SillyG

@Vyacheslav333 : Blu-rays are slower than Switch cartridges, and if reduced to mini DVD-like sizes, would be too small for many games (7.5GB for single layer, 15GB for double), and even more so if reduced to a UMD-like size.

Plus, who would want to carry around fragile optical discs over compact and durable cartridges?!

At this rate, we'll only have room for about four major games (if that!) on a 256GB microSD X.

Even digital customers are getting screwed over as they'll have to swap microSDs almost as much as physical customers swap cartridges (in which case, why not just spring for a proper physical copy of larger games, where available), and for those buying anti-physical releases, two cards at once!

This isn't sustainable even in the short-term as customers will quickly be frustrated with having to buy a new microSD X for every few games they buy (and more in households with multiple Switch 2s), and I can't wait to see the bloodbath unfold and third parties change their tune and issue proper physical releases in response to widespread backlash...

We can only hope anyway.

@DiamondJim : They should have refused to sell the key card BS on Sega's behalf out of principle and to maintain some semblance of integrity. Either way, I really hope the Switch 2 versions of all of Sega's releases crash and burn until they issue proper physical releases, even if they need to be US$70 each.

@Bigmanfan : You guys are sounding like broken records. The delays used to be due to LRG waiting for software updates to be ready so that they can be included on the cartridge as well, but people are so impatient that they'd rather have an incomplete cartridge (in which case, why not just buy the digital version in the first place if you're so adamant on playing it ASAP?), and now LRG produce products more quickly at the expense of the overall quality of the product that actually matters (the cartridge).

As of the second half of last year, most games seem to ship within 4 months as opposed to a year-ish, so, for those who've bought anything from them more recently, I don't get the endless complaining. We're paying for a product that hasn't even been manufactured yet. Of course it's going to take a little while.

Super Rare doesn't take orders until they actually have the product on hand, but this also means that their quantities are much more limited as they do not take orders in advance like LRG do.

Meanwhile, I ordered something from Strictly Limited nearly two years ago now and it still hasn't shipped! The longest an LRG had taken to arrive was a little over a year, mainly because the package was lost twice in the mail.

WarioWare: DIY 2 or we riot.

We got people preferring Mario Party 3's European box "art" before GTA VI.

Pokémon Go in person. It's Dynamax Suicune weekend, continuing tomorrow, and we also have Pawmi Community Day tomorrow, hopefully with a less absurd (temporary) evolution requirement than the default of 100 Pawmi Candy + Walk 25km with Pawmo as your buddy.

@HugoGED : I'm also skipping BoTW out of principle as the DLC isn't on the cartridge, which is utterly crazy considering how old the content is, plus the fact that there was a Japanese release with everything on the cartridge for Switch 1, and people who had bought that would have to buy the DLC again to be able to play it if they were to double-dip with the physical Switch 2 release. 🤦🏻‍♂️

@siavm : If this is the quality of third-party "support" we have to look forward to, then third parties can stick it.

They could at least have the decency to release limited initial prints with everything on the cartridge and then issue cheaper codes/keys in reprints, but... 🤷‍♂️

@Bizzyb : Exactly what I was going to suggest.

I don't even like the idea of buying upgrade packs as I'd rather double-dip so that I can actually own a tangible/complete copy of a game, but this... ugh.

😳

celibacy intensifies

Sword/Shield are so much better than the embarrassingly poorly designed (and performing) Scarlet/Violet that it's not even close. Fight me.

S/V was such a tedious, joyless slog that I absolutely dreaded playing the second version.

But Legends Arceus remains the best Pokémon game on Switch by a significant margin, and is easily the best Pokémon game since Gen V.

Does dying loads of times count as individual endings? 😅

The abundance of anti-physical releases have been a real flaming bag of poo on the doorstep of the Switch 2's launch.

Also, why isn't the physical edition of Tamagotchi Plaza getting an international release on Switch 2? Especially considering that almost all of the third party offerings are anti-physical and/or adult-oriented.

