Topic: Game Key Cards... What is the point?

Your email from support clearly states what the setup process is.

That's just like "Code-in-box" and eShop games - they both first need the internet to download and link to your Nintendo account to verify as the long term rental of the game and then download and then play. That's what happens.

"Key-Card" requires once to download and be inserted when playing the game when you start the game afterwards and all three setups time requires internet same for "Code-in-Box" and eShop Games. The "Code-in-Box/eShopGames" are tied to your Nintendo account with the "License" for Long Term Rental and "Key-Card" the "License is on the cart" that's why the "Key-Card is always needed to be slotted just like a "Full" physical game cart without it you can't play the game.

This is going to be at least a bit helpful for families (like mine) that have multiple switches and will be able to share games without having to buy them twice but really... Other than that why???

@Zuljaras

I tried to avoid games that required an additional download as much as possible. But I couldn't resist and ended up buying two of them, Doom Slayers Collection and Mortal Kombat 11.
Take Two was the worst company in this regard, without a doubt. Borderlands 3 was cheap at my local store, but when I looked at the download requirements... over 50 GB. And you can wait, the new NBA 2K on Switch 2 will come on a key card and will require more than 100 GB to download, I'm sure of it.
I don't know how it will be on the Switch 2, honestly. What is certain is that I will give full priority to physical Nintendo games, the third-party games will have to be very carefully selected.
The stereotype that "Nintendo fans only buy Nintendo games and almost never buy third-party games" will come back with a vengeance, at least on my part.

@Rodolfo6493 Well I invested in LRG and have all doom games on functioning cartridges

I hope this continues when eventually they say that Elden Ring is on a key-cart. Still hopeful but it is looking grim for 3rd parties.

@Zuljaras LRG is not an option for me, unfortunately. Their games are overpriced here in Brazil.
The only Limited Run game I have is Castlevania Anniversary Collection.

@Rodolfo6493 and here in Bulgaria I pay 20% on top of the whole price and that does not include shipping.

That is the price if you want proper physical release.

But if "Key-Card" becomes a norm, which I abhor because they should put on full card and charge accordingly-I will have to plan to buy it. But don't give us 16g card and say oh there is 30g more to download? They have 64gb card use that you Devs - geeze laweez we know people will buy it. And one's location can can price one from buying or importing the games as well. So buyers get sticker shocker that way as well.

It's interesting how people have different pros and cons. Personally I don't want to sell my games so I consider being tied to my Nintendo account a massive pro. Physical cartridges can be lost, damaged or just naturally fail over time from use and environmental factors (we don't actually know how long Switch cartridges will last) but a game tied to my account has the possibility of lasting forever.

@FishyS Did one consider Nintendo could just wipe your account clean and where is your eShop games now? Or get Banned from their server? And anything electronics over time wears out and will fail eventually from usage. Nintendo Server going permanently dark-where are eShop games now? All they have to say is you violated their EULA/TOS and just straight out Bann and you have no recourse.

And has Nintendo ever randomly done any of that? no. But has anyone ever lost all their games from theft or fire or flood? yes. Have physical media ever stopped working because of time and climate? yes. It's a known risk versus a theoretical risk — choose your own poison I guess. I chose the one which has been more reliable in my own life because I've lost too many physical games and digital feels much more safe to me. You can make a different decision, that's fine.

As for servers 'going dark' — You can still redownload Wii games 19 years later and the Switch-era account system should make that even better for modern games. Nintendo seems to now be keeping the same account system from generation to generation so they can update their servers and keep all the games available just like Steam has been doing for 22 years with no end in sight.

@FishyS So you work for Nintendo and know this if they Bann or Remove accounts? Reliable is in the eye of the beholder. You could die the next day as well so what and whom do you complain that too then. They can re-issue games again on new carts or double pack. So to say Physical has limits is disingenuous comparisons. They own the IP and can release that games again.

Yep, that was pretty much my original point of different people having opposite pros and cons. It just depends on what type of things you want and what type of risks you are worried about. Nothing is totally reliable and we don't know what the future will bring so it's all a bit of guesswork.

@FishyS Well never know the minds behind Nintendo besides Reggie....They seem to keep those lock too well to leak out for the rest of us to pick their brains on.

Doesn't the Virtual Game Card thing render any positives of this rather moot?

@Uncle_Franklin According to Nintendo, with virtual game cards you can only lend digital games if you are part of of the same NSO family group, and the maximum lending time is 14 days, which feels a bit ridiculous given how long a lot of games are nowadays. And obviously you still can't resell digital games. So yeah, key-card games will still have some obvious pros when compared to fully digital ones.

It's not something I would personally do but surely the advantage is that you can (very) easily sell the things. Since Switch 2 games should hold their value quite well you could buy a "Game Key Card" version of a game at full price on launch day, play it for a couple of weeks, finish it and then eBay it.

In theory you can play big AAA premium games for very little (potentially even nothing) in this way if you're not bothered about "owning" or hoarding games. I've done this in the past with BluRay's. You just have to be disciplined with playing and then selling.

Of course the same is possible with traditional carts but it isn't possible at all with "code in a box" games.

I can see that the enthusiasts online are mostly in either "physical only" or "digital only" camps and this satisfies neither of them but for the mass market I think it's a much better compromise than "code in a box".

the problem many people have is thats its a replacement for physical copies. the codes in the box thing was kinda annoying, sort of like punishment for not having purchased the physical copy when it was readily available, at least thats how it felt to me.
but unfortunately we arent given three options to choose from. would be kinda weird ig, I mean whos gonna buy a key card if there was a physical copy available.
As for larger games, maybe they could have done two cards - one for installation and another for playing, like ff7 rebirth did on ps4 iirc. I would have been willing to accept such a warranted price increase

I do not see ANYTHING that could dissatisfy the "digital only" users. They literally never have anything taken away from them.

The physical releases do not hurt them in the slightest. Code-in-box is not going anywhere. eShop is not going anywhere.

The only thing that is taking a hit is the proper physical releases and that affects ONLY the "physical only" crowd. And for the future it is going to get even worse for "us".

The last bastion of hope is to get deep in our pockets and throw large amount of money to LRG and SRG because the publishers will prefer the "superior" method of releasing key-carts

Game key cartridge is a SCAM product.
Zero value, zero satisfaction.
I will NEVER support any scam products like that.
Period.

I think this is Nintendo trying to appear to help the physical media crowd whilst also pushing for an all digital future. I can understand that most huge games now won't fit on a cart but they could have made a new physical standard. I think they don't want the headache / outlay.