Poll: Should Nintendo Release A Digital-Only Switch?

Nintendo doesn't provide ample storage for a legit digital only product. 32gb is laughable......they would need to have a minimum of 512gb to make it remotely feasible but if you want 3rd party titles it would need to be 1 TB. Nintendo is too cheap to pay for that. They always pass the buck on to consumers. Did it with the Wii U, 3DS, and now Switch. It's not gonna happen.

I would support it if Nintendo had a better digital account system like Sony does.

I can easily download my games to any PS4 by simply logging into my account, but Nintendo is way too complicated with its primary/secondary console nonsense.
Also, I would want Nintendo/Sony to commit to transferring all digital games to future systems if they're going to go all digital.

Not sure I would buy one, but I think there is a market for it. The may be some ergonomic benefits if it reduces the components needed.

Also, if it was cheaper, I think that would appeal to people.

Nah. And this is coming from someone who buys the majority of their Switch games digitally.

I like having the option to go physical. And, on Switch, it's actually useful to get particularly huge games like TW3 physically to save room on your SD card.

Sony is going to have to way undercut the price of the base unit to convince even some of us primarily digital people to close the door to physical purchases entirely.

I would never be interested in digital-only. I love owning physical games, especially cartridges. You feel like you truly own something and no matter what happens with Nintendo's online network, you can play your games.

Not sure how to vote as the not sure doesn’t cover how I feel.

I would be happy for them to release a digital only so long as they also offered a physical version like PS have.

Personally I love collecting the games, displaying them like I do with my books (I still don’t own a kindle or similar!) so I would prefer to have the option to continue to do that.

The question is: Is there even any point in a digital only Switch?
A Blu Ray drive costs a notable amount of money, so a digital-only Xbox or PS can be sold a bit cheaper.
But is a card reader really expensive enough for that to be the case? In mass production, I don't think so.

So who will buy a digital-only Switch, if the normal version effectively costs the same?

We can go one further and say, that a digital only Switch needs more internal storage to make sense. In that case, the digital Switch would be more expensive.... But that depends on how they handle it.

Only if they do family sharing like xbox so I don't have to buy the same ***** game for everyone in my family.

@Kanbei that's true with Nintendo first party games but there are lots of 3rd party games that are incomplete versions. You need to download a lot of content with those games. I completely understand your point, though. I love owning the physical carts.

When we were all pondering about the NX I thought that maybe they would make it primarily digital with a kiosk system for parents to use. Purchase a (knowing Nintendo, proprietary) memory unit and then you could download games at kiosks. I figured this would help with shelf space at a store and the memory units would be reusable if the kid decides to get a different game. I thought it would be a great new twist on the system they used in Japan back in the 80s. But now that I see how many of us want physical copies, I think Nintendo has a chance to keep supporting that section of the gaming community.

@Nintendofan83 when I got my Switch, I couldn't afford a 128GB micro SD card for it, so I just used an old 128 MEGAbyte one to make sure my Switch's micro SD slot works!

@Jokerwolf Umm, Nintendo already has that? There just can not be two people playing at the same time, but otherwise you can share digital games all you want...

I don't care. I may decidedly prefer digital myself, but Switch's physical medium is INCOMPARABLY more compact and convenient than what XBox and PlayStation have to deal with for the most part. Even during travels and commutes if we bring up PSP for a similar weight category (no wonder PSP tried a digital incarnation itself - and even though PSP Go came too soon to thrive, we owe it pretty much everything we have in terms of Vita's backward compatibility now). And I doubt the reader makes for a significant chunk of the console's price (let alone component placement room) either.

Besides, a few games - no matter their sparsity and demand - have already skipped eShop to my knowledge (like that one Skylanders title, I think?). Remove the slot and you'll have a DSi/Guitar Hero situation once again. Random future delistings for license expiry and stuff (like it happened with Project X Zone) may suddenly leave game cards as the only option outside the realm of CFW, too.

I’m digital only gamer, but leaving a card reader away wouldn’t really have much impact on the size or price of the console, so I’d rather have it there just in case I find bargain physical games.

I mean, if they want. Always good to have more options. I personally wouldn't care for it, and I would have to wonder how much money Nintendo would even save by not including a cartridge slot. I imagine not too much money, at least compared to a Blu ray disc drive being taken out of a home console.

In what world is it worth owning only a digital copy of a game? Do u not care about collectability and resale of ur game if u want? Are u all really so lazy that changing a disc or cart is beneath you?

“You don't 'own' the games you download – you only own the licence to play them, and this can be revoked at any point.”

This applies to it physical as well though. And provided you can play the downloaded game offline you’ll be able to play it indefinitely.

Until we can afford 1tb and 2tb and have larger Internal Storage Digital is going to be some fantasy dream.

No, I want to be able to collect and resell. Digital only consoles only make sense, if the price of digital only products would drop dramatically, which they won't.

@Kirgo That isn't me lending a digital game to a friend or being able to play with multiple people only having one copy of the game, it is insanely greedy to always expect everyone to buy their own copy of a game. So no that is not game sharing, that is a loophole.

They would need to massively bump up the system storage, it’s an absolute joke at the minute. I guess it wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing for them to release a digital only model, as long as it wasn’t the only model available.

I don't think they would save much by doing so....

As many have stated unless its considerably cheaper I don't see the need to do such a thing.

I'm neutral about this. Everyone has their preferences so it would be difficult to decide what works best.

Moving to digital only for my Switch and already made the transition on the PS4. To many games require day one patches or are not entirely on the disc or cartridge. Maybe for a Switch successor have 2 SD card slots instead of one (assuming there is a Switch 2 and Nintendo are still stingy with on board storage).

Unless it was dramatically cheaper I don't see the point. The card slot isn't obtrusive in any way. If you choose to go all digital, you can just ignore the card slot. I doubt having it there adds too much to the manufacturing cost anyway, so the saving will be negligible

Knowing Nintendo, my main concern with going all digital would be that they wouldn't provide an adequate amount of internal storage (which is the case on both Wii u and Switch, obviously). And if they're going to require you to buy external storage cards anyway, is that really any different from still using physcial media?
There's also the obvious issue of eshops closing eventually. I think systems like PC or mobile, where you can still access the same stores but older devices won't always be fully supported, lend themselves better to a digital-only ecosystem.

I'm a purely digital consumer. The only physical switch games I own are BOTW, which came with the console and Witcher 3, which was a present. With that said, I don't think Nintendo are ready for that kind of switchover to digital only.
The E-shop is absolutely woeful and moving games over to other Switches is an absolute pain in the butt. The internal storage on their devices is also abysmal.
I just can't imagine consumers being too happy with Nintendo until they fix so many of their issues such as the NSO offerings and the likes too. They just haven't invested enough in my eyes to match the likes of what Sony and Microsoft have put into their platforms

@Kirgo to add to your point :
The costs savings of a Switch without card reader would immediately be offset by the added storage you'd need to house the games where you don't even have the cartridge to store most of the game on. Already there's games that won't fit on the current cartridge meaning that they will be that the much LARGER on people's storage as digital- only editions.

So a digital-only Switch could easily end up costing -more- than one which still features a card reader due to the amount of storage expenses players would need to invest into.

In fact, just from what download times the larger games of stronger consoles, I suspect the digital only version of newer consoles might still remain somewhat niche. 80 or even 100gb games are almost a norm in the 'horsepower' console approach and this trend is unlikely to change with the upcoming gen I suspect. Perhaps even going to worsen to make up for new textures resolutions/etc.

This will greatly hinder the reach of digital-only consoles in general in areas without appropriate ISPs to not mention those where data caps remain a thing, I suspect.

Of course I could always be wrong but even with day one patches there's still a difference between a 1-10gb download(and it's still crazy there's games where -patches- are upward of 10gb) and a 100gb one.

the true question is : what is digital-only ?

It seems to be good if Nintendo purpose digital games only to reduce waste, energy and what ever. i like the idea to have all my games on my console or on my SD card, i can just change the game without transport all my switch cards collection.
But i understand collectionning about cards games.

I only don't want to pay every month to play at my games online/offline. i don't like system like stadia or shadow for console gaming.

@Jokerwolf Of course it is game sharing.
The only thing you can not do is play online multiplayer with only one copy.

It is basically the same as you lending the physical copy, just that you don't have to meet every time.

I just don’t care. I’m already digital only on Switch...

Would be more happy if Nintendo makes digital games cheaper

I'll double down and say they should offer an all digital TV box. No battery, no screen, no card clot. Lots of savings.

The Switch is already Digital only, you can't play analog games on it.

@sixrings That's a good idea. It could come with some extra juice too and still be reasonably priced.

What a weird question, cartridge readers don't cost much and they don't take up much space in the Switch. It's a non-question.

Digital only is a dangerous move. Let me lay out a scenario that is already happening today. You purchase and subscribe to a streaming/digital only console/service. You find some really good games and play certain ones over and over or invest hours into a really big game. A few years from now the streaming company or the content provider goes belly up. now you have lost your content with no recourse and no refund. Another possibility, also happening now, the mood changes and certain games are pulled because they "no longer make sense in today's climate" as in they violate someones sensibilities(rightfully so or not). Again you have lost your investment of money and time.

With physical this never happens and as human beings you get to make the decision whether to play a game whose content may now be offensive or divisive. Think about all of the classic games that could not be made or possibly played today. It could happen and most likely will. Why let someone else decide what you play?

