You can resell game key cards, at least? They seem better than digital copies to me. And first party games are still on cartridge for the most part.

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philistine a day ago | parent | next [-]

People have convinced themselves that game key cards are terrible, when they're the exact same thing as the old style of cartridges, with the only difference that you don't have the 1.0 on it.

People are convinced that game key cards will stop working at some point, when it's the reverse that will happen; your card will be fine, but won't work on a Switch 2, only a future console.

Nintendo will close access to their stores to old consoles way before they break access with their cards.

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extraduder_ire 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Does the switch's "Match Version with Local Users" feature on the software update menu work for this, or is an internet connection strictly required the first time you insert a key card?

	▲	philistine 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's only for updates. The initial install must come from the eShop. That's not different for game key cards. When you first put a card in, you need to download the game from eShop. No exceptions.

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angoragoats 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> People have convinced themselves that game key cards are terrible, when they're the exact same thing as the old style of cartridges, with the only difference that you don't have the 1.0 on it.

I guess this statement is correct, but my point is that the most important thing to me is that I have the game on the cartridge.

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angoragoats 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> You can resell game key cards, at least?

Sure, unless the game is no longer available for download, in which case the key card is a worthless piece of plastic to anyone who hasn’t downloaded it previously. And you still have to contend with all the other downsides of downloadable games including managing the free space on your device.

At this point I don’t trust any console manufacturer to pinky promise that downloads will always be available, so I will not buy anything but a proper physical copy.