Remember when you use to buy a Switch game and the game would atleast partially before updates, be on the cartridge?
Well imagine buying a key cart for your Switch2 and, you have to download the game from their servers from scratch. The game doesn’t download itself to the cartridge, but onto your Switch 2 consoles internal memory.
Now imagine getting a bad update and trying to delete some data including the update, just to play with the original games version.
physical Key cart games are treated just like they are digital which means you can’t revert the update.
Even if the game is saved onto your Switch’s internal you cannot legally play a key cart game, without the key carts inserted in your switch.
The game data is not stored on the key cartridge but on your switch’s internal memory.
$80 $70 Nintendo Switch 2 carts
And when they disable the download because “game is old” or “we want to remake it” or “servers are too expensive” then what?
You don’t own the game and you don’t sell the game. You own a temporary license to play the game and sell that license.
Just like on Steam or any digital store front.
Sure the advantage is that you can resell your license, but let’s see if those cards still do anything in thirty years, like games from thirty years ago do now.
They made a really shitty situation (not owning your games) a little less shitty.
p.s.
Obviously we are also in this mess because convenience trumps ownership, that’s why Steam and business models like these grew so popular.
Did they? Sounds to me like they just added extra steps and a physical item that locks you out of your game when you lose it.
The fact that Nintendo can pull the game, change the game, or disable a game key card is why I will never purchase a used one; there is no way to know what you are really getting from a used game key card until it’s too late.