haha fuck these so sad to see the successor to the Switch - which was such a bastion for physicals - shockingly become one of the more anti-physical platforms - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

toadsanime.lostincult.co.uk • 29 days ago

haha fuck these

so sad to see the successor to the Switch - which was such a bastion for physicals - shockingly become one of the more anti-physical platforms

Reposted from Gematsu

Switch 2 game pre-orders have been up in Japan for a few hours, revealing all physical third-party games (so far—except Cyberpunk 2077) that are not "Nintendo Switch 2 Editions" to be shipping on game-key cards (requires internet to download the full game).

Comments

chashodges.bsky.social•29 days ago

I own something like 1,100 Switch games. This is so, so depressing.

ranmagender.com•29 days ago

i mean these game key cards arent really any different from the cards with the download banner on them, so im not sure what specifically warrants the doomerism for the switch 2 in that regard when not much has changed.

littledeer.space•29 days ago

those were like.. 2% of switch 1 3rd parties. These account for way closer to 85% of what has been announced so far for Switch 2. Something drastically changed, likely what options Nintendo provides for cartridges.

ranmagender.com•29 days ago

third party companies go with the cheapest option, these game key cards werent an option on the switch 1 but are on switch 2, had they been im sure more wouldve gone down that path of least resistance and cost.

littledeer.space•29 days ago

I'm well aware why they're doing it, but that doesn't at all diminish that it's an issue? The defense that this replaces code in box falls flat when we're actively seeing it replace physical, not just games that would've been code in box.

ranmagender.com•29 days ago

wasnt really a defense more so just confusion as to why people are considering it any more of an issue than on the switch 1 which also had games that needed downloads or updates or in some cases certain system firmware versions in order to play. it be what it be i guess

littledeer.space•29 days ago

People very much did consider code in box an issue, many of us imported to avoid it entirely! This is getting a bigger reaction though because it is seemingly way more prominent and seems to be what the reality of the console is gonna be 😔

This will push me to only buy 3rd party on Steam

littledeer.space•29 days ago

also as a collector with over 400 switch 1 cartridges, I can say that it was usually possible to import a fully physical version of a game from Japan even if US/Europe had gotten a code in box. Japan preferred physical.

For these, even the JP versions of these games have been key-card so far.

littledeer.space•29 days ago

Likely the biggest indicator that something has changed here is that a lot of these games are out on Switch 1 at the same time, including Suikoden, Kaname Date, Raidou, and Sonic x Shadow.

On Switch 1, all these are full cartridge games. On 2, they're all key-card.

littledeer.space•29 days ago

Sega and Square are two companies that were big on releasing their games physically on the Switch, and both have gone 100% key-card on Switch 2. That's pretty damning and probably indicates a death to physical games on this console outside of 1st party and limited print companies like LRG

chashodges.bsky.social•29 days ago

No way LRG survive if 64gb is the mandate. They'll have to sell games at ludicrous prices. I think boutique publishing for the Switch 2 is dead without some serious backend changes from Nintendo.

sumokirby.bsky.social•29 days ago

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

bettercallsouthpaw.bsky.social•29 days ago

Just one more knock against it... and the hits just keep on coming.

lukeyp95.bsky.social•29 days ago

I think these are better than code-in-a-box system that they’ve been doing in S1 but it’s hard to believe most of these wouldn’t have been physical otherwise. Will probably only buy Bravely Default because it’s *so* cheap, definitely not going to buy any of the others. Was heavily considering Y0 too

horsephone.bsky.social•29 days ago

Knowing how hard it is to manufacture and then do builds for the carts, I can’t blame them for wanting something more standardized and save the big guns for the first party games. But still, I’m going to hoard the heck out of my tiny physical game collection

typicalfarter.bsky.social•29 days ago

I'll still have to buy these because they fulfill a super niche use case: I have two Switches (one for me and my son), you can only play download games offline on the primary Switch, but with these and virtual game cards you can now swap between the two Switches (still need to be online to swap*)

billybobjoey.bsky.social•29 days ago

For real, I was pretty excited to finally have a physical copy of Yakuza 0, and to have it be the definitive edition on top, only for it to be a fake physical 😔

tophatgeo.bsky.social•29 days ago

i'll be honest, the lack of clarity surrounding these game card things is a bit shocking for nintendo.

i still don't entirely understand the concept? is it meant to be some kind of transferrable digital game rather than a fully on-cartridge game?

j-cutter.bsky.social•29 days ago

It's more like a license dongle; plug it into any switch 2, and it will download a copy of the game you can play whenever the cart is inserted - You can loan and sell it on.

While better than Switch 1's "Code in a box" packs, the issue is the carts become unusable with Switch 2 End of Service.