@GrailUK : I would still take that over six separate cartridges (and counting!).

Individual collections for, like, 17kB worth of ROMs is wild, man.

@KnightRider666 : I'd kill for that. 😭

@Aventurier : Switch had one a couple of months after launch, from memory, but yes, the 3DS had Super Street Fighter IV, which was a pretty cool showcase for the console so early in its life.

GTA VI's trailer was really underwhelming. Parts of it were technically impressive of course, but I have a nagging suspicion that it's going to be sorely lacking in substance, at least with regard to its story and characters.

We shall see, of course. And if they do charge US$100 for it, then they'd better damn well better ship the entire game on however many disc(s) needed to install it.

@Zufolobelisk : I've thought the same of Sonic for so long. Had some fondness for it as a kid, but grew to loathe it over the last two decades. Even its "best" games aren't particularly fun to play.

Epic's long dormant Jazz Jackrabbit was fast platforming done right.

My only hope is that this backfires catastrophically. Most third party games at the moment are hovering around the 60GB mark, and MicroSD Express cards are currently only available in 256GB capacities. That's 1/4 of the capacity of the entire US$60 microSD card per game, amounting to an additional cost of US$15 per game that should damn well have gone toward a proper physical release.

Even digital buyers should be irked as they'll be swapping microSD cards almost as often as physical customers will be swapping actual game cartridges, and for those supporting the anti-physical "key cards", they'll be frequently swapping between both microSDs and game cartridges. What fun!

This simply isn't sustainable in the long term. Hell, people will be feeling the sting even in the short term (and as if the hideously long wait to actually download these enormous games wasn't bad enough). To put the storage burden into perspective, the overwhelming majority of my games on Switch are physical and my 400GB microSD card is almost full, and that's after 8 years and probably 200+ games. How many microSD Express cards will I need to get through this year alone?!

Something's got to give... and fast... and I am cautiously optimistic that things will improve quickly after a storm of severe backlash, and I'm looking forward to seeing it all unfold as people quickly realise how user-unfriendly their expensive new console is.

@chickje : Sure, but Ubisoft/Take Two/WB et al. are notorious for that, but in most instances, the updates typically amount to bug/stability fixes and the cartridges still contain a fully playable game on the cartridge.

Nintendo also include the updates on the cartridge when reprinting their games (in most instances anyway).

@StewdaMegaManNerd : Except they aren't keeping costs down at all. A 256GB microSD Express card costs AU$80 here (US$60 in the States). This game alone will consume a quarter of that. Guess how much that's worth? AU$20/US$15. And even more if sharing the game across multiple consoles, which is absolutely absurd.

If anything, charging AU$20 more, even if relatively expensive when compared to last generation games, is still a superlatively better deal for consumers considering the alternative. Of course, I think digital versions should cost less as customers will have to foot the storage bill (so to speak) themselves, but a cost increase on a premium, complete physical product isn't unreasonable.

And as just pointed out, a US$15 "Switch 2" tax isn't even that crazy @WoomyNNYes as we're spending that money on storage anyway, which makes the anti-physical "key card" situation all the more infuriating.

While the price hike is significant, made more apparent by what appears to be even tighter margins so that Australian retailers cannot drop the prices as significantly below RRP as they used to, PS3/360 game prices were sitting at AU$120 back in the day, and we're basically seeing a return to an old norm (though, being a Nintendo gamer, such prices were foreign to me, and I usually didn't pay any more then AU$60 for a Wii game).

And I don't think that the increase in game prices is anywhere near as egregious as the widespread abandonment of physical media by third parties, who have opted for anti-physical "key card" releases.

Considering that most of these games occupy about AU$20 (sometimes more) worth of microSD Express storage anyway, I'd much rather put that AU$20 toward proper physical releases with everything on the cartridge. As it stands, I won't pick up any such release for more than $25 or so given that they cost next to nothing to manufacture, but if there's a DRM free option on PC, then I cannot justify supporting the Switch 2 version at all. But even so, I abhor the practice and have no intention of ever supporting it.

