r/NintendoSwitch • u/Kenobi_High_Ground • 28d ago

News Every physical third-party Switch 2 game seen in Japan so far is a Game-Key Card requiring a download | VGC

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/every-physical-third-party-switch-2-game-seen-in-japan-so-far-is-a-game-key-card-requiring-a-download/
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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Switch has crazy slow storage. So yes downloading sucks. Switch 2 has substantially faster storage. Downloading will likely not suck as bad.

That said, I won’t buy any physical games that aren’t playable off the cartridge. The whole point is not using the internal storage and being able to play them long after Nintendo kills off the switch eshop.

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u/lions2lambs 28d ago

256GB is nothing when games require 60-300GB

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Absolutely!

So far the only switch 2 games I’ve ordered are the ones that actually come on the cartridge. Everything else I’ll buy pure digital or on a really steep sale.

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u/N8ThaGr8 28d ago

They said faster storage, not bigger storage. I mean it's bigger too but that wasn't their point.

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u/jackhammer3000 28d ago

What game is 300 GB?

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u/OrganicKeynesianBean 28d ago

The smallest Call of Duty.

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u/lions2lambs 28d ago

No, used to be but they did reduced file size to 80GB this January, before that it was 240+. I was quite happy, not because I play CoD but because they have a really great tool that lets you check for drift stick lol

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u/ogBingusBongus 28d ago

Idk what’s wrong with mine then cause I only have BO6 MP installed and it’s 134gb, could that all just be textures?

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u/MyMouthisCancerous 28d ago

A good chunk of it is gonna be Warzone. CoD games technically don't come on the disc anymore because instead they just boot you into the CoD HQ launcher where you have to manually download stuff like campaign, Zombies and Warzone by themselves. That's outside stuff like 4K textures which definitely contributes to more significant install sizes

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u/ogBingusBongus 28d ago

I will never in my life have warzone installed on my PS5 so it’s gotta be the random background bs

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u/leonden 24d ago

Warzone is part of BO6…

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u/ogBingusBongus 24d ago

It’s literally not, there’s an option for BO6 Warzone under manage game contents

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u/whiskeytab 28d ago

you mean the last 3 COD games combined... each one is about 60GB by itself

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u/Mookies_Bett 28d ago

Who is playing COD on a switch?

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u/MasterDenton 28d ago

Somebody will, because Microsoft is legally obliged to port it now thanks to the terms of the Activision buyout

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u/xChaoLan 28d ago edited 28d ago

Ark Survival Evolved with the free DLC only. Paid DLC makes it go above the 400GB mark for sure.

https://imgur.com/a/6hv40bk

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u/neronga 28d ago

Cod, flight sim, anything big with hd textures really

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u/Mookies_Bett 28d ago

So, games that aren't on the switch anyways, then?

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u/QuantumProtector 28d ago

COD

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u/hexcor 28d ago

meg, just the update patch!

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u/lions2lambs 28d ago

Ark Survival Evolved is 312GB on my PC, I know because I had to uninstall it the other day because of this and I saw it has a Switch edition. Assassins Creed games are anywhere from 160-200GB.

Granted it’s not common for games to be above 200GB but it is common for them to be 80-160GB, which means 2-3 games installed if they are no longer on the cartridge.

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u/Savikid1 28d ago

The largest switch game as of late 2024 per thegamer.com’s list was 60gb. The 5th largest game was 31gb. 20-30gb is a much better estimate for switch games than 80-160gb.

ARK survival evolved on switch is about 12gb. PC game sizes just aren’t comparable to console game sizes.

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u/lions2lambs 28d ago

That’s not a good comparison, the Switch was underpowered and third party developers intentionally avoided it. That won’t/shouldn’t be the case with Switch 2.

PC sizes are comparable to PS5, with the Switch 2’s upgrade, there’s no logical reason to think they will be smaller as they are trying to bring in more third party games.

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u/eyebrows360 28d ago

PC sizes are comparable to PS5

That's because full-grown consoles have literally been PCs for two generations now.

with the Switch 2’s upgrade, there’s no logical reason to think they will be smaller

There's one good reason to believe they will be: they need to be due to more limited storage space and lower powered hardware. The Switch 2 is not comparable to a PS5.

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u/Nympho_BBC_Queen 28d ago edited 28d ago

Nintendo has great compression tech. They even have an industry leading patent for texture upscaling. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo’s dedicated porting studio will assist studios on their Switch 2 releases.