No, because I don't think the cost savings from removing the cartridge slot will be significant and likely much much lower than the savings MS and Sony get from removing optical drives. The MS and Sony costs also very likely include licensing for codecs to allow video play back that Nintendo won't be paying for.

Honestly doubt you'd see more than about a $10 saving. Card readers aren't especially expensive, with SD card readers probably a similar hardware set and thus cost and those can be had for close to nothing.

Sony and MS also can't run games off the optical media so they're more reliant on larger internal storage anyway. If Nintendo removes the cartridge slot then the system needs to ship with enough storage to compensate and I'm fairly confident that would cost more than the current setup. If anything cost would go up or there's even greater reliance on customers buying larger SD cards at a higher cost. Ultimately I don't think there's any cost savings to be made for buyers.

Update: The other thing too is they've already done the 'cheaper model' revision. I think many people are looking for a 'Pro' release that adds features, not implement corner cutting to save a few bucks. Many people seem interested in a potentially slightly more expensive unit that for example improves the display, adds bluetooth audio, increases storage etc. Those are the features people seem to be asking for. Even the digital only crowd likely aren't bothered the card slots there.

There is simply no need and that would give you a third iteration of Switch when the next iteration needs to be the switch 2.

With microSD cards being so cheap now I don't see a problem with digital only.
You just lose on the option of buying and selling used games.

My biggest issue with a digital-only Switch is, how long will Nintendo support the Switch eshop to allow redownloading purchased games?

@Guitario Yeah, I mean, I already have a 400 GB card, at this point.

I am all digital on the Switch already so I would be fine with it.

This is the first console that I am all digital with and my only concern is Nintendo's next system will not be backwards compatible, but here is hoping

Edit: Just to mention I have a Samsung 512 GB SD card to help with that, got this on a Black Friday sale for $50.

Digital only will cost a lot of people in retail their jobs. So no.

Also, if you buy a digital only PS5, that means you can’t play PS4 discs on it, so it doesn’t have backwards compatibility, which is one of its biggest selling points.

Short answer No, they aren't ready for that.

More thought: They certainly could, they were into full games having a digital option sooner than the rest. But they do not respect the consumer in forcing them to buy expandable data when they could easily manufacture them with a healthy amount of space for pennies on the dollar. I hope no one forgot BTOW was literally too big to download into some Switches.

They also don't respect the game companies by charging more for larger capacity cards. They say "forget that" get the cheap cards with partial games on them and pass the storage woes onto us.

On one had Switch is practically a digital only system already. On the other it's in the worse, most Nintendo missed the forest for the trees way possible.

@nmanifold yeah.. it would only be viable if they added 2TB flash storage to it and removed the cartridge slot and the MicroSD slot. Otherwise they are going to add a slot for the SD card, so they can add one for the Switch cards as well. The physical card reader isn't that much bigger.

Sorry this just sounds stupid...…..in the case of $ony and M$ there is probably some savings to be had by removing the BRD drive from the console. The cartridge slot on the Switch is nothing more than a pin connector on the edge of a circuit board....meaning it costs like $2 for them to implement. So there would be no perceivable savings by removing. Additionally even though Nintendo's digital sales have increased greatly with Switch physical is still outselling Digital by quite a wide margin. People bitch about the large downloads on 3rd party titles but what about all the great games that come pretty much complete on the cartridge, including all Nintendo games and other large games like Skyrim and Witcher3. All the other known benefits of physical still hold and the Switch is the type of system that many people or families will own more than one so being able to share games is a big plus. Also as others have said Nintendo's digital model is still unevolved compared to other eShops. So forget about doing things to make Switch $5 cheaper and get busy on Super Switch Pro 2.0 as I would really much rather have a more powerful Switch that's backwards compatible than some feature gimped model.

I'm about 60 percent digital so I don't think I'd be bothered either way, but I like having the option as having physical allows me to have my 1TB card go longer (already 70 percent full).

I do like that Nintendo passes the storage cost to the customer as I would rather source my own storage rather than pay a markup for likely less storage. Plus that means I can reuse components I have here...slapped a usb stick on the back of my wiiu and was fine. Pretty sure they wouldn't sell a 1 TB switch for less than 500USD. I would like a second microsd card slot though. Would love to have a 2TB system.

That being said the successor to the Switch needs a BC card slot. I am not rebuying games.

Mmh i dont think so. I like to have a choice.. digital or physical.

I hope that physical copy systems stay around for a long time. Having physical copies for games actually help to create other businesses. Like having Gamestop to buy your games at and also your retro games for older consoles. It would be sad if you wanted to play an older game but can't because it was digital only and you can no longer download it. I mean, I still have old baseball and football cards, coins, stamps, various CCG's and comics.

If everything was digital, you would lose a lot of businesses too. I mean, if Steam went down, you would lose access to anything you haven't downloaded. That could mean losing a lot of $$ down the drain.

If Earth got attacked by aliens and the internet was destroyed, then there would be a lot of pissed off gamers who would join the war against the Aliens. Earth would win the war and the Aliens would never touch our internet again. So the lesson is don't mess with gamers and their games.

simple question why a disc drive requires control chips cables and a drive where the switch slot is built into the mother board and the savings would be hardly anything. the carts are basically glorified sd cards so a totally pointless article.

Nothing wrong with having the option, so long as the physical option is not depreciated.

I decided to go all digital with the Switch, but now we have two users (me and my son) and a Switch Lite added into the mix, it's an absolute pain in the backside.

I still haven't got my head around the primary/secondary thing completely, but I do know I have to connect the Lite to my phone via wifi tethering every time I want to boot a game up when I'm away from home.

With regards to the article, there really isn't much to be saved (space or finance) from removing the card slot. If it was a bulky disc drive, sure, but it probably wouldn't be worth redesigning and having a separate line for a digital only model. Nintendo can't keep up with demand as it is.

@Nintendofan83 The Xbox One S Digital Edition comes with 1 TB, which holds around 8x Final Fantasy XV. If I look at the largest game on Switch, I could fit 8x The Witcher 3 on a 256 GB.

Do I think a Switch with 256 GB will be fine.

@Kirgo They need a better way to do it though, you cannot think the way they do it is good lmao. Also some games on PS4 allowed you to share one copy to multiple people if I am not mistaken. Xbox if you are signed into an xbox as your primary they get access to all your stuff and if you login somewhere else they continue to have access which is wayyyy better.

Only if the cost of losing a feature and the ability to play some games is balanced out by a significantly lower price. Otherwise it's a negative, a net decrease in convenience. So, considering Nintendo uses space efficient carts and not disk drives, probably not.

@zemahon yep relative to PS4/XB games the size of Switch games is much smaller, so relatively speaking 256gb feels about right.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare = 33 Super Mario Odyssey's!

If its cheaper and offers better storage then yes, i only ever buy digital so digital only consoles at much cheaper prices is a draw for me.

I mean.. will the console be cheaper? will the games be cheaper? then sure

"would allow Nintendo to lower the price"
"to shave dollars off the cost"

How many dollars would it lower the price @damo $5? You've been in this business what, 2 decades now, surely you know about what a card reader slot would save. It's not even a card writer as saves are to the system.

I won't call this a "click-bait" article b/c there is reason for the discussion, but by not ending the article w/ "I called around and it would only save Nintendo $5, so a $295 Switch and $95 Switch Lite really isn't worth the trouble." you are making this more of a discussion than I'm sure you know it needs to be. Your'e all about the hardware, mini, maxi, retro, you know hardware, and you know this wouldn't save them more than a few $ max. And the system doesn't need to be any smaller than the Lite. So really what's the point in asking "Should Nintneod release one?"

Now if you want to ask the question - "Will Nintneod go digital only to force consumers to lease games, not own them, making themselves more money", well that's another question entirely, and 1 hardly anybody wants.

A digital-only Switch would require more than 32 GB of onboard storage, which would actually make the digital-only Switch the same price as or even more expensive than the current Switch.

So no, it won't happen. Maybe a digital-only Switch 2 as flash memory should be much cheaper three years from now.

No they should not unless they bring out a 500gb model of it at least.

Memory cards are cheap, but having physical games has it's benefit in how the current switch may be, sure there are plenty of games that are sold on small cartridges and the rest is a download (looking at you Ubisoft, Rockstar and especially 2K Games) but still there are plenty of games that don't need one and are fully on the cartridge.

Point is a digital Playstation or Xbox makes more sense because they already have way bigger storage, sure the games are bigger too and a 50gb or bigger game on those 2 is more common than not when looking at AAA titles, but on the Switch there are plenty of 10gb titles too, and while smaller when you stack them up you need bigger and fast storage like the internal one.

When looking at my own collection, all the patches of my physical games are around 22gb total, but all the games I have would take probably around 200gb total, sure there are memory cards to "solve" that but for one I don't have any of those really big games on the Switch like Wolfenstein, NBA, Borderlands and so on, just the smaller ones and the biggest 2 I have are Grisaia Trilogy (~12gb) and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (~14gb)

When looking at a friend of mine who does play AAA games on the Switch (I prefer my PC for that) then only the extra downloads he has already take up more than my whole collection (He has NBA 2K 19 and 20, Borderlands Trilogy, Bioschock Trilogy, LA Noire, Wolfenstein 2, Starlink and so on) so filling that space is easy.