As it stands, the only (physical) third party releases so far that look even remotely enticing are Cyberpunk, and perhaps bafflingly, Tamagotchi Plaza, which is getting a proper Switch 2 release in Japan.

I would have loved Yakuza and Hitman, but the lack of physical releases has killed any enthusiasm to pick up the console at launch.

And yet another key card release...

No UHD textures, no buy!

Neither are great, but I prefer Japan, as pamphlety as it looks.

Would be nice to see a 64GB cart release of this, but poor destitute Disney...

Organised a Mega Kangaskhan Raid Day event in Pokémon GO today. Very few showed up as I'm not a Community Ambassador (at least not yet), and perhaps others weren't interested enough as Kangaskhan is a fairly regular spawn in Australia. I also bought the ticket, and was close to having those tickets go to waste, but thankfully a few on my friend list chipped in remotely and saved the day. Got a decent shiny out of it too (to better my previous zero star one 😅).

What's the point?

Nothing's going to be on the cartridge anyway, and Ubisoft is among the worst culprits in that regard.

And as @ROOCIS pointed out, I'd happily triple-dip on the original Watch_Dogs, but it won't be the same with online play now paywalled behind NSO. I don't even like online gaming, but Watch_Dogs's almost seamless integration into the main experience was a thing of genius.

Whatever the replacement will be will not have a 3D screen and will be inferior by default.

@AussieMcBucket : Incidentally, there have been far more explicit games coming out of Europe that never would have seen the light of day in the States.

@jowy_sw : The DLC wasn't a code, the reissue was released before the software update containing the final wave of tracks was available, so it still had to be downloaded, rather than being fully playable from the cart alone.

I believe there has since been a reprint with absolutely everything on the cartridge though, and likewise with the Scarlet/Violet DLC bundles (which also released prematurely).

@jowy_sw : What I really want though are more reissues with any paid DLC on the cartridge.

I just find it strange that they're even bothering to update games that have been long out of print.

I wonder if this means that some of these games will be reissued as "Enhanced For Nintendo Switch 2" releases for retail.

And at full price, of course. The days of Nintendo Selects is evidently long gone.

@Fizza : I didn't even realise that I'd ever missed that little thing. Those animations were so therapeutic... 🥰

I don't miss how the 3DS eShop so lethargically chugged along though.

We got Switch instability updates before GTA VI.

Also, in light of our issues, I want a divorce.

I hate these with a passion, but might make a tiny handful of exceptions only for games that I may desperately want and only if they're relatively cheap. Between a solely digital purchase and a key card, I would still reluctantly grab the key card (unless the digital only costs loose change).

Of similar releases on Switch, I did grab L.A. Noire (AU$28 brand new, and I would not have bought it had it not been sealed), Wolfenstein II (which is getting a complete release soon via LRG anyway), DOOM 2016, GTA Trilogy, and the US Resident Evil compilations for the included cartridges (I sold the codes), and I think that's pretty much it. I'd count DOOM Eternal too as it doesn't include the DLC and nags you to update the game every time you boot it up.

Considering the sheer quantity of games being issued anti-physical releases (especially Yakuza and Hitman), I can't see myself buying them, especially if it means that I'll essentially be paying an additional AU$40 worth of storage space simply to download the games when that money could have gone toward proper physical releases instead.

If anything, this is driving me further to grabbing a handheld PC, where I can procure the best versions of a lot of these games without DRM. By allowing these anti-consumer practices, I suspect that the Switch 2 will struggle in the long term, especially if it amounts to a Nintendo-only machine for physical enthusiasts, and a suboptimal way to experience (and own) third party games. Plus, I'll be able to play classic Nintendo games without having to pay for a subscription on a handheld PC as well as all of the DOS games I had grown up with.

And just like that, the Switch 2 is looking less and less appealing by the day.

While patches are annoying for preservationists, that hardly justifies the anti-physical stance/excuses that we keep seeing. Most such releases are still fully playable. It's when publishers dump a half-finished (often less) build on a cartridge that is so reprehensible.

