progx

I’m guessing Nintendo didn’t want to offer this type of product, but 3rd parties either didn’t want to pay for the 64GB (or it’s too large or small for their needs). I’m hoping the sales of Cyberpunk 2077 and Fantasy Life get highlighted in the press to get some of these bigger publishers to reconsider putting their games on the card. Or the single player experience at least. For any game made on the Switch that will have a physical release, that should be a pretty easy decision for these type of collectors at this time.

I really hope there is a smaller size Nintendo can use, but I’m thinking it’d be an option if it was there. If a 16GB card costs the same, or more than the 64 GB, or it isn’t doable with the newer tech on the card, I hope we’ll find out. The Game-Key Card feels like a stopgap solution for physical.

On the positive side, Nintendo said they’re not planning on using it at all for their physical releases.

@Max_the_German there’s rumors that the lower storage option costs more or isn’t available. They had two different sizes to start the Switch, plus a third size rolled out relatively fast. There’s something holding up a smaller option, I don’t think it’s Nintendo. Even they’re using the 64GB card for their Switch 2 games, Mario Kart World doesn’t even take up 50% of its capacity

It’s never straightforward when dealing with music industry. Outside of the labels, you also have groups that manage the songwriting side of the business. It’s a multilayered business and I’d invite anyone to read the bible of the industry: “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.” Not sure what volume they’re on now, but it’s large and… insane

@chickje Nintendo has to go to their manufacturer to make these game cards, so it’s going to be a volume based purchasing for the price. For higher storage, I don’t think the price will be too bad, but the smaller sizes might be expensive since 8, 16 and 32 GB aren’t really sizes you can easily find in USB thumb drives or MicroSD cards cheaply since everyone is pushing those bigger sizes. Even if Nintendo had over 200 million active users and about 100 million buy physical game cards, add the mix of publishers and developers with space needs/wants for sizes. Each size would be its own SKU, so if the hypothetical 100 million were spread out over 5, but volume isn’t equal, then your pricing will change.

@chickje it’s the only size available for the Switch 2 right now. From what I’m understanding, it might be the lowest option available for now. The question for the maximum size is 128 or 256GB, whenever they decide to ask Macronix to make it. Smaller sizes lower than 64GB might too expensive anyone to consider.

So… 2K Sports will do a Game Key Card for NBA 2K26, but not WWE 2K25? Wonder if the expense falls to the studios building it and not the publisher in this case. Still can’t see a Game Key Card being too costly compared to the 64GB card (although they’d win over some points with those of us who wouldn’t buy these titles digitally and go that route).

The WiFi speeds on the Switch 2 are better than my Switch OLED, but docking either of them is way faster with the Ethernet port.

For the troubleshooting steps Nintendo is outlining, that isn’t too far from the truth for some people. My parent’s house was built in the 1940s (it’s technically a 1920s Sears & Roebuck home), we’ve had WiFi and cable line issues in the house forever. There’s not much we can unless we want to rip out walls and remove the material that’s causing the problem. We figure there’s either metal, brick or some kind of material that causes the signal to bounce. Doesn’t matter what kind of router, we used to have Apple AirPort and AirPort Extreme, but they’re running an ASUS AC1200 (USB 2.0) dual-band router now and we’re having the exact issues in the house.

For the house I live in, I have my router in the most central part and our construction is about 25 years newer than my parents. Also, the style of the house being a single story ranch house with a finished basement, we don’t have that many different walls or materials causing problems. I’m running an ASUS RT-AX58U with Ai-Mesh with an RP-AX56 extender. My Internet is 500 down and 20-30 up through Spectrum.

@Lady_rosalina I mean she called out Billboards for Life, which doesn’t go to help women with pregnancies but yell at people on the highways. Then she admitted she lied about her contract negotiations too, the misinformation came from her.

There were so many of those on the bandwagon in here. I remember one user said they were going to donate three copies worth of money to her charities, this person claimed to be a supporter of things those charities were against.

