Nintendo has confirmed that for Nintendo-developed, first-party games for the Nintendo Switch 2, like Mario or Zelda games, the company has “no plans” to release game-key card versions.
In a statement sent to Nintendo Life, Nintendo confirmed that game-key card versions of its first-party developed games are not something it is looking to do. “We have no plans to use game-key cards for Nintendo-developed titles.“
Nintendo Switch 2 is weeks away from launch at the time of writing, and while there’s plenty of excitement, there are still plenty of questions and anxieties about how all the changes coming with the console will land.
Game-key cards are one of the changes that players aren’t happy about. If you didn’t know, Game-key cards for the Nintendo Switch 2 are physical cartridges you can buy in your local video game store or online, just as you would any physical copy of a game, but they are not, in any way, a copy of the game you’re buying. There’s no game data on them; they’re just a key, and the game you’re buying will be installed on your console through a digital download.
We’ve seen that before with PlayStation and Xbox game discs, and with some Nintendo Switch games that have a limited amount of the game’s data on the cartridge, with the rest downloaded. But that isn’t stopping players from being upset in a whole new way about game-key cards.
At least, for now, we can expect that games like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and whatever the next 3D Mario game is will all be released as proper physical editions, where the game is on the cartridge you buy in a store or online instead of just a key for a digital download.
Of course, the stipulation that Nintendo has no plans to do this for titles that Nintendo develops means that any Nintendo-published titles could still be released as game-key card versions. We should also expect plenty of third-party studios to go the game-key card route instead of spending the extra money to release proper cartridges.
