Topic: Idea: Temporary game cartridge authorization

I personally switch between games a lot, I like having the physical copy but I hate that I have to constantly switch cartridges even after I just played it like an hour ago. I am assuming switch games have their own game keys that are authorized for online play. I don't see why Nintendo can't use the same keys to give the option to copy the whole game to the console and give it a temporary authorization that would allow you to play the game without inserting the cartridge. It could be 24 hour, or 3 days or 7 day authorization. After the time period is up it will ask you to reinsert the cartridge to authorize it again.

If you hate to constantly switch cartridges you should realize that you actiually don't like that much the physical copy imho

I really wish we could have this, and I don't see why it needs to be temporary. Even EA on PC, one of the most greediest video game companies on the planet, allows me to download games from Origin that I have purchased physically and registered.

Now I know PC is a different platform from the Switch, but I'm still sure Nintendo could have implemented something similarly if they had wanted to.

@LuckyLand Having a physical copy allows for the customer to feel like they safely have a concrete copy of the game. I understand why people hold to physical copies.

Perhaps you should just go digital if it's that big of an inconvenience to you. You could always buy empty physical cases of those games second-hand to display on your shelf.

I have no problem at all by switching my 3DS / NDS / Switch cartridges all the time.
It's like a small Ritual before you play certain games.
Have fun with that.

@Anti-Matter I don't mind either when I have the switch in hand, and I'm using it as a portable console. But like @Tsurii said. It's mainly annoying whenever it's docked. Which when I am home I like to play it docked.

JaxonH has stumbled upon the perfect solution for this very problem - just buy 2 copies, one physical, one download

@Nightlyfox You do realize you just reinvented the very same DRM scheme that Microsoft was pretty much shouted off their own E3 stage for trying to implement at XBox One launch, sending the XBox brand into a tailspin it still has yet to recover from, and granting Sony dominion over the 8th gen at least until Switch arrived via their retaliatory "this is how you share games on PS4" video just before their own PS4 unveiling, right?

I jest only slightly....theirs involved a permanent unlock key where the disc became garbage-can ready after tying the game to your account and lost any and all value.

Technically I like the idea. But the security/piracy opportunities that would open up would have to be immense.

@NEStalgia well, it would be an optional thing. Like pulling up options menu over a game and then telling it to authorize the game for the next 7 days. It wouldn't be permanent. So if you wanted to continue playing the game after 7 days you would have to reinsert the cartridge. Switching cartridges once a week vs multiple times a day is a lot less annoying

Thinking about it more, that would be a cool way for a friend to borrow your game without keeping the physical copy. After 7 days they would be done with it... So there won't be a piracy issue

It could work a bit like Spotify and Netflix work with offline content. Every set period of time the user has to logon to 'prove' you're allowed to use the content.

@Nightlyfox The problem with that is how would you lock out the cart from being used on another console? It would have to WRITE a lock to the cart. But the cart isn't writable. It's read-only. And even if it wrote it that could obviously be easily circumvent able. Carts aren't individually serialized (as far as we know.) Your Nintendo Account is your online identifier, not the cart. There would be no way to lock out the cart from installing on other machines. Even if temporary, it's only a matter of time before someone hacks the "reset limit" on the Switch itself to let it play forever.

If it were on the cart, they'd need a new card reader that's also a writer in the Switch, and they'd need flash in the cart, which would drive up the cost even further.

Technically I've often wished I could do just as you describe...but I've also never come up with a way it could actually work, without doing what MS was going to do, which (thankfully) the world rejected (for now.) Always-online DRM is awful, and thankfully most gamers seem to agree for now.

@toiletduck I mean it worked so well for XBox One....

@toiletduck But Spotify and Netflix don't let you upload your CDs and BluRays and play them in their system. Their system does nothing for physical media. What you describe would be having the eShop check in periodically. Whereas the current eShop allows offline mode WITHOUT checking in.

@NEStalgia you would have to be connected to the internet to use the authorization feature. You wouldn't have to write to the chip. The console just checks Nintendo servers to see if the cartridge was authorized on another account. If it is, you can remove the authorization since you have the cartridge

@Nightlyfox But the cartridge has no id to check. And even if it did, if you auth on yours, someone else can use the cart itself without auth simultaneously.