Game-Key Cards for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 have been incredibly controversial amongst the community, with more and more third-party studios seemingly opting to utilise the technology instead of including the full game data on the cartridge.
Now, in speaking with GamesIndustry,biz, Nightdive Studios' CEO Stephen Kick has expressed his own opinion on the move, stating that Nintendo embracing Game-Key Cards is "disheartening".
"Seeing Nintendo do this is a little disheartening. You would hope that a company that big, that has such a storied history, would take preservation a little more seriously."
On the flip side, Professor James Newman, co-founder of the Videogame Heritage Society, argues that because games receive so many updates and patches these days, the data stored on the cartridge at launch becomes almost redundant:
"Even when a cartridge does contain data on day one of release, games are so often patched, updated and expanded through downloads that the cart very often loses its connection to the game, and functions more like a physical copy protection dongle for a digital object."
While Kick says that Nintendo's recent moves could be seen as a "step back" in the world of preservation, he is nevertheless optimistic about the work that other studios are doing, citing the popularity of remasters as a potential financial incentive to properly archive development materials.
"I think everybody is definitely putting in way more effort these days to back up their stuff, which is great. It'll make our jobs easier as a studio that primarily focuses on remasters. There won't be that struggle, hopefully, to find source code and assets to create collections and that kind of stuff in the future."
It's a double-edged sword then, seemingly. While not having data on cartridges could certainly be viewed as a blow to game preservation, it's definitely good that more is being done at the source (i.e. the development studios) to preserve their efforts.
Nightdive Studios is responsible for several key remasters on the Switch, including The Thing: Remastered, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, and Killing Time: Resurrected. It will be launching System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster on 26th June 2025.