If you wish to know a key difference between the Nintendo Switch 2 leading up to its launch and the OG Switch leading up to its launch in 2017, you need not look at the hype behind the systems or even the sales projections. Instead, you need only look at the “number of controversies” surrounding the consoles during those periods. You see, the Switch 2 has had a number of “complaints” lobbied against it since its full unveiling, and the primary one has been about the game key-card system. Many have felt that this is Nintendo “abandoning physical gaming,” and that people shouldn’t buy them at all.
That message clearly didn’t get to Japan, as Nintendo Soup did a breakdown of some Amazon Japan sales numbers that were recently released, which revealed that of the game sales from Japan so far, 52% were games with key-cards. To be fair, they did note that this was obviously a small sample size, and there were pieces of data that could “skew” things one way or another.
However, even if it was only 40%, that would still be a big chunk of games being bought with full knowledge of it being a key-card title.
While there are some fair gripes about the system itself, it appears the Nintendo Switch 2 player base at large doesn’t mind the new system. Nintendo themselves noted that they’re doing this NOT with first-party titles but with third-party publishers so they can get their full games on the system without issue.
