Consumers have been frustrated over Nintendo's new Game-Key Cards for the Switch 2 ever since they were revealed. These physical cartridges that lack game data on them and act more as a digital unlock function have sparked controversy over preservation concerns and desiring full physical retail releases. The endless debates spurred a former Capcom employee to take to social media and attempt to reason why Nintendo is doing this. Masakazu Sugimori, known for composing soundtracks for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick, and Viewtiful Joe, says that Nintendo's methods are significant in reducing piracy.

“It’s unfair that something you bought becomes unplayable when the service ends.” As a player myself, I can understand this perspective, and I sometimes feel the same way. But, well… Do physical items outside of digital products last forever? Most of the time, they don’t, right? Physical things always have a lifespan and will eventually break. Digital products, on the other hand, generally don’t have a lifespan.

According to him, Nintendo's choices in raising game prices allows other publishers, who might be struggling with development costs and inflation to follow Nintendo's lead. By ending support for older games, it provides more jobs in order to port those games to current hardware. Sugimori says that it might be an idealistic viewpoint, but he believes that Nintendo has enough money to be successful regardless of these changes, and that they're doing these things to protect the industry as a whole.

・Keycards 　→ Measures against illegal copying, reducing the risk of holding inventory
・Raising game prices 　→ Waving the flag so that game companies, struggling with recent inflation, can raise prices
・Terminating online services for older hardware 　→ Setting a “lifespan.” This makes it easier for companies to re-release games on new hardware. To put it further, it creates the job of “porting.”

Source

 

[AkikoKumagara]

"Protects the industry" at the cost of the consumer. They're not as bad as "digital-only" titles, but they're hardly better.

 

[Axido]

Honestly, I couldn't care less about protecting the industry. Let another video game crash happen to get rid of those greedy...

Anyway, the way I see it the only thing protecting the consumer FROM the industry right now are indie studios. The industry itself has inflated to proportions that require asking for exorbitant prices while underdelivering in quality.

 

[Retrojunkies]

It protects the industry when partnering with cheaptendo.

Expensive cartridges vs digital download....

Which option is going to cost them less money to have their games on the switch.

Good for them, bad for the customer because theyre charging you full price for a bit of plastic to say your allowed to download said game.

What happens if developers go bust, who's paying to keep it hosted, I can't see nintendo paying for it as they cut corners any given chance.

 

[Thulinma]

I've always wondered: has anyone ever tried if you can do "download update from another console" to install a GKC game? If you can, then honestly these are fine from a preservation standpoint as you don't need working servers to get the game. But I don't know if you can. Could anyone test? I don't own any GKC games myself (simply because the games I've wanted to play so far just happened to not be that type - I'm actually theoretically a fan of the concept as an alternative to eshop-only titles) and I'm super curious if this is possible or not.

 

[Foxi4]

Game key cartridges are eWaste. It’s an unnecessary intermediate step between physical and digital that could be replaced with a piece of paper that has a code on it. If the cartridge will cease to function the moment the service is discontinued anyway then it is a waste of plastic, copper and silicon. They should’ve never been introduced and anyone defending them is a dumb-dumb. I would *much rather* deal with a code that I can freely trade via the ecosystem itself once I’m done with it, that *shouldn’t* be difficult to implement.

 

[Xzi]

Dunno why'd they bother, PC is Capcom's primary target platform, so just advocate for digital purchases instead if you want people to go that route. Game key cards only exist because Nintendo refuses to absorb any costs from their prohibitively-expensive proprietary cartridges. They're overall very unfriendly to third-party publishers and developers, but obviously Capcom doesn't want to burn any bridges by pointing that out.

 

[Kitocco]

If digital media truly lasted forever, in a completely usable and readable state? Then stop killing games wouldn’t need to exist, now would it?