Patches should only be used to iron out game-breaking bugs and not defaulted to as a crutch to justify hasting incomplete games to shelves.

Nintendo usually reissues their games with the updates baked into the cartridges, but there is no certainty that further updates won't materialise later. I recently picked up a copy of Switch Sports and Pikmin 3, and both were fully complete on cartridge. Mario Strikers, unfortunately, was still Version 1.0 (meaning I held out for all this time for nothing).

There are still plenty of complete physical releases that aren't patched out later, but they're something of a rarity in a market filled with big publishers with little care for the quality of the products that they produce (and hence the widespread use of "key cards").

But Nintendo also needs to provide more budget friendly options for smaller games. Every Switch 2 physical release (that is, with a playable game on the cartridge) so far is US$70/AU$110 or higher. Have Nintendo lost their freaking minds?!

A higher asking price is perfectly reasonable for full games on 32GB/64GB cartridges, but what of all of the smaller games? (especially considering that so many of Nintendo's own games skew smaller)

@Diven : There's still time.

@N00BiSH : This is the worst day of our lives and you're calling us MELODRAMATIC?!!!!

They've massacred Donkey Kong's user icon instead of including it as a new addition. 😭

A new WarioWare that uses the camera and microphone will easily be the funniest party game on Switch 2.

I would also love to see a sequel to WarioWare DIY that supports mouse/touch controls. Being able to voice commands with the microphone and incorporate custom camera controls would also be incredible.

Loved the concept. Hated the cardboard.

I still want a VR headset so I can play whatever few games are playable on Switch that way.

But I don't think that this is necessarily indicative of the Switch 2 not supporting VR going forward.

That's going to hog more than a 1/4 of a single MicroSD Express card.

This is going to piss off so many customers very quickly and I can't wait to see the carnage unfold.

Watch third parties change their tune after customers gradually turn away from their contemptible "key card" releases.

Even mostly digital buyers should want to buy larger games on a cartridge (and save their memory for more modest and/or frequently-played games).

@LikelySatan : That's why I hoarded all these games. I guess part of me suspected how barren the future would be.

And how absolutely pathetic that the Switch 1 physical release is more worthwhile than the so-called next generation version. 🤦🏻‍♂️

@AstroTheGamosian : The Wii U would have been so perfect for it.

For now, I'd be content with re-releases/remakes of the existing games, plus Trauma Team, which wasn't released in Australia/Europe.

Looks like the Japanese edition of Hogwarts Legacy on Switch 2 will be a key card release too (which may extend to the West).

@-wc- : Nintendo really should have released a docked/TV-only Switch 2 as a cheaper alternative (perhaps pricing it closer to the base Switch 1).

As it stands, the Switch 2 will be far too expensive for families, especially for households looking to buy multiple consoles, and to say nothing of the games.

Considering that it looks like I'll be buying very few third-party games this generation (no thanks to almost all of them opting for "key card" releases), I think I'll wait until the Switch 2 has a greater selection of Nintendo-published offerings first.

This has completely put me off from buying a Switch 2 until Nintendo offers more cartridge sizes to third party publishers, because at the moment, every proper physical release is US$70 (AU$110) or above, which is absolutely obscene. To think that I was naive enough to assume that Nintendo were taking their time for the strongest possible launch for the Switch 2, but this is looking substantially worse than even the humble Wii U.

Did Nintendo just decide that budget-priced (or hell, just normal-priced) games weren't going to be a thing this generation? One of the earliest Switch 1 budget releases was Nintendo's very own SnipperClips Plus (which retailed for a modest AU$45, if not $40).

The fact that Sega saw fit to issue a "key card" release for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S is so unfathomably idiotic that it deserves to be laughed into the bargain bin where it belongs. Who in their right mind would pay for that and not for the heavily-discounted Switch 1 physical release?! (which actually has a game on the cartridge!) And likewise of the new Sonic game too!