@Erigen when you think about it, especially if you bought a Switch 2 and not an original Switch, you’ll have Mario Kart mania when you hop in now with World + 8 Deluxe

@TheDragonDAFan for e-books, that’s the service and/or publisher making the altercations. Authors typically don’t make those changes unless it has to do with the content. Amazon has been actively working to censor books since the end of last year.

If the companies are not going to offer refunds when they shut down the games, then they should turn on, or make an, offline mode with bot opponents. Allow for LAN play or local multiplayer.

As for private servers… there should be a disclaimer popping up that the user holds all responsibility for joining the servers that are not supported by the company. Without that legal jargon, I’m just waiting for the private server option to turn into a lawsuit.

However, I am not in the business of telling these developers how to do their jobs. @rjejr has the best comment on this one. Although, I’m more of an offline gamer anyhow, so this doesn’t affect me too much. I play Splatoon, Overwatch and Halo Infinite (but it has a single player campaign, plus bot play) once in a while. Fortnite should be an easy flip for Sweeney and company since they made Unreal Tournament back in the day, that was hours of fun for me on my old 1999 iMac.

@MongolRaider Nintendo isn’t manufacturing these cards. Macronix likely imposed the storage limit on Nintendo due to the new device and faster ROM chip speeds. 64GB is likely the lowest option available due to the different structure of the Switch 2 game card. Lower storage options would’ve been more costly.

And yes Einstein, these cards cost money: for both Nintendo and the third party studio. Nintendo came in with the game key card as an option for lower and higher storage options. I hope time will change this one, but it’s looking like Nintendo, Marvelous and CDPR seem to be the only ones using these cards.

@WhiteUmbrella it was the Steam number. Apple doesn’t release their Mac gaming numbers. If I had to guess, it would be under 10% of people who own Mac games. The person was upset there wasn’t going to be a native Linux version, which makes up about less than 3-4% of the total potential PC users was my counter argument and why CDPR decided to port Cyberpunk to macOS.

It’s still funny since most people are still buy PCs and Macs to NOT play games. They actually use them for productivity, which is what makes up 60-75% of PCs purchased.

@GrailUK you should hear the PC crowd? They clutch onto the Steam numbers and think no other digital storefront exists. Someone thought macOS made up only 1% of the PC market (its approaching 20%)? 😂

I've put over 20 hours into it. Loving it more than MK8 Deluxe, however I think there is more content for this game on the horizon. Plus, I'm thinking Nintendo might not charge for the new content either. If there will be paid DLC, it might be in 3-4 years down the road. Once that content comes out, I think I'll be a full on 10 for this game, right now I'm an 8.5, but that's better than MK8D.

@Anti-Matter Nintendo isn't using the Game Key Card. You need to do your research, you should be mad at third party publishers who wanted this option.

I think the Switch 2 could surpass the original Switch. Nintendo has done an excellent convincing users to buy their device along with their other smart devices.

They were wise to forgo the traditional way (much like the Wii and DS) of promoting the Switch, they were able to tap into the wider audience that mobile gaming has available.

Nintendo has really found a way to convince consumers a Switch will fit in with their smartphone, tablet and streaming box family of devices; even those who own a console or PC too, but the numbers of those users were less than 15-18% of the current Switch user base.

It's why I assumed the N64 would be the end of the "home console" NSO apps and the others would just get individual releases as "remasters."

Guess we'll wait and see. An Xbox port is surprising to me truthfully since the player base is low, but if Microsoft foots the bill on Game Pass then it could have a good opportunity.

@Zeebor15 Candy Crush alone generate $1 billion into 2024 alone. I wouldn’t call it bloat, especially when their last head count was slightly over 2,000, which Microsoft cut 10% from. They cut clear across the board of Microsoft Gaming, including canceling the Perfect Dark reboot

@Zeebor15 well ZeniMax was gutted, that was the parent company of Bethesda and id Software.

King was the big motivator for Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard since it made the most revenue for the company every year. I’m not surprised if it had the biggest head count.

@AllBLK boycotting? They’re locking themselves out of the other half of the Nintendo Switch customer base who buys strictly physical releases. A code in a box has a way smaller penetration with that audience than a GKC. I’m baffled they didn’t at least do a GKC; I mean EA Sports is using it for Madden 26 so what does that say about 2K?

