Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data. Instead, the game-key card is your "key" to downloading the full game to your system via the internet.

Pay a premium for a physical copy of your game, and the cartridge may not contain the actual game. Only on Nintendo Switch 2.

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[–] kipo@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (10 children)

So they essentially stuffed a download code into a physical cartridge to make people feel like they are getting something?

Isn't that needless and wasteful? Isn't it also going to trick unsuspecting people into buying something they think is a physical version of a game but isn't?

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Nintendo's site says the cartridge must always be inserted in order to play the game, and so it is the cartridge that controls the game license.

On that basis it seems likely you could sell/give the cartridge to someone else, after which they can play it and you no longer can - they'd just also have to download it first.

[–] velxundussa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Until the download servers go down and you have a cartridge that's just ewaste

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes, which is a big part of why, despite allowing transfers, it still sucks.

[–] kipo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you for the clarification!

I still don't like it.

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Me neither. It's basically a download game but with physical DRM in the form of a cartridge. The age of genuine physical game ownership is toast.

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