I am not against a full digital Switch, because aside from the games I like a lot I tend to buy more often digital unless the files size is too large and there is a optional physical release, but I am afraid of a digital only Switch because knowing Nintendo they mess it up somewhere they should not.

@rjejr @damo Nintendo and shaving off price, yeah I heard that joke before...

No, the digital only PS5 is one of the stupidest consoles ever made. It'll be like $25 bucks cheaper than the regular PS5. Sony has no clue what it's doing.

I buy almost all my games digitally at this point, with the exception of some first-party titles that I want to show off on a shelf, so I could see myself going for a digital-only Switch in the future.

As others have pointed out, however, it would need to ship with more storage as standard — 32GB isn't enough. And I suspect the costs associated with adding more wouldn't make it any cheaper.

@Nintendofan83 You've said it. No way Nintendo could make a cheaper Switch and still provide a decent amount of internal storage.

You mean to tell me Switch isn’t all ready digital only. 🤣

Whilst I buy most of my games digitally I do still use my Xbox One as a DVD/Blu-ray player so a disc-drive is a must.

I would have happily gone 100% digital with my Switch had I not had the worst customer service experience of my life from Nintendo's own staff recently.

I purchased a voucher code for Animal Crossing and downloaded it from the eshop (ie directly from Nintendo's own servers) After a few weeks play my save became corrupted. I started again and a few days later it happened again. 3rd time? Corruption again. I redownloaded the game several times as Nintendo advise and still no fix. My hope was the recent update fixed it. I started again and just after I finally got KK to play, it corrupted again.

Searching around online I see i'm not the only person to suffer from this issue but it is a minority of players so Nintendo have yet to even acknowledge the fault let alone patch it. My Switch isn't the issue nor my memory card. I've had noth for 2 years and this is the first time i've had any sort of problems.

UK consumer laws state software must be fit for purpose and so I contacted Nintendo, informed them they were selling/providing a download that had a game breaking bug in it and asked them for £40 eshop credit to reimburse my original purchase and for AC:NH to be struck from my download list. I still think these were fair terms as I did not ask for a cash refund and the game remains unplayable.

Cue 5 weeks of back and forth emails from Nintendo stating they are somehow not responsible for the software code on their own servers and that because I purchased the voucher code from an 'unauthorised 3rd party retailer' (CDkeys) I should take it up with them. As I keep reminding them, all CDkeys did was provide me with a string of 25 letters and numbers which worked fine! Had the code not worked, I would have asked for another.

I maintain my position: the software is downloaded directly from Nintendo's own servers, irrespective of where the voucher code came from. The bug is in a first party piece of software and it is their responsibility to sort out.

If you bought a restaurant voucher from an online retailer and then had a problem with the food, would you expect the chef to sort it or the voucher stockist? Exactly.

I'm voting yes, not because I like this trend or agree with it, because I don't.

But the question was "should" Nintendo do it, and I think that the answer is, yes, releasing a version of the Switch that is digital only, given market trends, would probably be a good idea.

I prefer physical. But these days the main benefits of physical are largely gone. Most games require considerable additional downloads. Either in patches and updates, or actual chunks of the game that just aren't on the physical cards.

What good is having the physical card if it only has 70% of the game on it? It's not like my old copies of Mario 64 or Pokemon Blue that still work if I am willing to break out old hardware.

I'm not against a digital-only Switch for those who want it, but would it even be worth it for Nintendo? All that would be removed is a cartridge slot, plus I feel as though they'd have to expand the internal storage even if they retained the SD card slot. We aren't talking about a Blu-ray drive.

I still go physical most of the time. Most of my digital games are indie titles without physical releases. The only exceptions in my library are games that were significantly cheaper than their physical counterparts.

@cdog555 They earn enough from the Switch at the moment, we are now 3+ years since launch and they still sell it for the original MSRP in most places, maybe slightly cheaper, 32gb should not be that expensive anymore because it was not even that in 2017.

I am not saying they can fit a 1tb ssd in the Switch and still sell it for 329 euro, but 128gb should be easy to do by now.

@RadioHedgeFund "worst customer service experience of my life from Nintendo's own staff recently."

I like Nintendo a lot, but if there are 2 things they suck at then this is 1 of them, they should learn from Sony and Microsoft on that regard (at least from my own and my friends their experiences)

@Tyranexx "but would it even be worth it for Nintendo? All that would be removed is a cartridge slot, plus I feel as though they'd have to expand the internal storage even if they retained the SD card slot"

They would shave off some cost and make more money, and Nintendo is still a company that does want to make money so even while that would not make any sense at all for us, for them it would.

Also I see Nintendo pull off a stunt by removing the slot and not expanding the memory but still asking same or near same MSRP.

That would mean they’d have to stop getting cheap on internal memory and/or pack in micro-sd card. I don’t see it happening.

The PSP Go was a massive failure and it was digital only so naturally a digital only switch would probably meet with a similar fate. A truly all digital future is never going to happen. Consumers want to have options. As of now I could’ve just downloaded the Mighty Switch Force Collection and play it but I opted for the physical collectors edition. Why? For one thing just like my retro game collection I have something tangible and if push comes to shove I could resell for potentially a lot more than what I originally paid. You can’t do that with digital. Second, being digital only you could potentially lose it and have no possible way to get it back (legally). Take a gander at the wii games lost forever since the service shut down. At least with physical you could always hunt down another copy, it nay be pricey but at least it’s legal.

I’m in no way against digital I just think it shouldn’t be the only option. Digital should have advantages like when I upgraded my phone I redownloaded pretty much all my music and games with only one or two exceptions. The NSO classic games should’ve tied into Vic and gave us the option to do the same since we too have an account system that ties wiiu/3ds and Switch.

We're certainly headed in a digital-only direction. Consider, though, that even Sony, a company that has long been well ahead of Nintendo in terms of online connectivity in general and digital distribution in particular, isn't fully committed to digital-only on their next-generation console, let alone their current one. So, I don't think we'll see a digital-only Switch, but it might happen with Nintendo's next system.

@Nintendofan83 I think they would have to if they went digital-only. It would be easier for them, too, since (a) they would save money by not including a card slot, and(b) memory prices have dropped since the Switch was released over three years ago.

I buy physical games if I can, but I votes yes. Choice is good. But before I buy digital only I would like to see what advantage this would offer me. The biggest incentive would be price, I guess.

But that would come with a Pro.

Also a family who own two or three plus Switch Lites would want to share games, so there would have to a way of implementing this digitally.

The need to up the internal memory or include an sd card would probably mean the price wouldnt be cheaper

@mesome713 you call it stupid but it is business for both Sony and publishers.

No matter who does it, they save money on disc production, shipping and so on, and before you claim "yeah but a Blu-Ray disc doesn't cost that much" all the cost together do, look at Nintendo there was a time they shipped new Switch systems BY PLANE which is by far the most expensive method out there, but even by boat it is still not free (by far not)

I prefer my games physically too, but outside Japan half of the people already buy their games digitally on PS4 and Xbox because it's easier, the sales are great and space wise it takes essentially the same amount (physical disc does install the game too)

Business, that's it and most people are fine with it aside from the minor but very loud minority.

@GameOtaku the market was very different in 2009 remember that too, most people buy digital games anyhow because easier and often cheaper when on sales (unless we talk about Nintendo)

"Why? For one thing just like my retro game collection I have something tangible and if push comes to shove I could resell"

You belong to the group of people that prefer physical games just like I am, but we are becoming a minority by now.

The switch doesn't have an optical drive which in the new consoles are expensive. A Blu Ray drive retail is like close to 100, even if the BOM cost is only like 50 that's still about an 8th of the price of the PS4 at launch. Plus digital only means fewer used games which everyone in the industry other than GameStop likes.

I just had a look on eBay and a replacement card slot costs around £38. I think when you factor in the costs of the reseller, eBay fees, etc, it's probably only a $5 to $10 part maximum.

So given a card slot is much cheaper than a Blu-Ray drive I think the savings to consumers of not having a slot will be pretty minimal and therefore not really worth it.

That said, maybe Nintendo could knock more off the price of a digital-only Switch considering downloads cost more than physical games (remember when the games industry promised us the digital-only utopia would be cheaper?) and therefore Nintendo could make their money back from higher profits from digital sales.

I'm not against there being digital-only versions of consoles, but those shouldn't be the only options. I think a lot of people still prefer not having to worry about system storage space (even with memory cards added) or how long they'll have access to the games they buy.

@Rayquaza2510 The cost difference will be very small. People who buy digital only would rather own a much cheaper console. With a massive price difference. Not a small $25 savings.

My short answer is no.

The long answer is:
I'm seriously tempted to get the digital only ps5 and I think it's a good jumping off point to do so. To release a digital only edition ala Microsoft doesn't make sense to me.

Based on Nintendo's history or backwards compatibility then maybe for the next console since they are rolling back-compat into their subscription service so it would make sense to do it for their next console.

With ring fit and labo, Nintendo also seem to have that covered to. If you buy Pokémon sword and shield digitally, you can claim a steel book. What's to stop Nintendo to sell the ring con with a digital code? Or sending one when it's bought through the e-shop. It seemed strange to have a steel book sent, but the more I think about it, the more it's a test for a digital only future.