@TheExile285 Microsoft is a software company, they’re not a gaming company. Windows, Office and Azure are their top products, gaming is the fourth and lower pillar.

Yeah, this merger of Activision and Xbox was a wonderful idea /s

@Elitepatriot except PC game prices on newer games are just as expensive. Also, storage on PC has jumped in price too

@BBBBBBBBBBB 64GB is the de facto base storage any more for storage. Same can be said with USB thumb drives.

@Rosona I don’t think going above 64GB is the problem. Smaller sizes might cost more than the 64GB option. Nintendo doesn’t have a need for a larger sizes yet, but if one of these third parties needed 128GB or 256GB at a high level, those cards would be out.

The smaller sizes might be more expensive since the storage sizes aren’t in demand as they used to be, wherever Macronix is buying it. Game cards are more than just flash storage.

It’s because of cheap 3rd party studios this option exists at all. I’m sure Nintendo would love to say that part, but that would push developers off their platform by claiming some of their partners are penny pinchers. I’m starting to think Nintendo is selling the 64GB game cards at cost.

Code in a box? Hard pass.

@uncleMike I appreciate it, but I really don’t want to stick up for game key cards, but I acknowledge the likely situation that could be happening behind the scenes. It’s sexier to blame Nintendo for whatever reason. No one questions Valve or Sony, instead they go after the publisher or developers in those situations.

@iPharRaoH well you’re doing better than most who post on here.

Also, I’m sure Nintendo knows these cards are problematic, but as I said, they can’t force their partners to pay for 64GB cards. Especially when that’s likely the only option they were given for S2 game cards. I would imagine they wanted storage options like the Switch, but Macronix (who is supposedly making them) said this is their only option; or anything lower than 64 GB was going to cost more to make since 8, 16 and 32 GB sizes aren’t too common anymore. Before you say “flash storage is cheap,” there’s more on these cards than just a storage chip and I would imagine storage size requires changes in the ROM chips that are on board too. Mario Kart World is on the 64GB card, plus every other S2 release that has the game on it too. It’s the only choice.

It’s a double edged sword, if GKC didn’t exist then these would be codes in a box or straight digital. Nintendo wants a physical presence along with digital. Also, plenty of 3rd parties started to cheap out on Switch cards, Ubisoft did it with both Mario + Rabbids games.

@Axecon how are they killing 3rd party support with GKC? If they didn’t offer them, then these titles would be digital only. Also, Macronix either isn’t offering smaller sizes for the game cards or they were more expensive than the 64GB. It has been mentioned that Samsung might have placed a limitation on the hardware for S2 cards less than 64GB too.

Nintendo doesn’t manufacture these cards. I would imagine if they could’ve offered an 8 or 16 GB version of it instead of the GKC, they would have done it.

But hey, these publishers are your friend right? They want to do right by the consumer too /s

To all of you chanting, why don’t you send emails or @ Bandai Namco about it? They don’t read NL for our opinions. Nor can Nintendo force them to release it on a game card.

Wondering if that Direct might be coming this week?

@rjejr yikes. I was hoping my conservative guesstimate would’ve landed close. I know there are two bedroom apartments going in the Pittsburgh area for $1000-1200. My old house I rented, which was a three bedroom with a finished attic is now renting for $1500 versus $859 I paid from 2017-2020; it’s about 950 square feet.

Not surprised to read this story about EA. With Activision under Microsoft’s ownership, EA wants that title of overpaying executives in the gaming industry more than getting out decent games.

Wonder why no one wants to cover the fact Gabe Newell at Valve has built his fifth super yacht?

@BoomingEchoes that’s true. Colorado Springs is quickly getting there too. Colorado doesn’t seem to lose any steam for growth, comes at the cost of living getting expensive sadly.

I did want to see The Materialists, I’ll have to add it to my weekend trip to the theaters.

@rjejr no, I got what you’re saying. Even smaller cities like Pittsburgh, $117k might do better there than Philadelphia, but not by much. And smaller cities, good luck finding a job that’ll pay you $117k. There’s so much pay disparity in the US, most people here even have a hard time understanding it. Places like Charlotte and Denver are becoming more expensive to live, the latter has a higher cost of living than San Francisco and LA. I couldn’t fathom how you could live on $117k in those giant markets, especially when your water bill could run about $300-900 per month alone 😳

And yeah, $200K in NYC might just be surviving. Rent for a tiny apartment could run you $2000 per month minimum. If Zorhan was upper class in that city, he’d be making way more than that. An intensely gross amount to be considered upper class there

@rjejr $117K meant a lot more 20-25 years ago. Depending where you lived in the US, you’d be considered almost upper middle class. In major markets, you would be just in there. Today, $117K doesn’t mean much if you live in a major city in the US. Especially in California and Florida.

@JohnnyMind also Nintendo Co has worked to reduce crunch time for their workers too. I believe the other divisions have a similar work-life balance policy. The same can’t be said for their partners, like Bandai Namco, but Nintendo takes the old Japanese mantra of employee treatment very seriously. Compared to everyone else in the industry, they seem to lead this category with ease. Plus, it explains why Nintendo keeps so many finished products in the reserves too

Wow. Love seeing the complainers sounds off. I really didn't think we'd see a new GC game until late July. This is a pleasant surprise. Super Mario Strikers on the GameCube I played to death. I'll be playing it all day on the 3rd.

@AussieMcBucket where are you getting this information from? The Switch 1 didn’t get landmark games until a year after it was out. Third parties didn’t start lining up for the original Switch until the end of year one. The Switch 2 is getting way more love from 3rd parties than the original one did.

Also, “plays better elsewhere,” most Switch owners didn’t have a second console or PC to play their games on. Less 10-15% said they owned other hardware. About 129 million out of the 152 million owners continually play their Switch. That’s crazy, even Steam doesn’t have those numbers. PlayStation is second to Nintendo on it. You don’t get the kind of engagement Nintendo gets from the majority of players being multi-platform owners. Most publishers and developers see their ROI on them.

Nintendo didn’t start sending out Switch 2 dev kits until recently. It takes time for devs to plan and execute. It’s likely Techland is still waiting on their dev kits from Nintendo, plus wrap up this project. EA, 2K, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix and other partners likely got their kits early and had to sign a lot of legal paperwork. There’s high praise coming from developers too, CDPR is extremely happy with the new Switch.

As it said there are no plans at the moment. I think Retouched has been worked on before Switch 2 dev kits were available. Sounds like Techland wants to finish this current project, then they’ll likely look into a Switch 2 version once they get a dev kit and have the time.

Also, NL Techland didn’t say they were skipping the Switch. They have no announcement at this time. How does that justify a skip?

Heard this game might be on the cartridge for the physical release.

@Crimson_Ridley I think Death Stranding has turned into a timed exclusive. It’s now on Xbox, so I would imagine the first one will be on its way via 505 Games at some point.

Hey NL, the problem wasn’t caused exclusively by the Switch, they had issues with the other two systems. You might want to change the headline

I haven’t had any problems. My time with the Switch 2 has been a blast.

The problem with some of these articles is the amount of time people have been yelling "FIRE!" at the Switch 2. The general audience who don’t pay attention to ANY of the jargon are just going to see anything like this as nerd rage. My worry is when a real problem could come along, but no one is going to believe the reporting since it’ll be seen as Switch bashing and insulting the audience who doesn’t game beyond it

@Suketoudara these are the same people who keep claiming mobile gamers on smart devices don’t exist; plus the deaf comment from John at DF who said kids are preferring PC (his only sample is his own kid 😂).

The biggest reason Microsoft wanted Activision Blizzard: King. Candy Crush completely eclipsed anything in the traditional gaming market. These people are still boiling over the fact none of these people want to play on PCs or consoles.

By the holidays, they’ll have gotten near or over the total lifetime sales of these individual consoles combined.

Might be a bold prediction on my part, they could outsell the PS5’s total lifetime of ALL models by this time next year in Japan.