On June 5 it will be launched Nintendo Switch 2. In a one -hour event, the Japanese company has Clear almost all doubts That there was on its new console, but beyond being a celebration and although the presentation has been an avalanche of games, the aftertaste that has left among users is bittersweet.
Nintendo Switch 2 will be retrocompatible with Siwtch 1 game cards, but to enjoy improvements We will have to pay. The price of the console will start from 470 euros in Europe (but in Japan it will be much cheaper so that more people can buy it, saying by Nintendo). And physical games They already go to 90 euros.
In social networks, the conversation revolves around something else: the ‘Key or’ Game Key Card ‘Nintendo Switch 2. And it is a concept … controversial, at least.
The “Key Key Card ‘Game Cards” Nintendo Switch 2
During the presentation, there were elements that Nintendo did not detail. For example, to know the price we had to enter the Nintendo Store, the same for the price of the games. And when he talked about the formats, the company just said two things:
- That the game cards will be the same size as those of Switch, but will be red and will read data at a higher speed.
- That normal microSD cards will not be compatible, since it will be necessary to buy microSD Express cards that read data at a speed, again.
It is logical, because more demanding games at the visual level need storage support with a higher reading speed to be able to do streaming of data without interruptions. What did not say anything is one of the ‘game key cards’.
Again, it is after the presentation when we find out about this matter, and it is the one that is raising blisters among users on social networks. In the Nintendo Support Pagethey say the following about this third alternative format to the physicist and digital:
Game key cards are different from normal game cards since they do not contain complete game data. Instead, the game key card is your “key” to download the full game to your console through the Internet.
After completing the download, you can insert the game key on your console and play as you do with a normal physical game card.
They also show an example of the notice that will be in the physical cover:
The operation is simple: we buy a box with this cartridge-lave, we introduce it in the console and we are given the possibility of downloading the game associated with it. The cartridge has no informationso the game is saved in the MicroSD Express that we have bought separately and will be from where it is executed.
When we want to play that game, we will have to put the corresponding cartridge-lave, be connected to the Internet the first time we start it (subsequent starts do not need the Internet, but the cartridge-llave is already playing. It is a mixture between physical card and digital game.
What is the point? The only one that occurs to me is that it is for games that have a higher weight to the maximum of the game cards or for small editors who want to have physical pretence in stores (although more caught with tweezers this).
But of course, it also gives rise to another interpretation: Nintendo kills the conventional physical format. .
Too much fog, but with precedents on switch
Nintendo says clearly: “The game key cards are different from normal game cards, since they do not contain the complete game data” and “This is a box of a game key.” There are no need to clarify it, but these phrases would imply that, on the one hand, the normal game cards will be and, on the other, the key cards.
There will be games that come inside the card and others whose card is simply an ‘activator’ For the game that you download from the eShop. Nintendo has said that Siwtch 2 game cards have a higher reading speed. If they are just an activator, it wouldn’t make sense, right?
Supporting this theory, we have ‘Cyberpunk 2077’. Your responsible They affirm The following: “Nintendo Switch 2 owners can buy the game on a 64 GB game card or by digital download in the Nintendo Eshop.”
The other interpretation, however, is that the “game key cards” are those of Switch 2 and the “normal game cards” those of Switch 1, which would imply a death of the ‘pure’ physical format on the new machine. And that is why it is mandatory to use MicroSD Express cards in Switch 2, because everything will go on them. That is the reading that is being done in networks and the one that gives rise to the company itself due to the diffuse messages.
Currently, Nintendo already offers boxes that do not wear the game. An example is the ‘code in a box’ like that of ‘It Takes Two‘ either ‘Final Fantasy VII‘, Boxes that are in physical format, but do not have a game card: only a code to download them from eShop. On the other hand, titles like ‘Noire‘They have a giant notice of “requires Internet download.”
I had not done the test until now, since I always had my connected switch, but I have put the game on the console, I have removed the connection to the network and … I can’t play. Basically, at least that is what it seems, that new notice of the Nintendo Switch 2 boxes makes it more clear that, or you have the Internet, or do not play that specific game.
With the case of ‘La Noire’ I thought it was a certain additional content or some chapter that did not enter the ‘cartridge’. And it may be so, but the truth is that it does not let me play without downloading the data before. Other cases, such as the ‘Heritage Pack’ of ‘Star Wars’, has some games inside the card and others must be downloaded.
Only time will say whether the physical games of Nintendo Switch 2 will be all in ‘game key card’ or not, but based on those terms such as “The Key cards are different from normal game cards” and “This is an example of a game key card”, I tend to think that they will be just some, as the case of ‘La Noire’ on Switch, and not the rule for the physical games of Switch 2.
If so, it is evident that it would be a danger to the future of games in physical formatsince it would be necessary to see what would happen when the servers of the console’s eshop are closed, but I tend to think that it is a resource for those games that, due to its size, do not enter the game card … or as an option to the ‘Code in a Box’ that we have in Nintendo Switch currently.
Only time will say it, but seeing the stir caused in networks, a clarification would not be bad.
In Xataka | The great enemy of the Nintendo Switch 2 are not the Sony or Microsoft consoles. It is the PC
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings