Topic: Moving from cartridge to download

Hi All, I own the cartridge of Zelda BOTW for the Switch. I wanted to move to the downloaded version and sell the cartridge, but - if I did that - will the savegames still work or I'll have to restart from scratch? Anybody knows if the savegames are associated to the specific copy of the same game being used? Thanks!

Giacecco

Yes, as far as I'm concerned, the game save TIES to the cartridge itself, much like a 3DS game. So if you sold your physical copy and bought it digitally, odds are you'd have to start from scratch.

Thanks @Satomi_Famicom. Is there the option to use an Amiibo perhaps to move the savegame around? I never got one so I can't try for myself.

Giacecco, Saves are locked to your account, not the cartridge on the Switch. I bought the cart of BOTW, played for days and then bought digital after selling cart and continued my original game save fine.

Thanks @stram, so now we're 1 vs 1. I need at least another opinion before I drop 60 bucks on the download version

@giacecco Save data is stored in the internal storage, not on the game card itself.

Thanks @octane but that may not be enough, e.g. if the savegame is digitally linked to the specific copy of a game rather than the game in general. Where the savegame is stored is - to a point - irrelevant to the original question.

@giacecco Save data is save data, don't see why they would tie it to one specific purchase of a game. You should be fine, unless Nintendo is insane.

@octane, when talking DRM, never suppose people will do the sane thing E.g. it is known that people who had to return the Switch because of hardware failures had their savegames destroyed, despite the many options that must be available to Nintendo to get them transferred somewhere safe. Is that sane?

the interesting part is apparently when you send it in for service they offer if you want the saves backed up

Hi All, I've taken the risk and bought the game for download. The new copy of Zelda BOTW can see the old savegames, all is ok. I can't promise this works the same for other games.