While it’s fair to say that the Nintendo Switch 2 is hyped amongst most in the gaming community, there are still those who are speaking loudly against the system and some of its features. The biggest one that’s causing “controversy” is that of the game key card system. Through it, developers, mainly 3rd-party teams, can put their entire games online, and players use the cartridge to download the data. Many don’t like this, even though it’s the 3rd-party teams themselves who chose to do this option.
IGN chatted with Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser about the controversy, and he made it clear that Nintendo isn’t phasing out physical game purchases. Instead, it’s merely a method of providing options to other developers:
“In the immediate future, physical games are still a key part of our business. And we value our relationships in particular with our retailers, and want to make sure we have products available for them to sell to their consumers. When you look at game-key cards, for us, our goal with Nintendo Switch 2 – similar to what we were able to accomplish on Nintendo Switch – is to have the broadest and deepest library of content we possibly can. And that includes our publishing partners. And game-key cards are a way that our publishing partners are able to bring more content onto the platform, deeper and larger, more immersive content on the platform.”
Exactly. They’re just trying to provide developers with more options and opportunities to innovate, which is what Shuntaro Furukawa noted the company wanted to do with the Switch 2.
Not everyone will use this system, and Nintendo themselves aren’t doing it with its 1st-party games. Thus, this “controversy” is more overblown than anything and not something to fear.