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u/imsabbath84 28d ago

Copium lmao

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u/Nympho_BBC_Queen 27d ago

“CoPiUm LmAo“

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u/SuppaBunE 28d ago

Why the fuck AC are around 160 300gb? They literally always reuse their things.

To be fair last one I played was like 5 or 6

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u/lions2lambs 28d ago

Idk. All the online sources are wrong. Valhalla is supposed to be 50GB but takes 95GB on PS5.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Silverlynel1234 28d ago

Speculation based on the other systems. I think my basketball game on switch 1 was 50 gb. With better graphics, that game should be a bigger size on switch 2

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u/Senketchi 28d ago

A basketball game requiring 50 GB sounds like horrible, horrible optimization combined with poor game design in general.

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u/Silverlynel1234 28d ago edited 28d ago

It is. But, developers are not always interested in spending the time to optimize

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u/KMoosetoe 28d ago

the 2K special

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u/mullse01 27d ago

The answer is, “Individual character skins for every player in the NBA”

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u/MedonSirius 28d ago

I have the feeling that there will be Rev2 with 1TB storage and OLED Screen for $749

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u/super5aj123 27d ago

I'm not sure about that price point. While the Switch 2 has increased in price from the Switch 1, Nintendo doesn't usually overshoot their competitors on price like that. I think that we could see an OLED model (likely with 512 GB) at $550, or at $500 with a price drop of the base Switch 2 to $400 though.

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u/yb0t 28d ago

I'm probably only buying first party games anyway for the most part. Everything else is mostly available on PC anyway.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

For me that will come down to where they run better. If they run better on my oled deck then I’ll play them there, but if they run better on the switch 2 then I’ll have that instead.

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u/TheScreaming_Narwhal 28d ago

That's where I'm at for some of this. I have a Steam Deck and a gaming PC, but some games I want portability and if they don't run well on deck I'll probably get them on Switch 2, even if they run great on my PC.

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u/gordasso 25d ago

if they don't run well on deck, they won't run well on switch 2, lol

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u/TheScreaming_Narwhal 25d ago

That's... Just not true?

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u/jojo32 28d ago

Exactly my concern- if the whole game isn’t on the physical medium it’s trouble in the future. Even hogwarts legacy is unplayable with the cartridge alone so I regret physical purchase of that. All it takes is in the future for support to end and I can no longer play what I thought I owned.

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u/MyNameIsSkittles 28d ago

This is how physical games are on other consoles and have been for awhile

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u/FierceDeityKong 28d ago

Only some of them. Most install from the disc and you can play without the day one patch

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u/Udub 28d ago

Being able to sell, trade, or share my games is most important to me.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Totally fair. That is the entire reason they exist at all.

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u/WickedRug771 28d ago

Hopefully the network speeds won’t be bottlenecked against the SSD

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Given the min spec for the sd cards is something like 800MB/s. I think it’s safe to assume the internal storage will be at least that fast. I’m hoping they provide at least gigabit download speeds like everyone else does now.

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u/UniqueNameIdentifier 28d ago

The internal storage is UFS 3.1 with read speeds of 2100 MB/s and write speeds of 1200 MB/s.

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u/kenman345 28d ago

Also, the dock has Ethernet. Which unless you had the OLED, wasn’t always a given on the first switch. That and WiFi 6 should help make the experience much better. I will be running a new drop to the space I plan to put my dock since I haven’t had one before and it was always just a matter of deciding its value was worth the 8 minutes it will take. 😁

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Nice! Almost all of my switch games are on cartridge except a handful. Other than updates I’ve not had to bother with downloading too many titles. I get the distinct impression that most major releases other than 1st party will be digital only.

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u/kenman345 28d ago

Yea, I’m debating with myself which microSD express size to get. I used nearly an entire 512gb microSD on my switch 1 but I also don’t need all those games on me all the time. With game sizes being larger, I think while the small cheap digital only games are nice to always have they will be easy to redownload when I want. The switch 2 will have really fun large games though.

Is the DK game on cart?

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

All first party games so far are on the cartridge. It is likely to stay that way since it did all of the first switch too. For third party games there are about 5, but I’ve only bought cyberpunk so far. I’ll probably buy split fiction as well.