Precisely!
I mean it when I say this, the only thing that would get me to comfortably go all-digital is the death of DRM & the Section of the DMCA that makes “circumvention” a crime. ESPECIALLY when a company puts effective ransomware that disables what you paid for unless you agree to some new terms that make it harder for you to sue them, or cough up even MORE money for features they carved into a subscription “service”.
Yeah, nothing lasts forever, and definitely not mechanical hard drives or disks (check on your 2000s disks, peeps), but I’d like it to be MY fault if I forgot to format shift something rather than some megacorp deciding “…eh, this isn’t worth the cost. Let’s destroy what people paid for access to so we can please THE COMMITTEE”.

And not to recite Ross Scott’s first video on the campaign, but… we used to have server browsers, for crying out loud. Assembling some peeps on a forum or group chat & setting a time would be pretty fun, like an ad-hoc LAN party!

 

[xtrem3x]

"Porting means we can employ more people"...

Where are these ports then? Yes there are some, but not many compared to how many retro games are out there, only playable because of physical media and piracy.

And where's Code Veronica..? Only a shit PSN version with old tank controls, no port, no remake, nothing.

 

[LuminousGaze]

"Porting means we can employ more people"...

Where are these ports then? Yes there are some, but not many compared to how many retro games are out there, only playable because of physical media and piracy.

And where's Code Veronica..? Only a shit PSN version with old tank controls, no port, no remake, nothing.

I also want to point out Capcom is the same company that cancelled Mega Man Legends 3, and has basically left the series that arguably made Capcom a recognizable name (Mega Man) to rot in recent years.

 

[Xzi]

Where are these ports then?

Ports are likely on the way for every Resident Evil remake that couldn't run on Switch 1. I expect Capcom won't be impressed with their sales on Switch 2, though, especially if they ask full price for them.

 

[nmagod]

"your physical game will decay in ten thousand years, so we're going to stop making them NOW" fuck off with your anticonsumer excuses

 

[Marc_LFD]

"Former" employee, that says everything.

 

[nmagod]

Ports are likely on the way for every Resident Evil remake that couldn't run on Switch 1.

which ones specifically? because let me remind you, Doom Eternal was ported to the Switch 1.

Sure, it looked like it was internally rendering at 240p with a higher res HUD overlay, but it still ran.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Something that guy doesn't seem to realize is that there *is* no video game industry without the consumers. Continously pissing off the people that make sure you are fed and have a roof over your head is doing the exact opposite of "protecting the industry". You have to figure out a way to protect everyone's interests, not just your own, because the industry can't exist without both sides. Spitting in our faces while telling us it's for our own good is not the way.

 

[MasterJ360]

And there you have it. I remember months ago, some random dude from here try to debate me on these anti piracy carts.

 

[moneychild]

Game-Key cards just block out places where an internet connection is not stable or nonexistent or where there are internet restrictions on content.

Give me actual physical games where I can play totally offline!!!

 

[Phearoz]

Imo Capcom is the greatest games developer on earth today. That said, terrible take and I'm glad they are an EX employee.

 

[Xzi]

which ones specifically? because let me remind you, Doom Eternal was ported to the Switch 1.

Sure, it looked like it was internally rendering at 240p with a higher res HUD overlay, but it still ran.

All of them, Switch 1 just didn't have the specs to support RE Engine in general. Best they might've done is get versus mode in Street Fighter 6 running at 30 FPS, but that's not good enough for competitive play, and World Tour mode would've ran at 5 FPS or less.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Imo Capcom is the greatest games developer on earth today. That said, terrible take and I'm glad they are an EX employee.

The problem is, despite being a former employee, they still have the ability to sway the pendulum for others still active. Think about it, the post made headlines here on GBAtemp, I'm sure it has made its rounds elsewhere too. Companies in general still read these things, and people make decisions from said posts. Despite what most people think, your words do matter in cases like this, even if you don't see the results of said words. There's consequences for everything, some more dire than others.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Physical things always have a lifespan and will eventually break. Digital products, on the other hand, generally don’t have a lifespan.

except nintapple does since they shut down their online system as soon as their old device stops being popular.