A begrudging defense of Nintendo’s “Game-Key cards” for the Switch 2
A begrudging defense of Nintendo’s “Game-Key cards” for the Switch 2
Op-ed: Game-Key cards have problems, but I’ll take them over download-only.
It is less bad than code-in-a-box. That's not a high bar, but it is less bad.
There are two main reasons to buy physical:
Ability to share, trade, and resell your games. These key cards still support this, whereas code-in-a-box did not. So, slightly better.
Then there's the peace of mind that your games will still work in the distant future. I think if you ask most people who primarily buy physical, myself included, we'll say this is the main appeal of physical games, and the big reason why key cards don't feel acceptable.
Some day when the servers eventually go offline, these key cards will become bricks. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. We have no idea how long Nintendo will support them for, and they're not going to hard commit a timetable out loud for us. But we know it can't be forever.
But even for standard physical games, there is some uncertainty regarding their long-term future that I'm not sure people realize. When those servers eventually go online, your cartridge only has 1.0 on it, you won't be able to get patches. That's better than a brick, but for a lot of games that's probably not the version you want to play.
And then the even darker concern is bit rot. No form of physical media is permanent. Every disc and every cartridge will eventually degrade. Worse yet is that for many forms of media, we don't even know how long they're set to last for, we only find out once some of them start to fail. Cartridges are generally better than discs, but beyond that we truly have no idea how long Switch cartridges should be expected to last.
And then the even darker concern is bit rot. No form of physical media is permanent.
And that's why we make "backups" :>
You can also save a lot of money buying physical. New physical copies can have much bigger sales than their digital counterparts and secondhand games can be cheaper again. Big titles like Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe cost me less than AU $40. Almost all of my physical library is secondhand, I've saved a lot of money buying that way (which I then made up for with my eShop pile of shame).
This is why I used to love Game of The Year Editions when they first became a thing. They had all the DLC and it was all packed into one place with all the patches it needed, plus I could buy it used. They are becoming less and less of a thing (I’m not even sure if they exist anymore). Further more some of the last GOTY editions just had codes inside to download the DLCs and seemed like they just included the original disc that needed the patches. Physical will likely just keep going downhill.
Technically, as soon as there is an update to a game, there is very little distinction between. Full game and a key cartridge.
With the full game cartridge you will get to play a bugged, early version of the Game in the future. But if you want the fully patched version, you already have to backup contents of the sd card.
And don't forget that if you somehow lose access to the digital product called "v1.1.2" without losing access to your save file, you still can't use that save file with the helpful little bit of plastic you have with v.1.0.0 on it. This is very possible with 3DS games, because the physical cartridge stores the save file but game updates are installed to the system memory/SD card. The 3DS also ties your licenses to the console, not to an account, which means that if you lose your 3DS but still have your copy of Smash Bros, replacing the 3DS will let you redownload the patch but not re-buy or re-download the DLC. Without piracy or buying a secondhand 3DS from someone who has the Smash DLC, you'd never be able to be Cloud on Smash 3DS again.
Physical game copies have been practically irrelevant from a software preservation standpoint since the X360 and PS3. Nintendo took an extra gen to catch up as usual. The only meaningful preservation work that can be done for modern game consoles is cracking the console's DRM so that even the "digital-only" games and all updates/DLC can also be backed up somewhere that will tolerate the death of all Nintendo servers and devices. Thankfully, Nintendo's software has never had an era where this isn't true by the end of the console's lifespan (sometimes it becomes true really early, like with the Wii and Switch). We just have to hope that the homebrew wizards find something on the Switch 2, even if it's a limited exploit that needs a hardware modchip and only works on launch models.
The 3DS and original Switch had terrible WiFi performance. I hope that’s sorted with the Switch 2, particularly given the extremely premium price point on it.
I don’t get how it costs almost as much as the PS5 Pro.
I got the original Switch, but honestly if there’s anything on the Switch 2 I’ll want to play I’ll probably just emulate it.
Its got wifi 6 not 7 so idk if itl be all that good unless you are mounting the router.
There’s nothing wrong withwith WiFi 6, you can do perfectly fine transfer rates with that. It’s all up to Nintendo. The 3DS and Switch didn’t need to be limited to dial-up speeds but that’s what we got.