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The saga of the Switch 2’s Game-Key Cards has taken another plot twist.
Game-Key Cards are a strange hybrid digital physical category for Switch 2 games. The card does not contain any game code in itself. Instead, it functions as a key for you to access the game.
When you insert the Game-Key Card into a Switch 2, the console will automatically download the full game. You will then be able to play the game as long as the card is in the Switch 2.
The Game-Key Cards have mostly received negative reception. Many gamers swear to not buy any Game-Key Cards, and also to only support games that are complete in Game Card. Some gamers point fingers at Nintendo for introducing the format, but it’s complicated.
Nintendo isn’t releasing their games as Game-Key Cards. They have repeatedly stressed the format is for third party developers. Nearly all third parties chose to publish Game-Key Cards on the Switch 2 so far.
What Japan’s National Library Said
The National Diet Library is Japan’s equivalent of the Library of Congress. While it was established in 1948, it inherited collections from earlier governments dating back to the 19th century. It is one of the largest libraries in the world.
The library started collecting video games in October 2000, in the form of optical discs, cartridges and cards. It only collects physical copies of games, and currently holds 9,600 titles.
Automaton shared this translation of the Famitsu report:
When asked about Switch 2 game-key cards, NDL representatives say that “only physical media that contains the content itself” is considered eligible for preservation.
“Since a key card, on its own, does not qualify as content, it falls outside of our scope for collection and preservation.”
Will This End Game-Key Cards?
This will probably have no direct effect on the video game industry; whether that’s Nintendo or third party companies that publish Game-Key Cards. Japanese game companies have been publishing digital-only games for years, and they have not been deterred by the national library’s categorization.
In fact, video game preservationists lament that a lot of Japan’s mobile game history is already lost. Japan’s i-mode games precede iPhone by eight years, and are a significant part of Japan’s gaming history.
But because i-mode games do not fit the National Library’s standards for being worthy of preservation, they have also been excluded. It’s believed that a large number of these games are simply lost.
The call for physical game preservation is laudable in general. But it doesn’t account for many situations outside its purview, such as i-mode games. If Nintendo will end the Game-Key Card program in the future, the National Diet Library is unlikely to be the cause for it.
UPDATE: Nintendo Patents Watch pointed out on Bluesky that the National Diet Library Law has not yet been amended to include digital video game preservation. The library just started preserving ebooks after a 2023 amendment.
The Japanese government seems to have partly recognized the shortcomings of their national library’s laws. But they haven’t caught up to the realities of the video game industry yet.
