Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview
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Can you download a game on the same account to two switches and play them at the same time?
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Switch cards hold a maximum of 32GB, maybe that’s why? Although it seems no excuse for Switch 2, given it’s a whole new generation, why not support larger cards? I mean you can buy a 256GB microSD for $15, and that’s a private individual buying one; at scale, the memory can’t be too expensive..
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One of the things I really like about the Switch is that I can actually buy a whole physical game that doesn't need an Internet connection. Sure, I have to check a website first, but I can at least curate my wishlist with games that are complete on cart.
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I don't think there is anything stopping nintendo from making 64GB or larger cartridges except the cost.
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No. You have to download the game and need the cartridge to play it.
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That's a really dumb take. That's just the downside of physical media.
The real problem of this is just the same as the digital games. Once the Nintendo switch store inevitably goes offline like the Wii and 3DS, your key card becomes useless e-waste no matter how good you care for it.
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Question. Did you open OPs link? Because all you're doing is buying a license on cartridge. You have to download the game and you need to insert the cartridge to play the game. Nintendo managed to figure out a way to add all the inconveniences of physical media to digital only games.
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Yes, and did you read wha ti said?... I agree with what you just said.
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It's not unheard of, though. Modern Warfare 2 had only a 70MB file on its disc, basically a license, and required you to download the actual game.
Note I'm not defending this. It's a nightmare for game preservation and pushes us ever further in the direction of never owning anything. I'm just saying Nintendo isn't breaking new ground with this particular outrage.
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That’s a really dumb take.
I agree with what you just said.
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The dumb take is that this is a bad idea because you might damage the card. That's silly because that's just the trade off of portability.
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but it’s about as good as what Steam does.
Explain, since I don't think that's true.
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But the Switch cards are not MicroSD cards. MicroSD cards are produced at much larger scales than Switch game cards. And there are many manufacturers producing the MicroSDs. That’s why MicroSD cards are so cheap because there is competition. While the game cards are a bespoke design using non-standard flash memory and only produced by Nintendo’s partners in lower numbers than MicroSD cards. I heard from a publisher that they had to pay $8 per unit for the 16GB card when they released a small indie game for the Switch 1. That was almost the price of the digital version. So they had to charge double for the retail version. The Switch cards are relatively expensive that’s why many publishers opted for a small card and forced the consumer to download the rest even when the game could fit on the bigger card. And Nintendo still takes a royalty for every game sold on top of that.
But even if a publisher could buy a 256GB Switch card for $10 bucks that is money not going into the publishers pocket. So of course a publisher like Activision will opt for the smallest card possible so they can earn a couple of bucks more per game sold.
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Steam sells non-transferable lifetime licenses to each game you "buy", that let you play it on one PC at a time but never transfer it to anyone else, even as part of an inheritance after your death.
If you have a family there is a "sharing" plan which allows you to let family members also play some of the games in your library, but not at the same time.
Nintendo is imposing a bit more ceremony if you want to share digital games each time you share them, but the essential "one device at a time" nature is the same that steam imposes.
(And this ignores the shareable multiplayer aspect, which steam doesn't really do at all.)
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I think you can argue if Steam does the whole sharing thing better than Sony or Microsoft. On Playstation and Xbox you can just by one copy of a game, but play it simultaniously with someone else, but it seems like that's limited to one other console (setting the home console).
On Steam you need one copy for every accout playing the game, but you can have 6 accounts in your family, and unlimited devices. Without family share, your own account can only play on one device at a time, but then, why not just make a new Steam account and join a family.
The virtual game cards from Nintendo are also like Steam, since they need one game copy for each player, but also only on one device.
Seems to me like Nintendo is not as good as the others, when it comes to sharing digital games. Sharing physical is of course still possible and easy on console.
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Storage is cheap. Others are being cheap too.