@mesome713 no it won't, can tell you that much (btw the whole digital future is more cost effective for the companies that is the whole and only point here, sales on digital games tend to be higher because of the low cost for the companies because even by agressively slashing the price of a digital game, they already earned more with the digital copy full price at launch then with the physical ones)

@jsw-8 I plan to get the PS5 with BD drive, just to have options because even if I would go full digital there is still that BD drive that I could use in the end when I need to.

As a physical only gamer (unless a game that I want only releases digitally, this article is ’blasphemy’). I won’t buy a digital only Switch.

With Switch cartridges as physically small as they are, I don't see a great reason to remove the slot. I'm sure it would save me a few bucks on my Switch when I had bought it, but it's not like buying a Switch was ever going to break the bank as it is. Furthermore, if you remove the slot, Nintendo then has to start selling weird digital versions of games that still need to come with extra accessories in stores. What I mean is now every LABO set and Ring Fit Adventure need new versions that you can still buy in stores, but only include the accessories and a download code. That seems like a nightmare to have on shelves 2 different versions of a game like that in retail stores, leading to lots of confusion for sure.

@duffmmann "With Switch cartridges as physically small as they are, I don't see a great reason to remove the slot."

It is not about the benefit for you but for Nintendo in the end.

Some people think that it's so cheap that Nintendo would not benefit from it, but Nintendo is a company that needs to earn money where they can, and in day and age where smartphone companies remove stuff like the headphone jack that is miles cheaper to produce than the Switch cartridge slot, and those smartphone companies do that to shave off cost, yeah I see Nintendo doing that too.

Even if the cartridge slot was 1 dollar (it's more, even while not counting all the other cost around it) then looking at how much the Switch sold that only would save them a few million in the end.

Also they would not need to produce cartridges which on it's own is neither free, so that money could also go in the pocket, along with the money it would cost to ship them, keep the factory running and so on.

People tend to think very simple that "but that slot is just 1 dollar so why would they do it?" but it is not that simple, there is more to that overall.

@WoomyNNYes
That’ll fill up rather quickly if you bought all of 2ks games and Witcher.

I look at gaming as just a few years behind music, tv/dvd. I have hundreds of cds, I still buy them, but now I just get it digitally, then burn a copy to put in my book. My iPhone dies, my iTunes and the 500+ cds are always with me on my new phone. I could pay monthly for music, but the 5 cds I buy a year is less then a service.
I prefer physical games, but now it’s only for the resale. I don’t buy anything digital unless it’s on sale, or I know its a game I’ll have for the duration of owning the console. But next gen, how these companies treat us who bought 90% of our games on switch digitally, when the new switch comes out next gen, are all of my games going to transfer over like my music or my pc game library on steam? That will determine if this gen is my last with keeping up with new stuff, or if I take a break and just make my switch the last console I get. My backlog is already years long, I don’t need more game, but I still buy them.

The difference here is that the game card slot doesn't add much space/cost to the system unlike the optical drives on the other systems. Nintendo wouldn't gain much by removing it to release a "digital edition".

@Donutman I worry too on that regard with Nintendo, I can't redownload those few Wii games I had anymore, and I forsee same fate with my Wii U and 3DS... and maybe even the Switch.

Meanwhile I can still download my PSP, PS3 and Xbox360 games, Sony and Microsoft knew from the start that it would give them a bad name by not allowing that, Nintendo on the other hand doesn't care because they know people will buy their system anyhow.

It reminds me of a certain different company... but that is a story for another day I guess.

@graysoncharles not to mention I collect games on few systems myself, and sometimes I have a hard time to get certain games and pay double or more for them because certain physical copies are uncommon or rare, while the digital one is dirt cheap.

I prefer physical games in some cases, but a lot of people forget that physical games in 2020 are not same like 20 or more years back, at our place we even stopped buying physical PS4 games because in the end you still need to install them so they take a lot of space anyhow, plus some of them often have 10, 20 sometimes even 30gb in patches even while having the disc.

With the Switch physical games make more sense because you play them directly from the cartridge, however there are already plenty of publishers skipping a physical Switch release because of the production cost, or bring out "half game" on cartridge and call it a day, but aside from the very vocal minority most people don't care and go digital, unless you live in Japan or some other asian countries.

I could feasibly see Ninty removing the game cart slot and adding another microSD slot. Also bumping internal memory up a little (64/128Gb), retailing at the same price and calling it something original like New Switch - Digital. You’d like to think they’d throw in a memory card as well but that would be very un-Nintendo.

I still prefer physical switch

I don’t think it is necessary, the reason Sony and Microsoft do it is because the Blu-ray player is expensive. The switch doesn’t have that.

They should just stop being greedy and release a console with more than 32GB storage. How about that?

....... and another thing. I don't really collect stuff. I'll rent a DVD or stream a movie. I'll download a book to my reader. But they are relatively low cost items. I new digital game can cost £50 and that is not a low cost item.

Most games I would never 100% just to squeeze every penny of value out of my £50.

Most physical games can be picked on release date 5 to 10% cheaper. It will have 40% plus resale value. I get a box and some cover art and a memord card. And if I do keep it, it's mine for as long as I have the relevant console to play it on.

Take the new Paper Mario £50 from the eshop. £45 physical. When I resell it I will get back at least £20. So the cost to me to play the game is £25. Half the price of digital.

I reasonable compromise price for a new digital download should be £35.

Nintendo should NEVER create any Digital Only machines.
I voted NO for digital only machines.
Just take a look at PSP GO's case.
Digital Only = Happy Right Now, Unhappy Tomorrow.
With Physical media = Happily Every After.
Let's Go Physical !
#letsgophysical 🤟

Given that Nintendo almost never reduce the prices of their core first party games, this would pretty much stop me buying Nintendo consoles entirely.

@zool "It will have 40% plus resale value" you can't make that claim because there are enough games that end up way under that (and in very rare cases above it, but that is for a different reason)

And using a Nintendo made game as a example is kind of cheating as those are the only games that do no apply to the rules I mentioned, Nintendo games re-sale value wise is like comparing re-sale value of any Android phone versus the iPhone.

@Anti-Matter Can't compare PSP Go, people should stop comparing PSP Go because in 2009 the market was VERY different.

@AirElephant "Moving from 32GB--at the time--to any other size would have mandated a higher base price."

If Nintendo wanted to keep the same profit yes, but even in 2017 32gb flash memory was dirt cheap.

I don't blame them, but I just want to clarify why they did it.

No! I would also like multiple sd slots with hot swap ability. Swap without turning off the switch.

@Nintendofan83

I'm sure this won't get read by the original author, but the sentiment that "Nintendo is too cheap" to include additional memory is false. CONSUMERS pay the price in either case. Including additional storage up-front increases the base price of the unit. Nintendo wanted a system it could sell for $299. Moving from 32GB--at the time--to any other size would have mandated a higher base price. Consumers are extremely cost-conscious and there is a lot of research to determine the cut-off point.

I regularly read Arstechnica and I can't tell you how many times I've heard readers complain about the lack of expandable storage on phones. People love expansion options for portable devices. IMO, the use of external SD cards--many of which can be bought on discount at any given time--makes for a vastly more flexible system than fixing a 128GB+ drive in the hardware.

The Switch is well-designed. If I'm going to pay for memory either way, I'd rather choose when and where I can do so.

I would never want to abandon physical cartridges. Love having them. Growing up with NES and having my boxes and cool instruction booklets, I yearn for those days.
Also, as I do sell games here and there, I like having the option to recoup some money on games I don’t want to keep after beating them... and buying games used that I wasn’t too keen to purchase at full price.

I voted NO to send Nintendo a message (I assume this goes straight to Nintendo’s R&D department?!), although I don’t care if they’d make one, but worry it leads to them eventually abandoning physical.

I'd rather have a no screen, no battery cheaper unit

I can't lick the digital games. Licking the console just isn't the same.

@Corleonis88 Wire it straight to your noggin then? I like your style!

@Corleonis88 they could go the PS TV route Sony did, bring out a non handheld Switch and make it cheaper, the dock, screen, speakers, battery and few other stuff could be dropped then and a TV only Switch would be a fine thing for some (just like the Switch Lite is for on the go gamers)

But if Nintendo does that they must do 2 things (and it's a MUST) and that is keeping the regular hybrid Switch on the market and the "TV only" model needs a ethernet port because wifi is not enough then.

@Nintendofan83 Well said. It IS sad that Nintendo makes a profit from peripherals, their first-party games, the third-party games, and also from their online subscription service. And yet....they refuse to sell the Switch at a loss.

Im sure they could have included at least 64GB (and other small tweaks) at a minimal console loss, and this wouldn't have hurt them at all.

But nope......gotta keep those investors extra happy, right? Screw the consumer.

I think they will eventually make one but the issue is that it won't lower the cost of the device enough for people to see the need to get it. As others have noted, the cost of extra storage will increase the cost of the device. As for stores being turned off like the Wii eShop, I don't foresee that happening. Nintendo is going to stick with this architecture for a while and (IMO) they will just have one shop going forward where you can buy games compatible with the original Switch or those compatible with Switch Pro, etc.

both sony and microsoft run games like a pc, so instal a game anyways, makes sense to go digital.

nintendo uses cardridge format, which doesnt need to instal the game as it is on the card.

