There’s a huge rumor surrounding the Switch 2’s Game Cards and their capacities.
As shared by Necro Felipe on Twitter, Arc System Works recently suffered from a data breach. Among the information found in that data breach was what Nintendo offered third party developers so that they can sell their games on the Switch 2. These were the codes and what they meant respectively:
- [DL] – digital download
- [64GB] – Game Card with full game
- [POTION] – codename for Game-Key Card
A lot of this information sounds credible, but it seems we need to point out that none of this information is verified. In fact, we would raise a lot of doubts if dataminers saw code names if they really knew what those codes meant. Another problem with data discovered from data breaches or ransomware hacks is we don’t know if the information is outdated. If you remember the frenzy over Grand Theft Auto 6’s data breaches, and you’ve seen the latest trailer, you will understand that we need to be responsible and sober in considering this kind of information.
There also seems to be some confusion (or real malicious misinformation) surrounding the 64 GB limit for Switch 2 Game Cards. CD Projekt RED revealed that the maximum capacity they could use for Cyberpunk 2077 was 64 GB. This information was not leaked or rumored at all, though a lot of speculation about why and how it reached that size has been going around. When CD Projekt RED revealed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the original Switch, they also promised that it would have all the content on it, and they squeezed it into a 32 GB Switch Game Card. They also said that it was the biggest capacity they could get for that game.
You may have read rumors or speculation that there were bigger Switch Game Cards, but that would be incorrect. Switch owners would know that the PS360 or ‘impossible’ ports from PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the Switch had to be downloaded one way or another. Some of these games were codes in boxes. There were also cases where games where part of bundles, and some of the games were on Game Card, and some had to be downloaded.
There is something to be said about how video games themselves have been getting bigger more quickly than physical media has been able to catch up to them. It’s been over a decade since 4K UHD Blu-Rays were introduced, and we haven’t seen a new disc media that can compete with the speed of games installed on SSDs. In theory, Switch 2 Game Cards can cross that performance metric, but the economies of scale may not be favorable for larger capacities of Game Cards. At least, it may not make sense to make larger Game Cards at this time.
Gamers who are championing games being sold complete on physical platforms need to recognize that for games to keep being made in this way needs technological innovation. The industry is not moving away from physical games to trick gamers, or to ‘be mean.’ It may be that gamers will need to move towards a different direction, in pushing for digital rights to games so that they can freely redownload and make backups of their games more than they can now. But here and now, it’s become increasingly clear that the industry is moving away from complete games on physical, regardless if consumers like it or not.
