Topic: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Problem going digital to physical

I own Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 via the eShop with the expansion pass DLC. I recently purchased the physical cartridge and want to use it to conserve storage on my Switch 2. I deleted the game completely from the Switch 2, inserted the game cartridge, and downloaded the game update.

Once I launch the game I get an error that the DLC is missing. The only way I see to download the DLC is to activate the virtual cartridge - which downloads the 13.2GB game as well. This defeats the purpose of my buying the cartridge.

Is there something I'm missing? I've done the same digital-to-physical for other games without a problem. Those other titles seem to handle DLC differently though.

Some companies have it that the DLC has to be the same as format as tbe original game. So if you get DLC on the digital copy and then try to use it for a physical copy it won't work.

I ran into that problem years ago with one of the Dragon Age games. Got the main game as digital and found a physical copy of the DLC at a garage sale but when I installed the physical DLC the digital version wouldn't recognize it so I ended up getting the digital version of the DLC.

I suspect its the same thing your dealing with. See if you can find a physical copy of the DLC and see if tbat works then. Or just go back to digital main game.

I actually figured this issue out. In this case at least the DLC is the same for the physical and virtual versions of the game.

Originally I deleted the digital version of the game and remove the home icon. This ejected the virtual game card. When I inserted the physical game cart I had to download everything again to get the DLC.

To get this working I had to insert the virtual game cart then cancel the download. This does the same thing as deleting everything but leaving the home screen icon. Then insert the cartridge. The update and DLC were downloaded automatically - but not the game itself, which is exactly what I wanted.

If I’m not mistaken, the DLC should be a separate virtual card. I did the same thing with smash ultimate going physical to digital and just re-downloaded the dlc. I’m not sure how it works the other way around though. Also, it’s nice to see someone plays ultimate alliance 3. I can’t find any lobbies to join online. Was one of my favorite switch exclusive.

@Thwomp_Stomper DLC is unfortunately NOT a separate card.

@Mellified I don't know why this is reported more often. I had this issue with Sonic Origins Plus and the solution was the same: remove the Virtual Game Card (or delete the program entirely, which means also deleting the HOME Menu icon), then insert the physical card and it'll download only the necessary data (i.e. DLC and updates).
I actually answered my own question a while ago and then again when the VGC update was released.

This is one of the things the Wii U actually did right over the Switch. There you can simply choose what part of the game's files you want to delete individually (digital software, DLC, updates, individual save files) instead of the whole bunch minus save files.

Sounds like the fix for you was different than what I found to work. I had to remove the game but leave the dock icon - effectively leaving the virtual card inserted - to get physical games to work with DLC for games I also owned digitally.