The launch of Nintendo Switch 2 key fob may become a doomsday for physical collectors

2025-04-04 22:54:57|Myriagame |source：minecraft skins

Although PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S players have abandoned physical games in favor of digital games, Nintendo Switch players have always been sticking to their love for physical games.However, this may change with the launch of Switch 2, due to the rising price of physical games and the controversial game key fob - players cannot directly obtain the full game after purchase.Now it seems that this is also the case with the Switch 2 version of "Eldon Farring: Fading Edition" ported game.

The product description of the 2022 open world role-playing game "Eldon Farring" physical version released by players, contains the words "Game Key Fold" in the Play-Asia store.Nintendo revealed this week that this represents a special type of Switch 2 game cartridge that does not contain the full game.Instead, players need to connect to the internet, even Switch 2's first-party game Super Mario Party: Carnival (which includes new modes such as "Cool Overlord Live Show").

What the player actually buys is a key that bypasses DRM.They can only play the game when inserting the cassette, but this cassette can be resold or shared like a normal physical game.For some, this is a good compromise, better than nothing.For others, this is the worst case: it is not as convenient as the digital version, nor is it permanently saved like the physical version.This problem has become even worse because of the significant increase in physical versions of some Nintendo games in Europe, such as Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Carnival, which are 15% cheaper in digital versions than physical versions.

This is a new pain point for Nintendo players who like to collect physical games, and "Eldon's Ring of Fargo" is not an isolated case.Street Fighter 6 and Courage: Flying Goblin HD Remake also need further.The latter is a Japanese role-playing game ported from 3DS, which is particularly confusing because it only has 11GB and can be installed on a suitable SD card.But there are exceptions.The content of "Cyberpunk 2077" exceeds 60GB, including the 2023 "Shadow of the Past" expansion, will be directly stored in the Switch 2 cassette, without any need.The game costs $70, but that's what physical game collectors are willing to pay.

While the sales ratio of physical and digital games for many game publishers and platforms is almost 1:9, with digital versions dominating, Switch has always been an exception.Last fall, in the U.S. market, the sales ratio of physical and digital games on the Nintendo platform remained at around 50%, and this ratio is more inclined to physical games during holidays.The physical gaming market is shrinking, but it remains an important market in terms of total sales, especially for Nintendo players.

In the Switch 2 era, this situation may have changed faster than some people expected.Nintendo seems keen to actively push more players to choose digital games with its new virtual game sharing program, as well as the $500 Switch 2 bundle set (the price of Mario Kart World is actually $40 cheaper than the physical version).Physical games require a lot of patch updates on the first day to run, or are forced to always be connected online, which is not new, but is not very common on Switch platforms.As more big hits are landing on Switch 2, the appeal of physical games collection on this platform seems to decline further.

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