Update thanks to thethatfox:
Physical game cards may also not actually contain the game:
Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview
Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data. Instead, the game-key card is your “key” to downloading the full game to your system via the internet.
Update 2: There is probably a difference in Game-key cards and card that contain real game data. So we don’t know right now how often these game-key cards are used or if nintendo is using them.
Makes sense
It would make sense if they lowered the digital price rather than raised the physical one.
Idk, the price of everything has gone up due to inflation and other factors, makes sense that games would too.
I’m not going to buy them at that price, but it makes sense
It has gone up because people will pay the price. The games industry makes money hand over fist and could charge far less and still make a good profit. It’s pure greed, but the consumer is ultimately to blame.
Physical game cards may also not actually contain the game:
Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview
Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data. Instead, the game-key card is your “key” to downloading the full game to your system via the internet.
So you pay a premium and maybe don’t even get a “real” cartridge.
Not even that, currently games for say, ps5 download some from the disk, some from online.
This Key-card fuckery means they can now lock the online downloaded portion of that game and now this can be used to prevent the second owner from downloading it with the same code
Publishers have boogiemanned Used Games for fucking decades and now they’re taking another swipe to kill them.
This is the craziest thing for me. Now buying physical means you cant install or play if Nintendos servers are offline. As it stands, buying a BluRay PS5 game means you can play it without any connection for most games - actual ownership of a game that cant be taken away unless they send people to your home and take it away.
Wow That’s bad. I add that to the post thx.
I think game key cards are for games that don’t fit on a regular game card. So like what happened before with some Switch games, but more transparent about which ones don’t have the full game on them.
I upvoted this. Not because i like it but for more visibility.
I hope this is only for certain games and they specify it on the box (like those scammy boxes they sell you like physical games, but that say “digital download code included” and there’s no cart), because otherwise it’s a complete scam. Imagine you’re on a trip and buy a Nintendo Switch 2 game in a shop and can’t play it because your Switch 2 isn’t connected to the Internet. Or they close the shop and your memory dies and you can’t download that game you bought for USD 70. This is really bad…
It’s probably not for every game, we don’t know that exactly right now. See this screenshot.
deleted by creator
Oh that’s super interesting. This opens up a lot of long term attack vectors for piracy/homebrew/emulation.
No duh, digital games should be cheaper.
They aren’t paying to manufacture the disk/card and don’t have pay to ship it to stores.
What that doesn’t mean is that digital games be used to artificially inflate the price of physical games.
Which is what Nintendo is doing.
It doesn’t cost $8 per copy to manufacture. I can get a writable 64GB SD card delivered to my door for less than that. And a plastic case is pennies to manufacture.
It’s more about preventing people from trading or selling games with other people after they’ve finished playing them.
Yeah this isn’t “digital games cheaper” but more “physical games more expensive”.
It needs to be a lot more cheaper, since you don’t actually own the game.
That is a huge bummer for people that spends months working places with very slow or no internet. It is getting harder and harder to get physical media, and every single device needs to be constantly touching the internet to work properly. I just find it so ridiculous you can’t buy a brand new console, and throw a CD / cartridge in it, and expect it to actually play a video game.
I get why, but I don’t have to like it.
It’s not widely talked about, partially because Nintendo doesn’t like it talked about, but the Switch cart format makes very little sense in a lot of the same ways some of the PSP and Vita storage didn’t make sense. They are very expensive for the specs and quite small. I can only imagine this version of the carts is even more expensive, since they openly say they’re targeting faster speeds and standard SD cards are out of spec.
But let me be clear, that is nuts. They are effectively selling you a M2 SSD with each physical game purchase. It’s terrible value compared with a BluRay, for everyone involved.
It’s still a weird step that both breaks with tradition and moves things towards digital distribution forcibly, much in the way that shipping optical drives as an optional add-on did for the PS5. Having a massive collection of physical Switch games I can’t be on board, and it’s not the only additional expense they’re adding (paid back compat upgrades, Nintendo? WTF?).
but the shouty man on TV told me tariffs were good!
I think it’s more the weak yen than tariffs, though it’s pretty unfortunate that Nintendo apparently moved their production to Vietnam right before the country was hit with a 46% tax…
All of these numbers are pre-tariff, too.
If you hear any faint screaming in the background, it’s probably my bank account.
Thankfully I have so many games on my Switch that I am yet to finish or even start that I have absolutely zero desire to buy a Switch 2 and deal with this problem. Never been so grateful for my pile of shame lol
That’s what I said about PlayStation 1, and yet here we are…
On the bright side, your pile of shame is now so big that you can live in it and avoid buying a house!
It might be £75 of buying direct from Nintendo, but it will be less from other sellers. But £75 is a really high starting point. Hopefully prices still go below £50.
There is zero chance that Nintendo is giving you a worse deal than third party sellers. That’s just not a thing. Not only does the third party retailer need to keep a cut, but there is an extra step of logistics and shipping involved. This is the MSRP. You won’t see lower unless it’s leftover stock on sale.
Admittedly, you should see a lot more of that with physical games, but who knows how small physical runs become in this weather. Physical carts could become Limited Run-style collector’s items.
I’m not sure if we’re agreeing or not. I was only talking about physical, and Amazon, Argos, etc. always sell for cheaper than Nintendo’s webstore. I sure hope physical games aren’t being phased out, but maybe this price difference between digital and physical is just reflecting that digital distribution is cheaper for Nintendo than producing physical carts.
Sure, after the fact when they were trying to offload stock. It’s certainly been easier to find cheap physical copies after launch, since digital games go in and out of sale at the same time everywhere.
We’ll see how that goes this time. I do think it’ll depend a lot on whether people keep buying carts and on how many carts they print on each run. The fact that there is a price difference makes me think they won’t be as physical-heavy as last time, but there’s no way to know yet.
Amazon routinely gives like $5-10 discounts on preorders.
Ah, okay. I only got a switch in 2020 or 2021, so I rarely bought newly released games.
yes that could be right, I hope that other sellers lower the price. For me it’s 90€, that higher than any playstation game i know. Usually nintendo was always lower with AAA games but not anymore it seems.