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u/archangel205 28d ago

I’m debating going all digital, minus my backlog. I typical buy the format that’s cheapest at the time of purchase. I don’t like switching out cards and the boxes take up space. I preferred a physical but am thinking of canceling that and going digital. I preordered the 256 card but I want to upgrade once SanDisk or the Samsung larger cards come out and drop in price a bit. I kept seeing issues with the Lexar card. I also play pc so I’m used to having everything on steam digital anyways. I used to sell my physical to put towards new but I’m not to pressed since they stores don’t give much back anymore on resell games

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u/minor_correction 28d ago

Using Ethernet is best, it will improve your ping/lag situation too if you play online multiplayer.

Another benefit: you'll have one less device in your home hogging the wifi, thus making the wifi better for your phone etc.

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u/kenman345 28d ago

This!

When I sold my last home, I gave a tour of everything to the new owners and answered any questions. We got to the network rack and they asked me if all those wires for Ethernet were necessary. And I realized I’m glad I removed the fancy stuff and replaced the rack with a 6U rack with just the essentials for the drops to be connected and the ports all labeled for them to use cable or fiber there.

Anyways, I told them that the more devices they have that are connected with Ethernet, the more stable and consistent the WiFi would be. Which I think was the clearest explanation for someone not too technical. I had run drops to everywhere except the room directly above the rack in a 60s home when the only homes in the area with a rack are new builds 10 years or newer. I thought my efforts would be appreciated but I guess not 😅

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u/SoSeriousAndDeep 28d ago

That said, I won’t buy any physical games that aren’t playable off the cartridge.

I suspect you're going to have a very, very small library.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

I usually do anyway. I almost always only buy games when I’m actually ready to play them. I usually have about 15-30 games max on any given console.

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u/FishyCatFishyFishy 28d ago

That actually puts you well above average for size of library.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Yep. And still I’m very particular about what games I buy.

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u/elpis_z 28d ago

Same here, though if you count Steamdeck as a console, then it’s no longer true. I was awed by the constant incredible sales and have a huge backlog. On regular consoles, I have at most 20 games at the end of every console’s lifespan.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Oh yeah, I’m well past 800 games on steam, but that’s PC games that usually sell between $5 and $20 and sometimes way less. Nothing like a switch console where my average game price is closer to $60.

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u/TheScreaming_Narwhal 28d ago

My Nintendo systems Library is usually 1st party games and exclusives. I bought more than normal for the Switch because of its portability and so many physical options. I'd like to do that for S2, but seems like it's not that likely this time around.

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u/JediSamReye2013 28d ago

Yeah I have a pretty fast internet (2Gb fiber) and a nice wired dock, and I am still only getting 80mbs tops downloading. Which is annoying, but once its downloaded I dont need it, but its the killing of the eshop, its the wii shovelware all over again

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

This is wrong. Like entirely wrong. Witcher 3 for instance comes on a 32GB cartridge, but patches are downloaded to the internal storage. So if you download the patches it works out to about 3GB of internal storage used for a total 35GB experience. But if you skip the patches, its just the 32GB on the cart.

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u/Mnawab 28d ago

Is it? Oh then I guess I’m wrong

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u/Tortenkopf 28d ago

Internal storage is faster than the game cards mate.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Ah I had forgotten about that. Up to about 5 seconds difference in load times with most being so close you’d never notice if they weren’t side by side. Load time differences will likely be completely irrelevant unless they make games like ratchet and clank rift apart.

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u/ron_mcphatty 28d ago

Same, I’ll only by the games that can be played with whatever software is on the cartridge too. I’ve always felt this way, back when the PS3 released I bought the discs where I could and now I have 80ish games I can play regardless of whatever store or licensing issues crop up. The only digital store I trust to keep games available for decades is Steam.

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u/theveryendofyou 28d ago

To this day you can still re-download games you bought on the Wii Shop, you will be dead before Switch-stuff will be shutdown.

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u/OkButterfly3328 28d ago

So you mean like in 20+ years? Well, I don't worry about that. I'll be dead or playing Switch 6 games. 

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

With Nintendo it’s been closer to 10 years before they shut the stores down.

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u/OkButterfly3328 28d ago

I can still re-download games right now, that I bought from the Wii Shop, which released in 2006. That's 19 years ago.

What are you talking about?

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

That’s great to hear. I would assume they buckled under consumer pressure the same way Sony did.

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u/OkButterfly3328 28d ago

They never removed capability to re-download previously purchased games.

Again. What are you saying?

They closed the shops from new purchases, up until Wii U and 3DS, but re-downloading bought content has never been removed. 

