish we had something like on Steam. It'd be nice reselling a game you don't care about anymore. As it stands, you're stuck with everything you've ever bought without an option to resell anything.

Nintendo saw how much the second hand market was cutting into sales and are force game key cards to control it, wouldn't be surprised if there is limit to how many different systems a game can be installed. So if you're user number six no game install for you.

I'd prefer full physical, but these are still way better than all-digital. You have to be delusional to think they'll "shut down the server" and lock people out of millions of games

The problem goes deeper than that. You avoid digital games on consoles because they are tied to a single piece of hardware that you don't have the freedom to use the way you want, and that sooner or later will stop being produced.
Yes, you can download Wii games (apparently, I'm not sure), but you need a Nintendo Wii for that, and these consoles haven't been produced for 10 years or more. Meanwhile, Steam games released in 2006 (the year the Wii was launched), are available to buyers on current hardware, they can download the game now, make a backup, or whatever they want to do with that data.

and are force game key cards to control it,

... By enabling it even more.

except you can re-sell game cards no problem

You can download the games to an SD card and then keep the encrypted backups on your PC or whatever. If Nintendo goes down, you can still copy the game to an SD card from your PC, put the card inside the console, put in the key cartridge and play the game.

By the end of the console generation dude is only gonna have 8 games lmao.

You should be killed for buying a Switch in the first place.

this needs to be tested

Are these things one-time use?

I still don't even know what these keycards are or what they do

Pretty sure this doesn’t work. If a card has data that doesn’t align with the system it’ll force you to wipe the card before it can be used on the system. Can’t just pop some games on an sd card and expect it to work on any system

They're an official term and design for games you have to download even if you bought a physical cartridge or disk because the publisher cheaped out.

no, its literally the same as a normal cart except you have to download the game to your system.
You still need the cart in your console to play it and you can still sell/loan the game to people.

pretty much they are physical keys to authorize you to play a digital game, the space is still wasted from internal memory/sd card instead of the game card, thus defeating the whole purpose of having a physical copy of a game

It's a license for a digital game sold on a memory card.
It's like a portable physical DRM, you stick this DRM that contains a unique license into an approved device, and you'll be able to download the digital game on that device. To play the game, you need to insert the key card into the device. It's like a digital game, but instead of the license being linked to your account, it's on that card (so you can lose it if you're not careful, but in return you can lend it and sell it).

The amount of people that don't understand how game key cards work really showcases the enormous failure Nintendo did with communicating this shit.
Then again, with names like "2DS" or "Wii U" this isn't anything new to them

So they're just a method for digital owners to sell their copy like a physical owner can?

in a decade over half those carts won't work. its a scam as NAND doesn't last that long compared to what they used before, Mask ROM or NOR which will last for centuries.

Then buy digital and save yourself the trouble of swapping carts

From my experience of ripping PS4 isos. The majority of disks only had the 1.0 version of the game. Some games did get reprints with more updates. Considering the track record of companies releasing games with broken 1.0 borderline uplayab versions that require patches to function as intended that is whole problem by itself. There are community services that you can download the update files with. DLC is usually inside update files, there were a few games that package those separately most don't. The mii costumes are packaged separately for Smash Ultimate. Even if you don't pay to access that stuff for it you still have to download the files with it.

It is a problem for legitimate owners because Nintendo has a track record of shuttering their online services at the end of life date. There is a very real possibility these cards literally become useless in 15 years time. In that timeframe the vast majority of games will have been dumped and available online to the pirates. Again leaving the community to preserve what Nintendo refuses to do themselves.

That and a fair warning that the copy is digital at the end of the day, yes. "You can't play this if you pop it in without an internet connection to download it."

So what's the alternative to these? No physical release at all? Honestly, I feel like a lot of the issues for the Switch/2 come form the portability factor. It's hard to fit a disc drive onto the thing so they have to resort to expensive game cards. These cards cost like six times what a blu-ray disc cards.

What i heard is that Nintendo hasn't developed anything between 8 and 64gb cards lol. Hopefully we get 16 and 32. So developers have to choose digital or this retarded key card bs.

Unironically this. Less clutter, can get the game in an instant, if it disappears someday oh well. Time to move on and grow up.

You can stop samefagging little bro

Literally no one cares if it's digital besides a couple of morons online

Supposedly from the arc leaks it’s literally just 64gb or key cards

Honestly, these aren't even a major issue I think. The overwhelming majority of sales for anything less than 64GB are gonna be digital anyway. The bigger issue is for anything MORE than 64GB. Those are the ones that usually sell more physically, but since they literally don't fucking fit, they're gonna have no choice but to use key cards. FF7 Rebirth is 150 GB.

