First-party Nintendo titles won’t use the Switch 2’s Game-Key Card system

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2 currently is its use of a new Game-Key Card feature, which essentially gives you a physical cartridge which holds little more than a ‘game key’ to allow owners to then download the game to their system’s internal storage. While a large portion of the currently-announced 3rd party titles will be using these Game-Key Cards, Nintendo has no plans to utilise these cards for their own first-party titles.

In a statement by Nintendo UK to the Switch-focused publication NintendoLife, the console maker claimed that “We currently have no plans to use game-key cards for Nintendo-developed titles.”

Of course, though far from a permanent and definitive statement, it does put to rest some concerns which players had regarding Switch 2 games – especially as physical releases will now cost consumers extra compared to digital.

That said, it will be interesting to see how closely Nintendo sticks to this as currently the Switch 2 only offers a 64GB cartridge or the aforementioned Game-Key Card. What Nintendo will choose to do if/when one of their first party titles exceeds 64GB in size, we will have to wait and see.

At the very least it seems that for now, those who purchase any first-party Nintendo titles can rest assured that the cartridges themselves will be actual cartridges.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the new Game-Key Card system? Is 64GB too little for the current console generation? Will Nintendo eventually introduce a 128GB card? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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