Pokémon Pokopia Pre-Orders Come With A Free Gift From Pokémon Center

It's game key card for 1st party game. 😒
HELL NO...!

That's fun. I've pre-ordered. Why not
I'm not fully fully sold on the game yet. But they've got a couple of months to do that and I could always cancel

I cannot see how this game justifies a full £60 price point AND has the cheek to come on a Game Key Card.

I would happily order if it was a £35 game, which is what it looks like it is.

I am not against Game Key Cards but it should definitely make the game cheaper. This is not acceptable Nintendo.

They're throwing plushies at you for a reason. Because you shouldn't be buying this.

@Anti-Matter Pokémon !== Nintendo.

Game key card = no buy

It’s that simple.

@AgentGuapo But why?

I am planning on getting this digitally. Or at a hefty discount second hand or something. But I will get this game one way or another. Luckily you can still buy it second hand, even if it is a game key card.

The plushy looks a bit cheap... But I'm happy for those who love it!

Would rather they put the full game on the cartridge and require an install.

A plush for the low, low price of having to insert the card every time you play it and also store the entire game on your own system. Thanks, Pokémon Company!

Whenever I see the comment section under a GKC mention, I almost want to buy it out of spite.

I could also buy the plush on its own and NOT have a game key card game. Win win! 👏

@Res462 what would that benefit over just playing the game directly from the card?

£60 for this, and it's a GKC on top. Nintendo have lost the plot.

It’s too bad they won’t ditto the full game onto a cartridge instead of using a stupid key card. At $70 they can definitely afford to do it.

@acNewUpdates when SW: Outlaws released on GKC, someone from Ubisoft said the read speed of the S2 cartridge wasn't fast enough for the loading and that was why it was on a GKC and not a cartridge.

If that's true, allowing installs from the a cheaper Switch 1 cartridge would reduce the upfront cost and allow for the full game to be put on one.

This release is a GKC release. The reason is some combination of:

TPC cheaping out on the cartridge for an unproven spinoff series.

The game requires the faster read speed of the internal drive (if what the Ubi dev said is true).

The size of the game is so small that someone decided it wasn't worth the upfront cost of the S2 cartridge to put it out that way, so let's use the GKC and maybe as an added benefit we'll push people to the eShop instead of a physical release and make more money.

For the player, the benefit is the full game is still on the cartridge, but like other current consoles, the game is installed so it is better optimized/runs better due to internal drive read speed. Installation might also be faster and wouldn't count against your data cap, if you are in an area where those exist.

Planning on buying this digitally anyway, like Animal Crossing this is something I want to dip in and out of between other games, so download works best for me.

I don't really think the prices should be all that different between versions as its the software I'm buying not the bitter tasting rectangle of red/black plastic. But if they were it should be digital download cheapest, then a jump up to GKC and then a small step to on the card. Because the digital download doesn't require all the manufacturing and materials and storage and transit that both GKC and physical do. And I know the cart is cheaper due to far less storage on it, but on an individual basis it's not that much cheaper. And then if they did do that it would certainly encourage a lot more people to go all digital, which is not what I think the people bemoaning GKCs want.

Hopefully those smaller cards will happen soon which should lessen the use of GKCs, but certainly wont eradicate them as an option.

I'll likely pick this up digitally due to the nature of this game, if my experience with Dragon Quest Builders 2 is anything to go by. It's the type of game I still dive in and out of on occasion. It'll be awhile and either when this is on sale or I can pony up discounts, however.

I really don't know why some people are still pre ordering games. Wait for reviews before giving these companies your money.

@Kiz3000 I agree with you. I remember telling people it was only a matter of time until Nintendo started using Game Key cards and I was attacked for my opinion. They (Nintendo) really want this media to be the standard going forward and it's ridiculous

@ShadLink this isn’t really true

Thats cool but it doesn't come with a real cartridge so hard pass from me.

I'm going to take a shot every time NL inserts something is on GKC even when the information is not relevant to the article.

Oh, Game Key Card? I wasn’t going to buy it, but now I will.

Don’t need the plushie though. It looks like a sock puppet.

***** Pokopia and ***** the strategy of incentivizing this terrible business model. Nintendo deserves to drown this gen for pushing this mode of distribution, and most every type of terrible anti-consumer, anti-preservation, anti-affordability, and subscription transaction they could on us to float their new gen. Terrible leadership.

@IronMan30 Sadly, you'll die of alcohol poisoning.

At this point it would honestly be really funny if TPP / Koei Tecmo (not Nintendo, stop saying that) decide to make this a proper physical at the last second given ININ said that smaller cartridge sizes are becoming a thing. Though given we're only 2 months out, I very much doubt that will happen.

@Viator_ that was my thought, as well. Lol