Why do they even exist

[Viri]

Remember, a corporation will only do extremely questionable things, if they believe it can make the most money. If you're ever confused why it feels like a brand is "pandering" to you, it's because they believe they can make money off of you.

Don't ever think a corporation cares about you!

 

[Captain-Z]

It was a Twitter post.

https://xcancel.com/necrolipe/status/1921315639563608384#m

Thanks.

 

[wolf-snake]

Because otherwise the Switch 2 would have Zero 3rd party support.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Because otherwise the Switch 2 would have Zero 3rd party support.

Switch 1 had a lot of third party support and considering they're [3rd party] going to release the same games on NS1 and NS2 it might be better for preservation to get NS1 since it contains the game.

Who knew Switch 2 would end up incentivizing customers to buy Switch 1 releases instead.

 

[wolf-snake]

Switch 1 had a lot of third party support and considering they're [3rd party] going to release the same games on NS1 and NS2 it might be better for preservation to get NS1 since it contains the game.

Who knew Switch 2 would end up incentivizing customers to buy Switch 1 releases instead.

You do know game Key cards were a thing even back in Switch 1 right? Lots of 3rd party stuff on Switch 1 was Game Key Cards heck Ps5 and Xbox Series get tons of Game Key discs from 3rd party all the time. The issue here isn't Nintendo destroying physical media (Specially if their games are in the card) its the 3rd party stuff not wanting to put their whole game in cards even if they will fit comfortably or not (Again check out those Ps5/Xbox games that could totally fit on those 100gb discs like ironically enough Doom The Dark Ages) The issue here is way bigger than just "Nintendo = Bad" and you people are too narrow minded to see otherwise.

 

[Marc_LFD]

You do know game Key cards were a thing even back in Switch 1 right? Lots of 3rd party stuff on Switch 1 was Game Key Cards heck Ps5 and Xbox Series get tons of Game Key discs from 3rd party all the time. The issue here isn't Nintendo destroying physical media (Specially if their games are in the card) its the 3rd party stuff not wanting to put their whole game in cards even if they will fit comfortably or not (Again check out those Ps5/Xbox games that could totally fit on those 100gb discs like ironically enough Doom The Dark Ages) The issue here is way bigger than just "Nintendo = Bad" and you people are too narrow minded to see otherwise.

I know, Spyro Trilogy, for example, but most weren't GKCs.

10GB for Spyro 2 and 3.

Wonder if there's an updated cart version with all three games, after all there's MK8D + All DLC on cart.

 

[subcon959]

You do know game Key cards were a thing even back in Switch 1 right? Lots of 3rd party stuff on Switch 1 was Game Key Cards heck Ps5 and Xbox Series get tons of Game Key discs from 3rd party all the time.

It's a bit different because they still had a significant amount of data on the cart, but the max cart size was 32GB, so larger releases had no choice but to require the additional download. I'm not aware of any game that was small but still a key card. Happy to learn otherwise if anyone has examples.

You're right about Xbox but PS5 still has a small minority of key only discs. It's cheap storage though and upto 100GB so only the shittiest publishers go that route.

The reason it seems bad with Nintendo is because out of the announced games so far, an awful lot of them seem to be key cards even when the data size is small.

 

[ChibiMofo]

And by "them", I mean the stupid game keys.

At first, I thought that they were a good thing as they would end the predatory "CDKey-in-a-box" releases and make those games transferable/sellable (as long as the CDN is up).

However, that still doesn't seem to be the case. There are already pictures of Switch 2 releases that are just a CDKey slip in a box.

In addition, games that would usually be on a normal cartridge (small, <32GB games) are now using the keycards instead.

I just don't get it at this point. Why do these game keys even exist at all when we're still getting CDKeys in boxes?

If you buy a Switch game with a CDKey, can you share that game with a friend? Or for that matter, if you and your sibling have your own Switches, can you even share the game between yourselves? No.

But if you have a "stupid" game key cartridge, can you physically share the game? Yes. You can. You can also sell it. Good luck selling your CDKey. Those of you who want to "own" your games should rejoice rather than whine. I mean I get wanting the whole game to be on an expensive, high speed cartridge at launch with no day one large patches, but this is 2025. You're gonna need to let that dream die.

 

[Ondrashek06]

If you buy a Switch game with a CDKey, can you share that game with a friend? Or for that matter, if you and your sibling have your own Switches, can you even share the game between yourselves? No.

But if you have a "stupid" game key cartridge, can you physically share the game? Yes. You can. You can also sell it. Good luck selling your CDKey. Those of you who want to "own" your games should rejoice rather than whine. I mean I get wanting the whole game to be on an expensive, high speed cartridge at launch with no day one large patches, but this is 2025. You're gonna need to let that dream die.

I get the benefit over CDKeys, but if there are still games which are just CDKeys in boxes, there's zero benefit.

The Switch 1's physical releases were split between actual cartridges and CDKeys in boxes.

With the introduction of the game keys, I expected the second option to be replaced with game keys, instead most of the first option got replaced.

 

[subcon959]

I get the benefit over CDKeys, but if there are still games which are just CDKeys in boxes, there's zero benefit.

Why would the benefits change just because a box is involved?

 

[Marc_LFD]

If you buy a Switch game with a CDKey, can you share that game with a friend? Or for that matter, if you and your sibling have your own Switches, can you even share the game between yourselves? No.

But if you have a "stupid" game key cartridge, can you physically share the game? Yes. You can. You can also sell it. Good luck selling your CDKey. Those of you who want to "own" your games should rejoice rather than whine. I mean I get wanting the whole game to be on an expensive, high speed cartridge at launch with no day one large patches, but this is 2025. You're gonna need to let that dream die.

Looking at Switch 2 physical releases, most will be GKCs and CIBs so no, that's not a good thing as physical releases should contain the games and they don't.

I'll just rely on Limited Run Games, Nintendo, and the few third party publishers that actually release their games on cartridge.

 

[Ondrashek06]

Why would the benefits change just because a box is involved?

Because there's no benefit if CDKeys in a box are still going to be CDKeys in a box (i.e. no change) and a large number of games that would normally be fully physical are going to be game keys.

 

[Jayro]

The games people care the most on Switch 2 will be its exclusives, but it's unfortunate for third party physical releases as those empty carts will be useless in the future since they don't have the games.

Nintendo, Limited Run, and a few third party publishers are about all who'll make real physical releases.

It sucks, but I might be more reliant on Limited Run releases of Switch 2 than I am for Switch 1 games... And I hate supporting Limited Run, but they have the monopoly on many of the games I love in physical form.