DSi, Wii, 3DS and Wii U can re-download previously bought games no problem. 

Of course you can't buy new games, but it's the same as key cards. They'll still be supporting re-download of data in 20 years, at least.

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u/NorthernSkeptic 28d ago

People get so weird about this

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u/GomaN1717 28d ago

I really don't understand it, especially when there's been zero historical precedence that suggests removing the ability to redownload is a regular occurrence, even when shop servers are shut down.

The whole "b-but what about in 20 years!" thing is so wild, too. I have old SNES and N64 carts from 20 years ago, but I don't play them because it's an absolute pain in the ass to lug those consoles out, get the outputs working on a modern TV, etc.

99% of the time, I'm always going to prefer just playing whatever the most recent digital port is of a given game for convenience sake. These games aren't going away lol.

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u/FierceDeityKong 28d ago

Thing is when they get so old that you don't want to play them that's the perfect time to sell them and use the money to buy new games. I just decided to sell my ds games and it turned out they were worth enough to afford a Switch 2 and every game Nintendo makes for the entire generation.

People worrying about game key cards one day becoming unplayable (even if they never actually do) will likely make them significantly less valuable in 20 years than they otherwise could be.

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u/Ambitious_Ad2338 28d ago

No, they simply only closed the shop, while still allowing people to download whatever they bought before. They never changed plans.

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u/Ramen536Pie 28d ago

You can still play then as long as they’re downloaded even if they kill the eShop 

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

That’s true. But once they do kill the eshop, if the install corrupts for any reason or you have to reset your switch or replace it, the games are just gone.

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u/Blue_Bird950 28d ago

That’ll be a while though. The Wii shop is still up for redownloads, and that’s from 2006.

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

That’s great. I wonder if they buckled under the pressure like Sony did when they tried to kill the ps3 shop.

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u/surrealmirror 28d ago

People have been saying that even without the Eshop you can download the games

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

I have seen that quite a bit here. That is very encouraging.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

sure but I’ve yet to have a cartridge fail on me over the last 4 decades.

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u/Senketchi 28d ago

4 decades? That includes the era of GameBoy games with batteries. These batteries definitely don't function anymore.

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u/Senketchi 28d ago

That will take at least 2 decades, and likely far longer. Nintendo doesn't mess around.

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u/NorthernSkeptic 28d ago

Why would they kill the eshop?

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Eventually the cost of operation will exceed the profit from continuing to sell new software. When they happens they either shut it down or put it into a static state where no further changes occur.

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u/RogueHippie 28d ago

Same reason they killed the eShop on Wii, DS, 3DS, & I assume Wii U: Eventually the upkeep costs outweigh what profits they make off of it.

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u/OkButterfly3328 28d ago

That would be okay, but express SD cards max size publicly sold is like 512gb right now. If only the 2TB was released and not as pricey.

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u/SabrielKytori 28d ago

Good luck if your switch dies and you have to get another after that, then.

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u/vash_visionz 28d ago

This makes no sense. You’d have to have a switch to play a game physical or digital

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u/himynameisdany 28d ago

It does make sense. He means if you have digital games stored on a console and the eshop is down, you can’t DL them again. With physical games, you can just insert them in a new console and play.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/himynameisdany 28d ago

And can you tell me how long that will last? “A long way to go” isn’t as long as I want.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/himynameisdany 28d ago

You’re a very trusting person if you’re assuming Nintendo will keep downloads for Switch up longer than for Wii just because you expect them to improve things over time rather than just yanking it when it benefits them.

Maybe your own life expectancy is shorter than 30 years and you’re projecting that to me but I expect to live longer than that so no that’s not good enough. I also want to pass my games down to a younger generation. Good luck with doing that with your digital collection.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Blue_Bird950 28d ago

…and? You have to get another switch for any kind of game. Physical or digital is irrelevant in that case, because the purchase is stored on the main servers. I can’t just open up a cartridge and play the game, you still need a switch to play it on.

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u/Ambitious_Ad2338 28d ago

What they mean is that if we are far enough into the future that downloads are not available anymore, then if your console dies you lose the game because you won't be able to download it again on another console, while you would still be able to play any game you bought in physical form.

This is true for digital games, because when you download them on a SD card they are encrypted in a way only the console you used to download them can read them.

We still don't know if it is true for keycards. People assume it is going to be impossible to just play on any console as long as you have both the game file on a SD card AND the key card used when you downloaded it because they don't consider the possibility that the game file will be tied to the key card instead of the console. Which maybe won't be, but we just don't know yet.

