While Nintendo mulls over Donald Trump’s recent tariff hikes, more news has come from on high that’s sure to put the minds of any potential Switch 2 customers at ease. After the company’s deep dive into the coming console, Nintendo silently unveiled what it calls ‘Game-Key Cards‘, which are different to the game cartridges you’ve become familiar with on the Switch 1.
Lower those pitchforks
Rather than store the entirety of a particular game on the cartridge locally, game-key cards are a new type of cartridge that, when inserted into the Switch 2, will simply download said game from the internet. This means gamers will require an internet connection upon inserting the cartridge, though a connection will not be necessary from that point on. We should also mention that only certain titles will feature a game-key card.
Those, according to Nintendo (via The Verge), are the games that are simply just too large to fit on a typical cartridge. With the Switch 2 looking to hit 4K resolution in some cases, these games will need a whole lot more room than we’re accustomed to on the Switch 1’s now-ancient hardware. It does introduce a minor annoyance, however. Games featuring a game-key card will still necessitate the cartridge’s insertion before you can play.
Many believed that these restrictions would also surely introduce even further complications, like a game-key card automatically tying itself to the console it was first inserted into or the Nintendo account associated with the Switch 2 console. According to Nintendo’s Tetsuya Sasaki (via GameSpot), this won’t be the case:
“So key cards will start up on the console or system that it is slotted into, so it’s not tied to an account or anything.”
Read More: Nintendo Switch 2 local pre-orders are live – here’s what it costs
That means you’ll have no trouble loaning out your copy of Donkey Kong to a mate or selling it to the highest bidder on Facebook Marketplace. It’s still not yet clear which games will get the game-key card treatment. It’s reportedly up to the developers to release their titles on the new cartridge, though customers can easily distinguish the difference between the two thanks to a white banner on the physical box.
In other, better news, we recently received confirmation, thanks to The Verge, that Nintendo’s Switch 2 upgrade editions, which will see certain Switch 1 software remastered to cram in more frames and prettier visuals, will cost $10 per upgrade (if you already own the original). That, at least, is the case for both the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom upgrades – matching Sony’s strategy when it comes to upgraded PS5 titles.