No because compared to Playstation and Xbox, Nintendo is absolute ass at digital. Their sales are pathetic compared to the other platform holders.

I'm digital-only but the added cost of the cartridge drive is minimal. So where's the upside?

@rosemo in theory Nintendo sells the Switch after 3+ years for the same price as at launch.

They could easily bring out a 128gb model and have enough profit.

@MrMetroid fact and that is why I voted NO

@JamesR it's not that simple already mentioned that

@TimeGuy @Rayquaza2510
I was thinking of the Long Term progress from every machines.
Thinking about 10 years from now, if i buy digital only machines when at the same time the eshop service has been terminated, what should i do with the machines?
The machine will be unable to get any digital games, in result it will be a junk since no games i can play.

@sketchturner Eh? I have both a Switch and PS4, and their system for Primary consoles are almost identical.

So the one thing people may be missing with this, is that while the actual cost of removing the cartridge slot is minimal, the increased profitability gained from every future game purchase being digital is a viable long-term strategy.

They could feasible charge £50 less than the original system and make that back after only a couple game purchases and a year of NSO.

They should release a switch with 2 cartridge slots

Sure, why not have a digital only? Most games are only half on cart anyway, completely undermining the point of physical. SD card storage is preferable for me because it makes it easy to transfer my games between systems and I control how much storage I actually need. That's worth the added cost for me. The real problem is when/if the authorization/account system changes and I'm not able to authorize my games on a new system. That's the only long-term problem I need solved for digital to be strictly better than physical for me.

Edit: Hey, I got comment #123! That's a chat position you can count on!

They can as a cheaper option, but then isn't that what the Lite is for?

As a few have said, digital only works on PlayStation and Xbox because they have well supported, consumer friendly online accounts that allow sharing within families and can be used on multiple machines without issue.

Nintendo have none of those account features. I am mostly digital myself, and I would ordinarily be an advocate for digital media. But with regard to Nintendo? They need to sort out their account system and consumer policies first. Nintendo get a massive pass for some reason- it’s like people don’t want to call them out or else they’ll get called mean.

@electrolite77 There are ways to make money without screwing people over, but companies hardly care about fairness, unfortunately.

The Switch already has all the benefits of a digital-only console. It doesn't have a disk drive.
The existing cartridge slot is small enough and non-intrusive, that removing it would not serve any benefits.
It's different for disk-based systems, where yeah there's a better benefit to just having it digital.

@fanacube57 In my opinion: physical is greater than digital which is much much greater than streaming.

"Switch titles that currently have no digital option, such as Nintendo's Labo range and Ring Fit Adventure."

There are actually digital copies for these, though they're not going to be easy to get outside Japan. Nintendo Japan's online store sells copies with the cart replaced with a download code.
Their stated filesizes: Variety Kit: 1.2GB, Robot Kit: 1.2GB, Drive Kit: 1.5GB, VR Kit: 3.4GB, Ring Fit: 2.8GB

As for the actual question, I'd be against it as I do prefer physical copies wherever possible.

Please Nintendo, never, not in 100 years, not in 1000 years.

There's room on the market for it, they might as well.

However, if they go digital only, they REALLY need to have a very easy and customer friendly refund process like Steam.

They also need USER REVIEWS.

EDIT: I find it funny that so many people feel that Nintendo releasing a digital only version of the Switch will somehow negate physical copies of games, this generation.

Considering the size of the cartridges I don't see why this is necessary. What's the benefit?

Since the Switch doesn’t have a disc drive, it doesn’t really matter to me. I ignore the card slot and I use my Switch as a 100% digital machine already.

@HexagonSun It already happened with the PSP, which had both a physical and digital-only version.

Hang on as much as you want, but bracing yourself for a digital only future is better than stubbornly resisting change.

Besides, as heavy as digital is for music, there are still people that publish physical albums, including vinyl. I think we'll be fine.

Okay, here is my take. I have been all digital on Sony for over 10 years. I have yet to lose access to a game other than the small shift from PS3 to PS4. But I still could buy a PS3 today and download my old games if I wanted. Sony has a great grasp on their digital domain and if the PS5 allows those games to come over, which I think they are going to, then we have another entire generation to carry over to. However, Nintendo has rebuilt their online shop every generation which is terrible. I am all digital on my Switch, but I only use it for their exclusive games so I am not really worried about holding games long term anyhow. But Nintendo just isn't good at this, but I do feel they may be learning as buying a new Switch now you can just log in and re-download your games, saves of course not included as some don't support cloud (which is dumb as hell). So, an all digital version would be cool as I never plan to buy another physical game ever, but with Nintendo I just don't think they will ever do it as they know too many of their fans also like physical.

No. And not because I have something against digital. No because it doesn’t make sense. Digital only helps disc based consoles keep cost down with less moving parts. How much does it cost to add pin contacts for a cartridge? Not enough to matter. And the digital only version would need more onboard storage included, which actually does increase cost by a good margin. No one is going to want to pay more for a digital only system.

@grewupnintendo You could go back and download old PlayStation games you already bought. If you didn’t already buy the game in the past, thats another story. Many PS3 digital games are delisted

@Tedikuma It's only a benefit to the corporation, as it would give them total control of their distribution methods.

It would be especially corrupt for Nintendo to go all digital, because they don't offer a good refund policy for their eShop, don't offer user reviews, and they have a history of stopping support for older eShops so money you spend on their digital goods is now forfeit. You can't buy or even download your Wii games that you purchased on their store. Some of those are gone forever, unless, you emulate.

Steam does digital the best. Great refund policy, super easy store navigation, they have (generally) decent user reviews. Best of all, if you buy a game and it's license expires, you can still download it as long as it's in your purchase history. Transformers - Devastation, is an example of that.

@Tim_Vreeland Considering how many companies keep cheaping out on physical Switch games, like when Capcom split up MMX collection to nickle and dime the consumer, or how you'll buy a physical game just to get a download code, I would argue that there is some cost there worth cutting. Companies are always trying to minimize cost and maximize profit. Digital would be the best thing for the corporations and the worse thing for consumers.

"Should Nintendo Release A Digital-Only Switch?"

No. It's have only 32GB inside...I'll never gonna buy a digital only console.

@Nintendofan83 Exactly this, good take.

@Anti-Matter I understand, hoewever a lot of games have day one or regular patches, that would mean those downloadable patches are gone too.

That in the end means that your physical games is broken or not complete, and sure you still have the game then but get my point here, a broken game is no better than no game.

Even while I don't like the idea of digital only (aside from PC) consoles, games are consumable media like movies and music and companies want to earn more money too, so in the end Nintendo will go the digital route anyhow even while I prefer not.

That means that day you have 2 options, go digital or stop gaming forever and I know few people that went that route because PC market is digital only nowdays, however in comparsion to consoles you still have options to for example back-up your games on PC (in legal and less legal ways) or go with the services like GOG.

But with consoles you need to trust that they will still provide access to your digital games, and in all honesty on that regard I only trust Sony and Microsoft because Nintendo is too stupid and stubborn for that.

(edit)

@GamingFan4Lyf like I already said earlier, Nintendo makes more profit on the Switch now than at launch, and even then they could easily put more storage in that thing and keep the price same.

Also removing the cartridge slot could save them a lot of money in the end like I already explained in a different comment, and knowing Nintendo they would not even lower the price if they removed that slot.

I mean the Switch is essentially the same price now, while manufacturing one is way cheaper than 3 years back, they just like the extra profit like most companies do and in comparsion to Sony and Microsoft than won't mind to sell a system at a small loss to make more money than ever later, Nintendo does not.

I am not saying they should sell the Switch at a loss, but even with the cartridge slot they could put out a 128gb model and still earn more profit than when the Switch launched, we are talking here about a company that sold 3DS for years with a 4GB memory card while later on 16gb cards were dirt cheap even for consumers.

I said no.

Really what for?!

I am sure the card reader inside doesn't add much cost or add bulk to the system - and besides, Nintendo would need to add more internal storage (or sell it with like a 256GB min-SD card already inserted) which might mean it sells at a higher price for the cost of increased storage/additional SD card.

Microsoft and Sony can actually lower the price/reduce form factor by selling "All-Digital" editions. There is an advantage there.

What I don't like is how when we're fully digital the only competition in pricing is the three main stores. No physical sales means platform holders are able to price games themselves.

Also who doesn't love having a physical collection? I'm not going to lie I hate changing cartridges. But I understand my consoles last longer than the generation.

Digital only and digital stores dying only makes me feel justified in wanting to hack my system and keep the games I bought forever.

@Tim_Vreeland I have never not been able to re download a game even after delisting from Sony. This is also going back to PS3 and PSP. So digital is pretty safe as long as the store remains up, but as I stated that is something that Nintendo keeps doing is taking their store offline each generation. I know eventually PS3 and PSP/PSone games may not be available anymore, but who knows.

@Rayquaza2510
The day they start digital only option = the day i Quit from modern gaming.
No Physical = NO PLAY
I will keep playing with my previous games that i have collected, pretending the digital only devices are never been exist.

@GameOtaku Well, that's because you're buying games 🤪, haha. We just need to stop buying games with 3D graphics 😉. I'm kidding. You're right, though. I'm just realizing now, I have space on my 400 GB card because I've bought a bunch of physical.