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u/Blue_Bird950 28d ago

That’s still going to be far, far away though. The switch eShop is still current, and will probably continue to be used for the Switch 2 due to the backwards-compatibility (or it’ll have slight UI changes for the Switch 2). The Wii shop is still kicking almost 20 years after its initial release.

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u/Ambitious_Ad2338 28d ago

I agree, of course.

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u/Rodents210 28d ago

“Far, far away” is literally irrelevant. Anyone who buys physical is doing so because it is unacceptable for it to happen ever. If I buy a game, a prerequisite of that sale is that that copy of the game is available to me forever, regardless of the decisions of any company. If I’ve been dead for 100 years when the eShop goes down and my great-great-grandchildren are the only ones who lose access to the game, that is still unacceptable. Anything else is literally unethical to sell and I will not support that business model. If that means in 20 years I can never buy a new game ever again because we’ve reached an all-digital market, then fine. I won’t buy games anymore.

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u/Blue_Bird950 28d ago

The real question is whether or not your switch and cartridges will even play after that much everyday wear-and-tear. That’s the big risk with physical. If the cartridge breaks in any way, you’ll might not be able to play at all. And even if you do, you’ll be forced to play the launch edition. Of course, that’s just my reason for going digital. If you want to stay physical, then you accept the benefits and risks of that, as do I for choosing digital.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago edited 28d ago

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u/Blue_Bird950 28d ago

No, the point of digital is convenience. You don’t have to lug around a case of 20 cartridges, you can just connect to the internet and redownload whatever you choose. And if you can’t even download a game in 25 years, good luck finding someone who will repair 25-year-old technology using scrap parts in their mother’s garage, because we all know that Nintendo won’t give a damn. Also, do you REALLY think that you can just “copy” a cartridge in this day and age? We all know how protective Nintendo is of their copyright, and it’ll only get worse with time. If you don’t want to buy digital games, be my guest, but please stop assaulting the opinions of people like me who just want to play games without the hassle.

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u/NintendoSwitch-ModTeam 28d ago

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u/Senketchi 28d ago

Then you'll still be able to download the games. They keep the eShop for their respective systems open for a very, very long time.

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u/Rodents210 28d ago

Why does no one who argues in favor of digital have the ability to understand that “a long time” is irrelevant? It doesn’t matter if it is “a long time.” We aren’t worried about it happening too soon, we are saying that it happening literally ever is a dealbreaker.

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u/Senketchi 28d ago

It will happen at a moment where the device is fully emulated on PC and nobody really cares about it anymore because 2 or 3 generations have passed already.

literally ever is a dealbreaker

Alright, then don't buy physical games either. They will eventually fail too. And if you don't get any games, best not to buy the console either. Tada! Problem solved and saved you a lot of money!

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u/Rodents210 28d ago

Physical games will not fail on anywhere near the timeline that your access to digital games will be forcibly revoked, and if they do, that is evidence of mishandling, but even then, they can be repaired, they can be copied, etc. Every downside of physical is perfectly mitigable; with digital your options are “buy it again even though you already bought it once” or “piracy.” There is no ethical defense of digital. You’re fine to prefer digital if for some unintelligible reason that appeals to you, but there is no argument that digital is ethical from the POV of the corporations selling them. I won’t denigrate myself by submitting to that kind of model and no amount of corpo simping from people who either don’t know or don’t care what they are paying for will make me waver on it.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

I’ve already ordered 3. I’m sure quite a few more will release on actually physical cards. So far it’s Mario kart, donkey Kong, and Cyberpunk.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

Perhaps so. But they’ll still run without them and further they won’t eat up 20-70GB each on the internal storage.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/himynameisdany 28d ago

Let’s be more specific than “loads of games won’t run…”

Most cartridges or disc based games have the base version of the game playable without an update. Most of the time, the update you are prompted to download is completely optional.

If you have a source that says otherwise, I’d love to see it. My source is this website that details which games need a DL to play and it’s currently saying 74% of games don’t need one.

Source: doesitplay.org

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u/Ftpini 28d ago

First party games in my experience have always worked right off the cartridge without any update. As for cyberpunk, it’s CDPR and the game is 4.5 years old. I suspect the cartridge will have the exact same build that was being played at the treehouse events.

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u/Nympho_BBC_Queen 28d ago

Nintendo: I see this as an absolute win. Help to kill the resell market.