Yeah, I think we might be looking at the beginning of the end of physical media on Switch 2 here.
At least, if Nintendo are going to release one full priced game on a Game Key Card, why not all of them? The memory chips that they're using reportedly cost around fifteen bucks apiece, so that represents a substantial saving if people are going to buy the game anyway at the same price.
@Matt_Barber
I don’t buy that, though: why would they have gone through the extra dev time and increased pricing to include the physical drive and update the tech for the express card format if they knew they were gonna steer away from using the physical media? For as much as we joke that Nintendo makes weird decisions, we all know they were quite aware of the increased costs associated with upgrading to the express cards. If they wanted to include the drive as a brief olive branch to consumers? Nah… I don’t buy it. It’s just too much cost for a brief reprieve. Even the cheaper Japan-only Switch 2 still has a media drive.
Would be really weird, even for Nintendo.
I think the likeliest thing that’s gonna happen here is that Pokopia is a gkc in Japan but not in other territories. Or they pull a Snipperclips or something and loop back to give a physical release with dlc and stuff included at some point.
@rallydefault The cartridge port isn't that much an expense. It's maybe adding a couple of dollars to the price of the console, if that. Also, even if it's only ever going to be used for key cards and backwards compatibility, the Switch 2 still needs one. It's not something that's entirely predicated on games being available on full cartridges.
Mainly though, Nintendo are approaching this somewhat cautiously. They got third parties to be the guinea pigs with key cards first and, only after they managed to weather the backlash, are they trying it for themselves. I'd agree that it's probably a one game, and possibly one region, test for now. However, if the effect on sales is negligible, they're surely going to want to expand it to other releases in future, because the profitability of game cartridges is potentially so much more.
It's definitely not a Snipperclips situation. That was a budget game that later got an expanded cartridge release because it was so popular. This is a full priced game that presumably won't be getting re-released unless the backlash is far worse than what we've already seen with third party games, because none of those have done that.
@Matt_Barber
Sorry, I just don’t see it. It’s not just the slot itself, it’s the changes that had to be made to accommodate for the newer tech of the express cards, as well.
And isn’t one of the big complaints here that, much like Snipperclips, everyone was perceiving Pokopia as exactly a smaller game?
I think everyone needs to slow way down with the jumping here.
@Nep-Nep-Freak : I was perhaps naively under the impression that GKCs were going to be used in order to release major titles without driving up the cost.
But to suffer significant price increases plus having to provide one's own storage (which is also expensive), and to not have the damn game on the damn cartridge?! It's absolutely obscene. Resident Evil Requiem is the most expensive standard edition release I have ever seen at a whopping AU$130... on a GKC!
Hey, I'd have paid $130 for an all-on-cart blockbuster, but as it stands, even if offered at a quarter of the price, that would be a hard sell where I'm concerned. And what's even crazier to me is that there is a more expensive Steelbook edition available as well. I'd rather put the extra $10 toward some actual data on the cartridge over a second cover for a cartridge with nothing on it!
@rallydefault Whatever money Nintendo spent on getting key cards working with the Switch 2 is pretty much a sunk cost at this point, and they knew that it had to support both cartridges and key cards at launch, regardless of which turned out to be the dominant format.
They will presumably have contracted for the manufacture of memory chips for several years in advance, which should ensure the release of at least some games on cartridge for that period. That's why I said it's possibly the beginning of the end; they're not suddenly going to stop cartridge releases overnight.
The point about Snipperclips is more that it's a budget game that sold for $20 on the eShop. A cartridge release at that price wouldn't be able to turn a profit, so they bundled some new content and upped it to $30. There seems to be a similar price floor on Switch 2 cartridges but it's a bit higher because the chips cost more; Hades 2 is going to cost $50 and that's probably the bare minimum so I'd expect anything below that to be a key card release. A full priced game at $70 though, and it can only be about wanting to turn a greater profit.
I probably won't be getting it.. given how much storage space digital copies tend to take on Switch 2, and how I don't have the money for an Express SD card.
"It is fate. Many have tried, yet none have ever managed to escape it's flow."
@darkfenrir It is said to be smaller, yeah- it just sucks that third party games are so much larger so it makes it harder to justify downloading titles or getting key cards.
"It is fate. Many have tried, yet none have ever managed to escape it's flow."
@Eel Yeah I'm not sold on it based on what we've seen, especially at that price. It's the kind of thing I might pick up years from now if I find it cheap, but if it really is a key card I'm less likely to do that. (Not that I have a Switch 2 yet so getting it at launch wouldn't be an option anyway. I don't know why it's a Switch 2 exclusive, it doesn't look particularly hardware-intensive.)
Thank you Nintendo for giving us Donkey Kong Jr Math on Nintendo Music
@PikaPhantom
Where are you seeing preorders? I can't find anything for NA. I found its listing on Pokemon.com, but it only says "preorder your digital or physical" copy.
Personally pretty excited, but I still want to see how the game will be first, which the trailer hopefully will give answer to. (Just hoping will be like, story + cozy like animal crossing and it will be good enough for me)
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Topic: Pokemon Pokopia
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