Yeah, this whole deal with expensive/limited sd card space, and the expensive/limited game card capacities, is a real drag on the the Switch's potential. It seems like sd cards & game card costs are never going to become as affordable as people want until after Nintendo's next gen console comes out.

Carts are fine. I think discs in the AAA space are pretty worthless these days. So, no I don't think Nintendo should go digital. And some AAA companies need a kick up the arse as to what constitutes a physical release!

@grewupnintendo which game was it? Because under normal circumstances when you buy a game you can re-download it after being delisted.

@Anti-Matter that is up to you, but understand that it doesn't make any sense.

And I am saying that as a physical collector myself.

@GrailUK you know what I hate more than half game on cartridge with the Switch? Code in a box, because why would I go to a store to buy code in a box when buying digital is same.

Waste of resources.

@WoomyNNYes "game card costs are never going to become as affordable as people want until after Nintendo's next gen console comes out."

From my understanding Nintendo doesn't want to make them cheaper, it reminds me of Sony and PS Vita memory cards which even 5 years after that system was released the memory cards were still bloody expensive.

Actually you do not own the physical as well, They to are licenses as well....

@electrolite77 Let me break it down, to elaborate. People are happy with the product overall, yes; it still delivers a great experience.

But theres no denying that certain areas of the product are severely and needlessly underwhelming and undercooked, to the point most consumers practically had no choice but to upgrade for an additional cost/burden almost immediately.

The overall product is fine, but certain areas of the product are, without question, screwing you over. Not drastically so, but that still stands.

Most of my games are digital, but physical is still very popular. The special edition of BOTW came with a cart, not a code.

I honestly think they should. Sure, it may not be for me, but there are people out there that would get enjoyment out of a digital only Nintendo Switch, especially at a reduced price point. More options seems like a good thing to me.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo

All my digital games have been downloaded to a memory card, which means they're all physical now.
It's a miracle!

@Rayquaza2510 back before switch was released, Nintendo said something along the lines of how switch wouldn’t be backwards compatible and would be starting from “0”. I take that to mean that switch is the future for Nintendo like iPads are. And even though we just got a new one, it still plays plants vs zombies 1 which has been a staple for our family, so I hope that Nintendo has learned a few things from these other companies too.

If it comes with a 1tb system memory yea. But anything less than 264 would be insufficient

I'd get a digital only switch, if it were smaller, and more premium feel, a bit like pspgo. If it fitted in my pocket due to removal of the cartridge slot, and there was a refresh of the hardware, making it work better, I'd be ok with it. At present, I buy big microsd cards, so I'd expect to have to buy storage media. I wouldn't get rid of my old switch though, so I could have options.

I can't see why not. I own around 40 digital games and 2 cartridges (Zelda as my first game and Yugioh since it had a release discount.)

@Kirgo Two people can definitely play at the same time. You can even play against each other online. The only the thing you can't do is play via two switches locally.

Pretty sure you can play on infinite switches if you disconnect wifi once its loaded. Havent been able to test this though as I only have two.

@Rayquaza2510 Oh I have never had a game not be available unless the whole eshop was down itself. I think the only game I am aware of was P.T. for PS4, and that was just a demo. But usually all past games have been okay to just re-download. But again, only if the actual shop is open which is what worries me with Nintendo as they take theirs down each generation (and this may stop with Switch, who knows).

It's almost no drawbacks for a Switch "digital variant" since it would have a "physical variant" too. You can say it would slightly effect the line of production, but the real negative impact of have variants is very near to none.

That said, there are completely different situations (Xbox/PlayStation and Switch): the optical discs readers are much bigger and much expensive than the Switch card reader, I'm not sure how much it would help a cost drop. And in that case, there would be almost no excuse to such low amount of storage, and it probably much more expensive than the card reader

@sketchturner no it doesn't apply to Physical. No matter what happens you'll always be able to go offline and play the 1.0 version of a game. When the eShop servers shut down and you get a corrupted sd card, you'll be SOL with playing your digital library. Yes I know Physical games can break, but they're not all reliant on one SD Card (which are known to corrupt fairly often especially after years and years of usage).

Sony and Microsoft would say that. Their consoles are ridiculous as you need the same hard drive space for every game whether you have the disc or not. Every game needs installing off the disc with disc reduced to a mere boot tool. Game carts are the game and therefore don’t need masses of expensive system storage to play. This is and always will be the massive benefit of cartridges. That and loading times still makes Sony and Microsoft look a joke.

I would say yes IF they increased the memory from the piddly 32gb to something more like 500gb

It’s because Sony and Microsoft are both idiots! Of course they want that it could cut their costs down so they can keep charging what they want. Why are games on the shops priced the same price as a physical copy that comes with the physical media, cover and case? Digital games should at least cost $20 - $30 dollars cheaper. Some people are ok about wasting their money and never owning a product I like that 10 years down the road I will still be able to play all my games on my system without losing the rights and never having it.

Extremely well put and hard-to-argue points for an all-digital world. And frankly I’m on board up to the part where you lose the game once the “shop” shutters. I like having it digital and ready to go on demand but when you start thinking about losing your purchase someday it gets real gloomy, real quick.
Maybe someday they’ll find a way to get digital manuals integrated right into the game‘a menu or the system menu. I’m referring to something like what was done on 3DS, but with a more interactive approach. Like a PDF scan kind of think with tap-able/clickable links and a 3D gallery to spin the Digital game box around. Like if you could have a digital room with all your games and you can pick them up and view them Shenmue style. Achievements can be things like posters you can hang up or stickers or whatever. And you can visit other people’s rooms.
Wow this is getting out of hand, sorry for trailing off!

@andjahiam Well I have no credit card and zero access to a video game store or any store that sells eShop cards year-round so it's a must for me, that said I do find good games at yard sales every now-and-then so I wouldn't want a digital only console unless...

A: It is FAR cheaper than the standard model.
And
B: It has sufficient space for a large library of AAA downloads.

@Rayquaza2510 I have traded or resold dozens of games and yes 40% is a low figure. Buy a game at release, play it and sell it and 50 % is normal. And not just Nintendo games.

@Jokerwolf Yeah, and while we're at it, what's with movie theatres making me buy a ticket for me AND my date? definitely time to burn the capitalists </s>

Went all digital already. I have a 400gb card that doesn’t require me to juggle physical media. I have enough to manage working full time, with a 2 year old and house. I rebought physical cards when they went on sale digitally just so I don’t have to deal with it.

I’m 100% about consumer choice, never one way or the other. Give us both. Personally also all of the criticisms in the article about a digital-only future are concerns I share. I like getting some games digitally for the sheer convenience (I’m thinking about Animal Crossing here....pop in real quick and do my daily tasks & then go play something else) without having to change my cartridge but there are some games I may want to trade in some day or some games that are too massive for the internal storage or some games that both my husband and I want to play but don’t want to buy two copies of. There’s far more benefits to physical media than drawbacks so I think a mix of both is the best of both worlds and satisfies the most number of people. Not to mention all of the jobs that would be lost if we completely transitioned to digital-only future. It’s not like western countries are adding any new manufacturing jobs. Some areas, retail is the ONLY option for employment. Digital only takes away those jobs.

If Nintendo ever did, it would need and array of micro SD card slots at the very least, so pretty pointless as you'll still have even smaller cards to deal with.

@amoulton Well the other platforms just do it better, and games here are like close to 100$ after taxes and it is unrealistic to always expect a friend to shell out that just to play multiplayer lol.

NO NO NO...no no no.

It's about options, innit.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I knew for sure that people’s 3DS/Wii U eShop purchases were safe.

The thing i hate the most about Switch and Switch Lite is the screen. If any of them had an OLED screen I'd be over the moon. A digital Switch is somewhat stupid because the card reader is small and cheap unlike a disc reader.

I was a huge fan of physical media, but the cartridge implementation on Switch left a bad taste in my mouth.

....

...........

Seriously, though, I'm intrigued by the digital-only next gen boxes. If they come in substantially cheaper to encourage digital migration I might bite. I almost entirely buy digitally now on PS/XB mostly because of the big sales and the ability to "game share" with someone else's console, means I have to buy 1 copy of most games rather than 2 and saves me in the long term (hopefully that continues next gen.) If it's "save $40 to give up an entire sales channel" count me out. Take $100, 150 off the price for shaving off a $15 drive and we'll talk. Though storage is going to be problematic with these new consoles. They're making game sizes bigger than ever and shrinking storage to use SSDs. Not a good combination in a digital only world.

Switch has that problem ten-fold. Physical media is essential to manage storage, where its only option is small, expensive storage for otherwise very large installations. When a large digital library requires a storage medium that costs more than the console itself and is still inadequate, digital only really isn't much of an option until some new leap in mobile storage happens. Even Apple and the camera industry aren't getting close to that.

@DarthFoxMcCloud But all those former retail workers can just retrain for better paying jobs as systems analysts and virologists! It'll be so much better for them! /sarc

Anti-consumer practices at their finest. It's just a sneaky way for them to sell an inferior product (a game that you have to store yourself on your own SD card, with no resale value) at the same price, and a way to cut down on used game sales. It's a dangerous step toward digital being mandatory.

I would be fine with an all digital one. I'm mostly digital. Have a 1tb micro SD card in my switch. A handful of physical. Digital is convenient on the Switch. I once had my switch lost and it had 6 Nintendo games physically in the case. Those games are still 60 to this day. Tho I had a bunch of digital that I was able to get back at no extra cost other than buying a new switch.

