Looks like most Switch 2 third-party physical releases don’t have the game on the card
Looks like most Switch 2 third-party physical releases don’t have the game on the card
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This is nothing new, even outside of cartridges being more expensive than discs (of which publishers have also cheaped out on historically).
*All* publishers are trying to push for digital-only, full stop. It’s better for profit margins regardless of being a first or third party title. *Very few* publishers will purposely decide to eat the cost on physical production if they don’t have to (CDPR being one of the few given that both Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk are completely on cart in full).
At least with game-key cards, it allows non-account-tied resale as well as the ability for indie publishers to break into brick-and-mortars a bit easier from a physical marketing perspective.
All the people that buy digital won’t care, but physical buyers (like me); all we have to do is just don’t buy it until a true physical version of a game comes out.
This is the case for most modern disc games. The disc is just a physical key to download the entire game. It sucks ass for people like me who like to *somewhat* have a game available offline out of the box
I was gonna buy Bravely Default. Then I saw game key on the box. Nevermind that.
What’s actually the problem with game key carts tho? You still use it like a cart after the first download? I’m a mostly digital guy, genuinely asking
Oh no, that means long, slow downloads every time when I buy a game 😔. No plug and play
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MiG Switch 2 please…
This is why I was irritated with the paltry storage space that comes with the device.
Oh those servers are going to crash day one…
Imagine 20 years from now you’re going through your old stuff and finding the Switch 2 in a case with a bunch of cartridges. You figure I have the whole afternoon, might as well play some old games.
You plop a cartridge in and boot up the Switch 2 only to find the cartridge requires a download. You try to download the game but an error occurs, ‘Cannot download game data due to servers not available’
Welp, guess I’ll only get physical copies of games for special occasions, sigh.
Well shit, I knew Xbox and PS will completely cut off physical someday in the near future but I thought Nintendo wouldn’t
That’s a lot of games that I will not be buying.
So I am as purist as they come. All my content is physical media. No interest in digital whatsoever.
With that being said, I am giving the keycard a chance. I don’t really know how they work but I’m hoping it is something like you download the game to your device and use the keycard to access. Meaning you have the data offline (after an initial download) and carry on as if the keycard was a game cart.
Be very aware that Split Fiction comes in at 71GB!!!
This is very sad but even sadder is that it isn’t anything new which I don’t think everyone realizes. A lot of “physical” releases on PS5 and Xbox are just an empty disk that acts as a key to play the game. But the game itself is still a download. People don’t always seem to realize that because when you put in the disk for the first time, it doesn’t open the store or anything, it just starts downloading so people think it is downloading from the disk. But no, it is downloading from the internet. Now once on your system you can play it anytime you want, even if servers go offline. But if they do, you will no longer be able to let a friend borrow it or resell it or download it again if you accidentally delete it off your system. The future sucks :/
This is garbage. Really ruining the idea of wanting a switch 2…
No physical game? No purchase. The only way to justify an $80 game is because it is a work of art that holds transferable equity over time.
If I can’t have it physically ill probably just buy it on pc instead. The whole reason I have a switch is for plug and play portable
Passing on the switch 2 is looking more and more likely.
So then this makes the Switch 2 an exclusively Nintendo device for me. Which is basically what it was anyway, but still, if this is the case, then the switch versions will not even be a consideration.
I will not buy games like this.
All this is doing is just strengthening my believe it’s going to become more important than EVER to read up on what it actually is you’re buying
This seemed obvious once they offered the option. So now these carts are yet more plastic waste in the future
Okay. This is just underhanded. What’s the point of the gamecard if it’s just physical DRM?
What it’s seeming like is it’s probably on Nintendo. Either they are only offering this super small card and the larger capacity 65gb card for devs to put games on. My guess is the majority is going to go for the low cost option to make more money. Based on the amount of game key cards I’m seeing, this is going to be the norm unfortunately
I may get a few of my local game store gets them in because I have a bunch of trade credit with them, but certainly won’t be spending any real money on them.
Most switch (1) games that get versions update end up being use the exact same way.
When a game like Mario kart gets a major update, you end up downloading as much as what is on the cartridge.
If having a small and cheap physical cartridge helps make game prices lower, it’s a good thing.
I believe future 3rd party games will be on the cart
My running theory is that a lot of these are re-releases, so only Nintendo switch 2 owners who don’t have another means of playing these games already is gonna buy these games. It would make sense to keep production low & cheap for them
Guess I’ll play them on PC when they go on sale.
Don’t have the game on the card?
You can still sell the key to someone else when you’re done with it, right? That would be good reason to buy? Would this not be a good compromise for 3rd party games that files might not fit on the cartridge but still give you ability to sell? Tell me if I’m wrong.
Gonna be interesting trying to get away with that switch tax if they aren’t even offering physical.
Wait are they’re charging $10 extra for all physical copies regardless??? That’s brazy
Capcoms weird shitty practice of
megaman collection box set
ok first nes ones 1-3 on cart, rest download code
mega man x 1-4 on cart, rest download code
I guess this is better for consumers than totally digital games because they can be resold, but what is the benefit of this to the consumer over the cartridge being functional installation media? It’s not like the price point will be any different. Only think I can think of is that there is a fair amount of digital only titles on the switch, will those rather get this instead of being digital only? That’s cool I guess, but otherwise this is just another thing to push people towards digital.
yep so none of them will be worth getting at all since none of them are gonna be on the card at all despite them being tiny ass games for the most part
Probably to get around the mig switch
I always wonder how companies get away with the whole code in the box physical thing because it’s 100% lying/false advertisement
😶
Remember when game key cards were announced, and people were saying things like:
>”This is a good thing! It’s another option for publishers! It will replace code in a box! It won’t replace physical games”
Yeah well, now look. This sucks
I think a lot of people are unaware, but the Switch (and Switch 2), are literally plug and play with cartridges. There is no install, and you don’t need downloads for most games. It is just like the SNES days.
It’s really nice being able to pop in a game anytime you want, into any switch you want, and play it immediately. We have multiple switches in our family and it’s so easy to share cards around.
I really, really hope this is a mistake and just a placeholder image.
Not an oversight that this was never mentioned until it was released.
I’m a completely physical switch buyer. I had already planned to only buy first party games for switch 2. So I hope those at least are all on the cart.
Anything notifies party I’ll likely buy on steam anyway for much cheaper.
The big 3 are sliding back into anti consumer practices, most notably having a lot of games digital only in Xbox’s case, subscription and console price increase for Sony now that Xbox isn’t a competitor anymore, and Nintendo has been pretty egregious about games remaining the same price for years, their online capabilities being lacklustre, and now this, along with all the other controversy around the Switch 2. Regardless of how anyone feels about digital or physical, removing physical isn’t for the benefit of the consumer. Digital store prices are more expensive than physical, you get locked into a consoles ecosystem, trading in or borrowing games becomes impossible or harder, amongst many other negatives.
This is normal and has been the standard for almost 15 years. No need to ring the alarm.