Nintendo announces Virtual Game Cards for Switch, unlocking digital lending

Lend and borrow for 2 weeks.

[OtterX]

Dumb. I love Nintendo games, but their business side is so ass backwards. I could log into 2 Playstation consoles and play 1 owned game online with my kids 10 years ago. Here we are in 2025 and we can only log into a game on one Nintendo Switch at a time. We have to wait through some convoluted, slow "sending game" screen on top of that. 🤦‍♂️

[MrNinosan]

We could since day 1 on PS3, that's more than 18 years ago

[VenomUK]

I saw this segment and wondered if this is a solution to make easy digital video game lending? I saw that games can only be lent to a person in a family group, I don't know what that is but can that include a friend? I know there are account sharing methods but as digital overtakes physical games there should be an easy to use solution. I believe Xbox and PlayStation offer some kind of access which I've never tried but [I THINK] you have to share account details. Hopefully this is the start of a real consumer friendly change.

[-Foxtrot]

Typical Nintendo where if they haven’t thought of it first and other companies are doing it the simple, most standard way then they refuse to do it

It’s pride and stubbornness

It’s the same with their online chat, trophies/achievements and so on.

[Eonjay]

Watch this gave me flashbacks to the 2013 PS4 game sharing ad. This is like the antithesis of that ad.

[NotoriousWhiz]

The upvotes here are crazy considering this is false. I set my son's switch to my primary and we are able to play all of my games on both of our switches at the same time. It literally works exactly the same as xbox / Playstation.

[OtterX]

I apologize then. We only have one Switch at the moment, and the Switch 2 will be our second. If this is the case, they are doing a poor job at explaining this. The messaging needs to be clearer for owners of 2 systems on the same account.

[originaljohn]

I have 8 profiles on my family account and with this update I can share my 1st party digital games with every account. This is an extremely useful feature even with one game lending to one account at a time.

[NotoriousWhiz]

It's been the same since the Switch was first launched back in 2017. This new thing seems to basically allow you to designate a new primary console among everyone in your family account. So by lending the game to someone in your family account, they can play it even while offline.

[ChronoJoe]

You can gameshare like that on Switch though. In the same way that you can on PS3/4/5. Is that going away in place of this?

[gold_drake]

i find it so convoluted

if i have the physical edition, why in the ever loving fuck, would i not give that to my kids, siblings, etc ? instead of doing this shit ha.

why is this a thing?

this makes no sense whatsoever.

[darthv72]

It did seem a bit confusing but I think (not sure) that you can do both. either give your kids the game and you keep a virtual (digital) copy for when you want to play or do the opposite. you keep the cart and give them the virtual copy. In either case you can share it now and also keep a version for yourself.

Its aimed at those who like to share their games with others. I don't so its not for me.

[OtterX]

Nope. This does nothing for physical games, you do not get a digital copy out of this. This is strictly for digital games & it restricts your digital copy to one location at any given time.

The only advantage this has is loaning a digital game to somebody else's account.

[MrNinosan]

You got it wrong thou.
This has nothing to do with physical games.
It's only for digital games.
You can lend out your game to your other Switch (which you already can).

The new thing is lending it out for 14 days to family members.

Same shit we've been able to do since PS3, just being way more complicated and less user friendly

[Profchaos]

The misinformation with this one is strong I blame the messaging it was not delivered great

[OtterX]

@Profchaos This is like Microsoft level messaging. Smh

[Profchaos]

It doesn't change how physical works just digital it's steam family library but explained in a bad way

[fsfsxii]

This is the same as the Xbox one reveal fiasco, if this catches on, we’re royally screwed. Fuck nintendo.

[Profchaos]

It's not like Xbox one at all physical games will not be tied to an account it's like steam family library where you can buy a game digitally but let a family member play it

[fsfsxii]

It literally says there is an online check in.

[Profchaos]

Again not for physical games

Xbox one was going to have a licence key in each game box not the case here physical remains unchanged

Digital has a check in to download the game and you have it for 14 days3when Shared

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Nope this is convulted imo not bright at all why this when I can give my homie the actual copy for free forever? Nintendo fans backlash and buy physical because this practice needs backlashing

[Profchaos]

Agree it's a convoluted explanation of what is essentially steam family library you can lend a game to friends as long as you are in the same physical location (have to be on the same WiFi)

[Profchaos]

This is great for parents as you can lend games out to the kids and don't need to make my profile primary on their system

But better yet you can take them away at any point which is just as good as parents know

[badz149]

proof that Nintendo is so far back compared to others. at first I thought they introduces it so you'll be able to resell your digital copies that you've done playing. that would be hella nice but NOPE, Nintendo is gonna keep being Nintendo!

[CrimsonWing69]

Part of me thought this was cool initially, until they explained it more and went all Nintendo with it.

[originaljohn]

So I can share my backlog digital games with others in my family account just like steam.. That's actually really cool.

[DivineHand125]

So this is basically a safer version of game sharing.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

Been doing this since the PS3 days, was so good when it was with four people! Dropped it down to two (including yourself) but it's still good, I've got a couple mates and we've been sharing games since 2007.

Makes games so much cheaper too, just got atomfall for £25, they send me money or vise versa, love it