I don't buy that that it would be cheaper to go digital only. How much does sticking a cartridge slot in actually cost?

You also really need to increase the flash memory on the console if you are expecting people to go digital only so any remote saving would be negated by that.

I'm sure it will appeal to some people and that's great, but I don't really care. I'm physical wherever possible.

Nintendo are absolutely useless with digital and online services. I have no faith in them.

The digital future with Nintendo is only scary because they don't really know what they're doing with how to handle digital aspects.

Stuff like Labo and Ring Fit wouldn't be affected in the all digital near-future. All you do is buy the physical accessory and it has a download code inside for the actual software.
Digital only majoryt is coming (there will always be a niche market for the physical), no matter how much people complain and fight against it. It's wasted energy and the paltry loss of sales from the few who would actually stick to giving up new games due to it would be so insignificant as to not even warrant a blip on the radar.

@Jokerwolf
I completely agree that the way Microsoft does it is great and better than Nintendos solution.
But you wrote: "Only if they do family sharing like xbox so I don't have to buy the same ***** game for everyone in my family." under a news about a possible digital-only Switch,
suggesting that this is not a problem with physical games.
The way Nintendo game sharing works has no disadvantage to physical games though.

Whether Nintendos solution is good or not is, of course, subjective, but as long as it does not have any disadvantages to the lending of physical games, that I am used to, I am personally just fine with that.

I would seriously think buying digital version of ps or xbox cause their media is CD and its not durable (not many people buy second hand CDs either)
But I definitely don't want nintendo to give up cartridges, they are lot lot more durable and resellable/reusable.

So even if nintendo releases digital only version I would prefer to buy other one with cartridge slot.

BTW Nintendo should definitely upgrade storage in Switch 2. At least to 128/256 GB.

That's a huge no from me. Their online store and their whole relationship with the digital age is far too behind everyone else to make it viable. Its also likely the console wouldn't lose much in price just for that. A disc drive is much more expensive than just a cartridge slot.
Their price fixing would also deter me big time.

Nope I would never support a console that is only through digital, that's why I didn't bother with the PS5: Digital Edition, Xbox One S: Digital Edition, Ouya, OnLive, Stadia, Steam Machines, Apple Fire TV, Atari VCS, Intellivision Amico, and PSP Go. I was never a fan of disc based stuff either so it make sense for Sony and Microsoft to go digital if they could but Nintendo needs to stay physical and just had digital as an option. What they could do is had triple A games be physical and indie and retro games as digital, that would work best since indie and retro are smaller in size they work best through digital. Also Nintendo needs to learn to add a refund policy, a cart system, a star system, and better marketing ads on their storefront. The place had a lot of cool and lame stuffs but feels dead and boring unlike the 3DS, Wii, and Wii U Online shop.

My Switch and PS4 is already Digital only. Haven’t bought physical media (books, comics, music, games) in over 6 years. Just clutters the house. All digital is superior for my life.

This is very simple. Removing a DVD/Blu-ray drive from a console greatly reduces cost, size, power use and complexity.

Removing a small cartridge slot does not. It might save a few dollars. Maybe.

That's about it.

i don't really care if Nintendo does do it. i'll probably won't buy one though.

I don't trust Nintendo even a tenth as much as Microsoft or Sony with keeping their digital stores alive in the future. Nintendo are the only reason why I haven't gone 100% digital yet.

Why do they need a digital only console? If you don’t want to use cartridges, you don’t have to use cartridges.

You can basically go all-digital on the current Switch, especially with the rise of high capacity Micro SDs.

The cartridge slot isn’t doing anyone any harm, you’re not forced to use it and it likely wouldn’t be much cheaper if they removed it either.

Pointless.

@graysoncharles Yeh I know. When I said it's all about choices I meant it's always good to have both options on ANY machine. Also where it makes a bit of sense for PS5 because of the bulk of optical drives, removing the cart-slot on a Switch isn't going to have a significant saving on weight or cost – you just have less ways to play games/get bargains. I just can't see a good reason for the consumer. Digital only is/would be all about Sony/Nintendo having more control over their own markets and what you have to pay - it is NOT in the players interest at all. It's a way of locking in a system. It also destroys the resale market. It's a greedy idea/move by any company that does it - and I think we should not support the tread.

No, the Switch has nowhere near enough internal memory for digital only to be feasible. Also increasing the internal memory to a reasonable amount would make the digital only Switch a lot more expensive than the normal Switch hence rendering the entire point of a digital only Switch absolutely pointless.

No that's trash idea

I have one word for you Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Yes, no need for physical media.

The Switch cartridge slot is tiny, compared to the disc slots of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. I honestly don't see any benefit from removing a component that doesn't take up much space on the console.

The only time I buy physical now is if there’s a special edition that looks really nice, and even then I prefer not to use the cart. Axe that thing and put in a 1 TB NVME drive to usher us into our glorious anarchy!

Absolutely not! What a horrible idea!

The obvious difference between the PS5, XBox and Switch is that the other two are removing a disk drive which presumably is saving a pretty good chunk of change. The cartridge slot is not nearly as much of a hassle or cost for Nintendo. Why remove it?

It is a little funny though, cause from a consumer level, why would you not want the disk drive on a console that just sits there?

Physical media for games is dying and on the way out, so I think they should eventually make an all digital console.

I only buy physical. No interest in a digital only future. That ship has sailed (and sunk) long ago.

@graysoncharles the issue is what are you saving by losing the card? Switch Lite was different in that Nintendo was able to cut $100. There is no way they’d be saving any significant amount of money by ditching the card slot so what would be the point. Isn’t going to make it any better at all. It would be a move that would be anti-consumer.

@brunojenso exactly. I find it even crazier anyone would want an all digital console that just sits there. Why would you not want options. I guess if the price was worth the trade off, but companies aren’t really saving much by removing a disc drive.

@graysoncharles I am not really reacting at all. Just answering the question. I think it is a terrible idea. Also I agree, no eshop refunds and the joycon drift issue is also anti-consumer. Really I don’t care if Nintendo releases an all digital system, I just don’t think they will. what would the point be? It wouldn’t make the system any less expensive. That card slot costs them pennies to the dollars.

Until they make a 512gb internal storage making only Digital is akin to Foot in Mouth disease. 32gb isn't going to help with storage or downloads and a lack of sd card capacity also won't help as a 1tb or 2tb if you can find it cost as much as a Switch. Also Digital only will more or less kill any follower from buying more. They bought the Switch for a reason and it wasn't a Digital reason. So for those wanting Digital they clearly have missed the reason why the Switch is a success. It gives the user options and those that want Digital get happy with your Digital and those wanting both worlds will go Digital and Physical(like me) I want my choice not some choicing for me.

I’m a dude that has not been blessed with acrylic almond nails and therefore that damn game cart cover is every reason I sold all of my physical switch games.

Honestly, the best digital storefronts are Steam and GOG, but especially GOG. There's no DRM, you can make backups of your old games, if something gets pulled from the store you can still download it if you bought it in the past. I do NOT support Nintendo dumping their online stores every few years and wasting our money.

I couldn't careless if they go digital only, I buy my games digitally because buying physical means damage/missing carts/cd's. Plus I don't need to carry a bag on me in case I want to play multiple games on the go. The switch is the first main system I bought from Nintendo since the n64, everything I play from them is handheld only.

This make no impact on final price...
It is unnecessary and would still miss an interesting cartridge feature.

@Jokerwolf but. but it is lending it to your friend digitally with the family share function. And also there is nothing greedy in expecting multiple people to pay for access to a product that cost a lot of money to make... Atleast when we are talking about people who don't live under the same roof.

While a physical collector myself, at least for a handheld it would make most sense.
But in my opinion they should figure out a model where you get the digital version for free when purchasing a physical copy. Then you don't have to worry when going on Holiday.

@graysoncharles Yeah, maybe you right – and my original comment was neither mature, or clear what I meant. In theory I have nothing against the idea - and I'm one of the few people who bought a PSP Go - why? because the form factor was significantly smaller without Sony's UMD discs.

But you're missing the concern many of us have - there is an unhealthy trend with digital media where we don't own anything really.

For example, in the Wii era I bought a wonderful little Wiiware title called Lostwinds. I still own a Wii, but Nintendo has 'stolen' any hope I have of playing that game in the present day. It's as if I never paid for it. All those purchases disappeared overnight with a decision from Nintendo. Apple has taken masses of games from the app-store over the years that people have paid significant money for. Sony have made it very difficult to get at your PSP, and even sometimes your Vita download titles. Its a mess of a situation – and it's not good for the consumer. Having a small cart-slot on our massive Switch units (yes even the lite is a very large handheld) is neither here-nor-there from a size POV – but it helps the buyer retain some small measure of control over the whims of the parent company.
Really these companies should give you a download copy to keep for when the eStores go down.

So I just have concerns. And regarding dock-less Switches - nobody in their right mind wouldn't like the lite to at least have the OPTION to dock using an adaptor of some sort. I mostly love my lite - but the Big N made a terrible decision there.

Anyway - if Nintendo came up with an ADE that was about the size of an original GBA - then it has a reason-to-exist - and I hope you get whatever design you want.

As a fan of physical media, I think a physical only version would be good!! With every Indy game on the e-store instead being released in collection volumes. So many games could be lost to time in a digital only future.

