Topic: Multiple Switch household setup and games purchasing

Hello everyone! I need some advice. I currently have a Nintendo Switch for myself, and have been purchasing all games digital only. For Christmas, my son and daughter are each getting their own Switch in order to alleviate the constant battling over mine. I'm trying to decide if I should continue to buy digital only for their Switches as well, or if I should get physical cartridges for theirs.

Also, if I go digital only, how would the online accounts be setup? Could I purchase multiple copies of each title under one account, or do I need to create them each their own account and download their games under them. I suppose that, to play games online, they will need to each have their own account anyway.

It's such a shame that Nintendo doesn't have a better setup for families in order to share games, accounts, etc. I don't look forward to the idea of having to spend extra $$$ buying multiple copies of the same games. If their is something for families that I am not aware of, please enlighten me. Thanks for any help and recommendations!

Hate to tell you - but you will have to buy multiple copies and create multiple accounts so that you kids can compete against each other online. There is no family friendly setup. Nintendo probably think that there is no need for a second system in a household.

@NintendoPete
To be fair the family sharing that exists for games, AFAIK, generally doesn't allow you to play against each other. The only time I've seen where you could use the same game for multiple users on multiple systems has been for download play. Where family sharing does exist for gaming it's usually with the same limitations that exist for physical copies.

Also, I'm fairly sure that Nintendo is more than happy for more than one console to be sold per household. I'm sure that's something they've considered. And in any case the same limitations existed on the 3DS.

@CarlComputerGuy
As a general rule of thumb across all gaming platforms? If you want to share games amongst your family get a physical copy. If you want to play against people on a different system buy more than one copy. That's basically how it has always worked across all systems. The only thing these console makers generally allow is for you to transfer content from one system to the other. Nintendo's only limitation here is that they have an all-or-nothing approach for digital content.

I kind of figured that was the case, but I was just hoping that maybe, just maybe, that they would take an Apple type approach to gaming, where when you purchase a game on the app store, everyone else in the family can download it on their device for free, and even all play it at the same time from their own device. I suppose that would be asking way too much from Nintendo though.

Since they will have to each have their own Nintendo account anyway for online play, I'm thinking I may just go all digital with their game purchases as well. At least that way we wouldn't have to worry about lost or damaged cartridges. But on the other hand, buying physical means more resale value for the Switch in the future.

Hopefully Nintendo becomes more family friendly in the future.