You’d think that, after everything that’s happened in the last month, Nintendo would finally be “out of the doghouse” with some of the things it revealed last month about its new console. For example, the console’s new pricing actually isn’t that bad when you compare it to what Xbox recently did with its console’s price. Furthermore, the game prices themselves are at least understandable, especially when you note that they’re a variable system. Yet, the Nintendo Switch 2 is still under fire by some, and that includes being targeted by some developers who aren’t a fan of one key feature: the game key card system.
Very basically, this system for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is prominent on third-party games, will let you have a physical cartridge, but the cartridge itself is just a shell, or a “key” that you’ll need to use to download the full game off the internet. According to game director Alex Hutchinson, he doesn’t like it at all and thinks Nintendo’s merely “getting away with this” due to the “nostalgia” that they wield. He noted the following in a chat with VideoGamer:
“I hate it. I think it’s sort of lame. I don’t know, I just feel like it’s getting away… we’re losing some of what made the business special. Trading Game Boy cartridges at school, or, you know, DS for the modern audience. There’s something nice about that.
It’s funny that Nintendo is going to get away with it. It just shows you the power of nostalgia in our business that the way they will beat up Microsoft versus Nintendo is just not the same, especially in Europe. It’s like, ‘oh, Nintendo’s doing it, alright, we’re not gonna say much.’”
There’s plenty going on there, including some misinformation. Hutchinson is making it sound like every game on Switch 2 will have the game key card feature, but that’s not the case. In fact, it’s only 3rd party games that have this feature announced. That implies that it wasn’t Nintendo’s call to do this, but developers/publishers, as doing this actually saves them money on certain sides of the game dev process.
Second, the idea that “Nintendo is getting away with it just because it’s Nintendo” completely ignores the section of gamers who have been throwing hate at the new console, its pricing, and certain other features ever since they were fully unveiled last month.
Make of this what you will.