When the day inevitably comes that all new consoles are digital only, I can see myself becoming retro only.......sad times

I want them to release a stronger version of the Switch that is a dedicated console, no handheld mode. And as for digital-only game consoles... No thanks. Consoles come and go...and so do their online servers. If that happens, im going to stop buying/playing new games. Plenty of games from the Atari2600 to the Nintendo Switch and everything in between to keep me entertained for the rest of my days.

@Oddball83 well said couldn’t agree more

@Switch64 Not entirely sad, imo. With the quality of gameplay in most modern mainstream games being as underwhelming as it is, I wont miss it. I'm pretty sure the Switch will be the last Console I invest in. It has a ton of great games both modern, retro and retro-modern. I have zero interest in the next generation of consoles.. unless Nintendo releases something worthwhile with physical games. Sony can keep their PS5, i havent owned a sony console since ps2... their last worthwhile console.

Sony and Microsoft also thought it was a brilliant idea to launch PS3 and 360 as two differently priced SKUs, and that was a disaster.

Nintendo copied it five years later and it was a disaster again.

Let's not assume Sony and Microsoft know something Nintendo doesn't, just because they're on to the same idea.

@graysoncharles A card reader doesn't make the console more expensive and that's what I said.

Switch’s cartridge reader costs $6 in retail and takes roughly the same amount of space as an SD card. Not to mention that with time, those cards will be getting cheaper. What would be the point of getting rid it of it? In fact, what I’d love to see is quite the opposite. I’d like Nintendo to have an option to transfer all my digital purchases to carts (for an extra charge of course). And if Nintendo released a dock with extra cart slots, I’d be in heaven.

Switch Go is a good name for it

@Gigagash It is getting easier and easier to make games as the tools to do so get better all the time. The great lie we are all fed is that games have to be expensive.

@Krzysztof Backing up to cart for the inevitable future when the eshop is closed is a great idea. I'd settle for being able to authorize my digital games from the SD card. Or, you know, when the eshop closes if they could just remove the need entirely and make digital games fully and easily transferrable that'd be great. It'll never happen, but it'd be great.

I've been burned by digital purchases. I installed custom firmware on my PS3 and my account was banned resulting in me losing hundreds of dollars in purchases I can no longer download. My original Nintendo Switch was also banned and i could no longer access the eShop. One can argue that I should purchase a second console if I'm going to install custom firmware, but its the principal of the matter. You can be easily locked out from purchases made with real money.

It is a bit strange that digital-only for PC and mobile isn't a problem and people have made the switch to digital for music and movies, but the thought of console games not being physical is a huge topic.

Nevertheless, I voted no, because I don't think the Switch should have a digital-only model.

There is no point this generation.

But what they can do is, start announcing some new games.

Mine has been digital-only since I got it.

They should not force everyone to do digital only, but for people like me that would like it they should take the money they put into the cartridge reader and put it into more internal storage

It may have already been said, but I don't have the time to read through 245 comments to find previous references:
1. Don't give them stupid ideas! Just because Sony and MS do things, doesn't mean Nintendo have to copy them.
2. As someone pointed out (I did read the first couple of comments ) there isn't enough base storage, so any price saving gained by removing the card reader would be eaten in to, like Pac Man munching pills, by the cost of the additional storage. 3. In case it isn't obvious from the above, I really don't want Ninty to go the route of digital only. I like having the choice and knowing that if I want to sell the game once finished with, I can...

I don't think it's a bad idea, but I don't really care, I wouldn't buy it, I like physical games. As long as Nintendo doesn't start forcing people to buy digital for major releases I won't complain.

No, not until it comes with 1TB of Internal Storage.

I went with "I'm not sure". It's DEFINITELY not what I'd prefer, but if others want that... As long as that doesn't switch (snap!) the entire market to digital-only, it could be a worthy experiment, maybe even exactly what is needed to see that it's NOT the future of gaming, who knows?
I still like to be able to buy used games and sell the ones I don't want to keep, or trade with a friend, or borrow a game. I know that's exactly what the industry doesn't want us to be able to do. I may have stopped collecting games like I used to (to an insane level), but I still like beautiful box art, a nice illustrated manual (crickets...), and the taste of a fresh cartridge... Well, that last one not really. Sadly, one of "my" dogs didn't seem to bother when chewing on my Witcher 3 cartridge -which DID come in a nice box with some extra's- the day after I finally decided to get it in a rare chance to buy it for just over half of the usual retail price. And I may feel like a rich person, my financial status wouldn't be considered "rich" by any means, by any capitalist. It's actually below what they consider "poverty", which they claim doesn't exist here.

I would say no. The reason being that the card reader of the switch should be relatively cheap for Nintendo, way cheaper than a disc drive.

Sure I guess, I would ever buy a digital only Switch, but if there's a market for it, go for it.

The disc-less PS5 is clearly the main design. The disc drive looks awkwardly added on.

Physical media is becoming a huge bottle neck for gaming, and that's only going to get worse as SSD takes over. I don't think there will be any disc drive options for the PS6 and 5th gen of Xbox.

Nintendo will take longer as usual, but they'll go the same way eventually.

Would the extra storage needed not make the console more expensive than just having a cartridge slot?

Problem that Sony and Microsoft never understand is all digital never works because retailers won't support it. Nintendo knows this 1000%. I work at a video game retailer and we have never carried the digital only xbox one. The PSP go was sonys first attempt and it failed miserably. Retailers will never endorse or push customers to a one and done sku especially considering retailers make little to nothing selling a console on it's own ($15.00 tops). That's why nes and SNES classics are not a big deal to game stores cause once you buy one we never see you again. It would be the same with an all digital switch. The switch lite at least let's retailers still sell games and carry cases

My two cents: Discs and Carts are two very different things. For discs, while they are cheap to print, they host a long loading time, take up space in the console, and to the drive itself is somewhat pricey. In comparison, while carts are individually expensive, they take up little room in a console, have ridiculously good loading times (compared to discs) and are relatively inexpensive to include in a system. It actually wouldn't make much of a difference price wise, especially considering increased storage, and an SD slot would be a must for the Dwitch.

If I had known how difficult Nintendo makes it for my child to get and play games digitally before I bought the Switch Lite, I would have saved over $300 (Coronavirus prices) and just had the Switch that I ended up paying $400 for. After speaking with tech support, the digital market leaves lots to be desired if one has children that want to be playing on Their account on your backup system ( to include demos to see if they would play the game).
If I can set downtimes, why can't I buy games with my credit card without having to have my personal information on my children's accounts? At least they're not teens yet, but I can't be the only disappointed parent/grandparent out there.
Going totally digital would be horrible with the limit of how many in my family (mostly just me) can be on at a time just because they happen to be minors.

@Nintendofan83 - Only if you go with the idea that a system must be able to house one's entire library without using expandable storage; such an idea might make for a nice convenience, but calling it a necessity is a bit much, especially given most gamers aren't likely to be playing more than 4 or 5 titles at once (not to mention Micro SD cards aren't really that expensive).

As for the poll topic, personally, I initially voted undecided, but after thinking on it, I can't really see the benefit of cutting out an option like this. The only way it'd make sense is if gaming was going down this route anyway, and there's no longer a good reason to keep the feature available. Otherwise, why not just keep both options available?

Yes if it’s the pro version and that means they will port Xenoblade Chronicles X. It would also need to be able to transfer all my games.

No, I love to plug & play my cartridges. Better to download bugfixes & expansions only.
Also, if there is an revesion, I'd rather a more consistent 60fps in either 1080p/1440p than 4k at an inconsistent 30fps.

I don't much see the purpose. Removing the card reader would have little influence on price and it would have even less impact on the size and weight of the console. And then of course there's two possibilities for an all digital Switch. It's MORE expensive than a normal Switch because Nintendo seriously ups the internal storage, or people just need to factor in spending and additional $70 do make their Switch usable.

Why? Is a card reader that expensive? As a company Ill prefer to give more choices for selling games than fewer.
If they are going to have another console, they should give us more space for digital games AND a card reader.
The only caveat is that people trading games, and selling used games take a piece of the market....

Oh also FYI the whole 'digital only' thing is such a stupid name for a console that doesn't rely on physical media. All video games are digital. We aren't playing any analogue games. The last analogue media were tapes! So digital edition and stuff like that is stupid.

For Sony what they mean is it doesn't have an optical drive, and optical drives are expensive. For Nintendo it would mean not including a cartridge reader, cart readers are cheap! It would make no sense for Nintendo to only allow games to be had by download.

That said, wasting flash memory on carts when they could just as easily download to internal storage or an installed memory card is going to become progressively sillier. The next version of the Switch will probably include another cartridge reader, but after that I suspect we'll be moving to an internet based distribution system for games.

you can get money back when you sell your physical games which is especially essential when Nintendo games usually don't go down to the low prices of PS4 and Xbox one games. Plus nintendo put a laughable 32gb of storage in the switch so I don't see them putting anywhere near the standard 500gb+ in the digital only switch. That would mean the money I save on the console would be spent on memory cards instead so what's the point?

@JSDude1 It's what i said , i don't like to play streaming but download games on my switch isn't a problem for me.

I was surprised that Sony revealed a "Digital only" version of the PS5, seeing as the psp go was a flop. But the times have changed, maybe there's demand now?