Pre-orders for Switch 2 software have gone live in Japan, and players have realised that every third-party release seen so far is a Game-Key Card.
Game-Key Cards are Nintendo’s new branding for cartridges that still require the game to be downloaded from the Switch 2 online store before the game can be played. The cartridge doesn’t contain the game data, rather it’s simply a ‘key’ that enables a download.
“Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data,” Nintendo says. “Instead, the game-key card is your ‘key’ to downloading the full game to your system via the internet. After it’s downloaded, you can play the game by inserting the game-key card into your system and starting it up like a standard physical game card.”
As originally pointed out on X by Gematsu, the physical versions of every third-party Switch 2 title currently up for pre-order appears to be a Game-Key Card rather than the full game itself.
VGC has checked out the Japanese online store Yodobashi and can confirm that of the 11 new third-party Switch 2 games currently listed on the site with box art, all 11 of them have a logo on the front of the box designating them as Game-Key Cards.
The full list of games on the site that have the Game-Key Card logo on their packaging is:
Of the third-party games listed on the retailer, only two Marvelous titles – Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar aren’t Game-Key Cards. These aren’t full Switch 2 games, however – rather, they’re Switch 2 Editions of standard Switch games, containing both the Switch 1 game on the cartridge and the Switch 2 upgrade.
It’s not yet clear how widespread this will be post-launch, nor is it yet known whether all of these games will also be Game-Key Cards in the West. Certainly, CD Projekt has already stated that Cyberpunk 2077 is contained entirely on the cartridge.
It’s already been confirmed that Street Fighter 6 and Bravely Default Flying Fairy will be Game-Key Cards in the West, but time will tell whether this will be the case with the Western versions of the other games on the above list.
Currently, the UK version of Daemon X Machina on Amazon UK doesn’t have the Game-Key Card logo on the packaging, while the UK version of No Sleep for Kaname Date does have the logo.
The most immediate issue some players have with this is that the vast majority of original Switch cartridges contain the physical game on the cart, meaning should the Switch eShop ever close down in the distant future those games will still remain playable.
If most third-party Switch 2 games are going to be Game-Key Cards, however, a shutdown of the Switch 2 eShop – even if that was to happen decades from now – would ultimately result in those games no longer being downloadable and therefore rendering the cartridges useless.
Another potential issue is that of region-locking. Switch cartridges currently work on all regions of hardware, but if a player from the West was to visit Japan on holiday and buy a game that’s only available on the Japanese eShop, it’s not yet known if they will be able to access the Japanese Switch 2 eShop to download the game (without potentially having to create a separate Japanese account).
