Nintendo is bringing the fight to scalpers, as they've put restrictions on who can pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2 directly from their shop.
After years of waiting, Mario Kart World is the new installment in the racing series, but its new features reveal that the genre may go beyond racing.
LOL
The only boundaries it's going to push are the boundaries of the series itself. nothing more
Sega had a few reveals about Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. and the new game code-named New Virtua Fighter Project.
Following an internal Arc System Works internal hack, new information has leaked about why there are so many game-key card physical releases for Nintendo Switch 2.
The only *possible* hypothetical beneficial strategy I can see is this being a gamble to try & solve a few of the OG Switch's physical release issues. And a lot of it is a gamble around economies of scale, though a failed gamble would just makes them all worse (clarified at the bottom).
1) Removing multiple storage options would stop companies from, for example, putting out multi game collections where only 1 out of a 3 game collection ends up on the shipped cartridge, doing so to save themselves a buck by going with the cheapest cart they can and pushing further storage costs on the user.
2) Stop the trend of code-in-box releases. So many were starting to pop up, and I expect that because carts, especially larger capacity ones, ate too much into their margins they just started skipping them entirely.
3) Allow large games to ship on carts as the norm - not as the special occasion it is even now, 8 years on from launch.
Part 3 was a self-compounding issue, as rarely anyone using them meant there was no scale to drive prices down, staying prohibitively expensive even 8 years later. But by having one, I feel like their gamble could be that - at the expense of early physical releases - eventually 1 big cart size will drive the cost of the carts down when that's the only size being made.
If it works out, I could see it eventually making physical releases better, but it is a gamble, and one that impacted the launch lineup to be 99% all digital/key-carts. And to that point, I think Big N really should have defrayed the cart cost for, say, the 1st year to help it come to fruition. Because the other side of the gamble is: if pubs just opt to never buy carts, then they never get cheap. And then we're stuck with anything non-key-cart being the unicorn. Everything moves to download only, and they ultimately just kinda screw everyone in the end.
I hope 3rd party developers and publishers abandon the switch 2 ..if this is true.
This is more scummy than the N64.
@Games_People_Play,
If I can't buy my physical copies, you might as well be PC only, having physical copies was one of the few perks consoles had left.
Nah. N64 was truly "Draconian", nothing can beat that...
At N64 time, publishers had to buy game cartridges from Nintendo, and they went as high as $30 . On the other hand, PlayStation CDs cost $1 each. N64 games used to be priced at $ 60-80 in the 90's!
Also, download was not a things. You had a maximum of 64Mb on one $30 cartringe Vs 650MB on 1$ CD. Games like FFVII used 3 CD, almost 2GB at 3$, 30x more space for 1/10 of the price for publishers/consumers.
Nothing will ever beat the absurd of N64.
This absolute horse crap that N64 games were £60-£80 back in the 90’s has to stop.
There was like 2 games that attempted to charge that price and failed miserably. Turok and another that I can’t remember. I loved my N64 and must of had almost probably a 50-60 games for that thing in the end. Never paid more than £45 for a game. All bought at standard retail.
This insane notion that the N64 was this wild gaming system that was ludicrously expensive. Has been soo blown out of proportion over the last few years.
So true, I remember it like it was yesterday. I hope we never see that sh@t again. Lol
Dude...1nsomniac....
There were plenty of SNES games which were 60-70 USD.
Youre the one whos wrong sadly.
I was there.
One example
https://preview.redd.it/199...
There were PLENTY of very ,very expensive games in the 90s. Adjust 70 bucks for inflation.... that was 1993.
"In 1993, an amount of $69.99 would be equivalent to $118.47 in 2025, considering inflation."
so you'd be ok with devs giving you an 8GB card and then you have to download 50GB of the game? Or would you complain about that too?
16gb and 32gb options should exist. Devs should use the smallest cartridge size that fits the entire game.
I'm so confused about this entire argument because this has been a thing since ps3 and 360. This at least solidifies us getting a game card for the game and not a code in the box to lock it to our account and the card being an extra layer of security for the dev that makes us unable to sell it or share it.
Nintendo should let developers use the lower capacity cards if their games are smaller. Just like Sony should do the same. Sadly, it looks like neither is willing to budge on the use of the higher capacity medium regardless if the game can fit on something significantly smaller. I've seen PS5 games that can fit on a regular DVD and yet they are forced to use the UHD format. Smaller capacity media is more cost effective... so why can't these companies let them use what works.
Nintendo have always been about the game carts, for me anyway, this is a bad move, the collectability just went out the window
Game key card exist dude. Same as regular physical copy. It has the cartridge, physical box, and manual/warranty. The only difference is you need to fill the cartridge initially. But after that, you can play it offline, you can also resell or lend it.
There's a discussion on the Switch2 subreddit that suggests that Nintendo probably had to have Macronix set up an entire production line just to get the 64-GB game cards made. Apparently, the minimum capacity for the SD Express specification is 128 GB because smaller capacities cannot (currently; and may never) reach the very high (SSD-like) bandwidth of the specification. It is conjecture, but it might make most sense. Nintendo would be hoping to drive down the cost of the 64-GB cards with time and economy-of-scale, and that size is closest to the latest optical discs without being prohibitively expensive. Even if a 32-GB card could be validated eventually, they would then have to have multiple custom production lines (which is VERY expensive to tool---and then they would be reducing the benefit of scale to either card capacity). It is also possible that cost-reduction scale will be achieved as the Express cards become more mainstream, perhaps eventually to the point where the 128-GB cards become economical for Nintendo, and, in turn, the game publishers.
This actually makes sense and now I understand why things are this way. That being said, small indie games like 2D platformers don't even need all that SSD express speed. They could run just fine using a Switch 1 style slower cartridge. Or even force a mandatory install from a slower cartridge, at least then the entire game contents is still on the cartridge, which is what people want.
There are solutions, but Nintendo is being Nintendo, a pain in the ass.
Completely agree that mandatory installs from slower higher-capacity cards is a great solution to the problem (as well as retaining support for slower low-capacity cards for indie/small games)!
Nice. This is how I got my PS5.
Good idea. I know this type of "prove your fandom" system upsets some people, but it at least cuts back on scalpers.
Most stores won't even bother as they obviously want the sales even if by scalpers which sucks. I was able to secure my ps5 through in stock notifications so I guess I'll just have to go with that again lol.
If they really want to prevent scalping, all they have to do is prohibit pre-ordering altogether, and limit one console per person at retail. That would make it near-impossible for scalpers to acquire consoles in bulk.
I think I might just qualify for it, but honestly the only reason I want one at this moment is for both zelda games upgraded...which really isn't worth 450 bucks. Been putting off tears for this.