Nintendo is killing soulful indie physicals

Literally an unbuyable system

literally a blank 64GB microSD Express with a baked in game key that lets you download the latest patch of the game directly onto it so you aren’t stuck with an unpatched physical release

this is somehow bad

kys

>literally a blank 64GB microSD Express with a baked in game key that lets you download the latest patch of the game directly onto it so you aren’t stuck with an unpatched physical release

that's not how it works though, it is literally just a physical key to tell the console you are allowed to play that digital game

Pokemon BDSP is the most egregious example I know of where they had to issue a day -7 patch after people started leaking the physical and found missing features, cutscenes, and placeholder music. You could still reach a credits sequence so technically it was complete.

Games like Mario Kart and the two other paired Pokemon games have had cartridges with DLC released but both in the case of Mario Kart and Scarlet/Violet the copies on retail shelves for Christmas only had partial DLC with download rights to the last round of DLCs that weren't out until December. Sword and Shield +DLC is one patch behind current but it was some minor thing they had to fix.

Not to mention any of the free updates that added features. Those are where you have to seek out the reprints and start checking cartridge versions (only way to tell is a 005 or something printed on the back)

tendies used to laugh at this

You can still re-download your wii VC purchases to this day, 19 years after launch so I think we would be ok for long-term usage.

That's not true at all. Nintendo hasn't used any game key cards yet and some third party games like daemon x machina aren't using the game key cards in the US either.

I wonder why there's no outrage about the new doom game requiring people to download the rest of the game. I thought people cared so much about physical media

I know I'm pirating most if not all game key card games. Yakuza 0? Pirate. Star Wars Outlaws? Pirate? Street Shitter? Pirate. Bravely Default? It depends, it doesn't take up much space so I could buy it digitally, but no way in hell I'm buying the key card, maybe I'll wait to see if it gets ported elsewhere like the PS5 with a proper physical release.

Physical will become standard again soon, that bad

I know so far I'm only interested in 2 physical games, Kirbo forgetti land and bananza

if you're offering only expensive 64gig carts, you're either gonna get a lot of game key-cards or just no physicals at all.

id love for you to be right

You can literally do it on a Switch right now. You can clone SD cards and just move the files around when migrating to a new card. When I got a larger SD card I just copied everything to a new one. You can't merge two SD cards because the database indices are different but you can selectively move games if you run out of space or something.

Pokemon BDSP only shipped with half the game

I thought that was the opposite: Both games were on the cartdrige but one or a few lines of code made it locked to one version or the other. Or am I thinking of one of the other Pokemon games?

64

Grampa, we have 1,000 GB

Bruh.

Thats a common sd card

I find it funny people refuse to acknowledge this because they just want to be mad at Nintendo. Same for the whole "server shutting down in 10 years" argument when download servers from previous consoles are still up

There's no game on the Key Card itself. Instead, when you plug it in it will automatically download the game from Nintendo's dedicated server. All that's on the card is an encrypted trigger to download the game. These games aren't tied to your Nintendo Account, and require the Key Card to be inserted to play. This means you can lend, trade, borrow, and resell them freely.

For at least as long as the dedicated server is around, at least. That's why people are annoyed.

Same. I miss the days when a box meant you actually owned the whole game, not just a permission slip to download it. If physical ever makes a full comeback, I’ll be first in line.

I'm back from touring Japan, and physical is actually insane.
The main reason is that once you are dowe with a game, you can resell it at second hand shops for like 30-50% of it's value. Depends on popularity of game, but fucking hell, why can't other countries do this.

You're only thinking about the online infrastructure and forgetting that you can't download that data except from a single approved device, a device that will stop being manufactured in about 10 years. This is the biggest problem, and it's the reason why you don't buy digital games on consoles.
You can't log on to your Switch 2 and download your digital Wii game that you bought in 2006, you need a Wii, a device that is no longer manufactured and the newest ones will be at least a decade old.
Digital games are a PC thing where you have real access to the data you've bought.

You know, it'd be pretty funny if the 3D V-nand used for the "real" Switch 2 carts is so unreliable the key cards actually "last" longer

Continuing in this vein, back in 2015 I accidentally bought a digital version of Tetris for PSP, thinking it was for PS3. At the time, there were no refunds, so I just ignored it. I still theoretically have access to that game, but I'd need to get a used PSP, and in my country they're so rare that the prices are absurd.
Meanwhile, if I want to download Serious Sam 3, which I bought on Steam in 2013, I just need to download it now on my PC. That's it.
In other words, access to digital game downloads when it comes to consoles doesn't just depend on the manufacturer keeping the link up. It also depends on a device that has an extremely short lifespan compared to other electronics. And they are extremely closed too.

Nintendo is going to fuck everyone's ass with these game key cards.

Not only that but I assume you can play it on a steam deck or rather anything that you have your steam account logged into like a laptop or something. So even if your PC breaks down you can still play it.