Nintendo Announces Switch and Switch 2 Digital Games Changes With Virtual Game Card - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 27 March 2025 / 3,827 Views
Nintendo has announced optional changes to how their digital games work on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 with "Virtual Game Cards."
View a trailer on "Virtual Game Cards" below:
Read details on how "Virtual Game Cards" work below:
Introducing the virtual game card – a new feature for easily managing purchased digital games, playing games on two different systems, and even lending or borrowing games.
Similar in concept to moving physical game cards between systems, virtual game cards make it possible to “eject” a purchased digital title from one Nintendo Switch system and “load” it onto another – whether it belongs to a member of the same Nintendo Account family group, or a second system tied to your account.
This optional feature allows you to view virtual game cards or eject them from your system. The digital game can also be lent to a Nintendo Account family group member’s system via local wireless connection.
Games that you lend can then be played on a Nintendo Account family group member’s system for two weeks, after which the game will be automatically returned to you. This feature will be available on Nintendo Switch starting late April via a hardware system update.
Additionally, virtual game cards will also work with Nintendo Switch 2 systems at launch.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Great concept, I always dreamed with something like this. But sadly, it's incredibly limited. A time limit of 14 days for the transfered game, only being able to lend 1 game per person at a time, you can't resell a virtual game card...
I don't know. It's good to have this option, but I would have liked to have more flexibility when managing my OWN games.
Oh, right. They are not MY games. They are just licenses. Huh. I guess physical games still have the edge then,,,
Oh, they could. The absolutely could. There is nothing preventing companies from allowing their customers to do with their digital copy whathever the hell they want. Lending it to a friend, selling it to somebody else without limitations... you name it.
Hell, even if they couldn't make digital copies have the same properties as physical games, there's nothing preventing them from giving us the best from both worlds. Many BluRay releases in the past not only gave you the physical copy of the movie, but also came with a downloadable code for the digital version, all for the price of a single BluRay movie (and sometimes they threw the DVD version, go figure).
What's preventing them from doing that with video games? Greed. That's it. It's not about "not being able to". It's about not wanting to do it. Period.
For the most part, yes. It is greed. Even Steam is a good example of that. How long have they been doing things that the console guys haven't? Decades, now?
But even if they went the COG rout, there will always be things inherently flawed with digital games. For instance, I just went to a flee market yesterday and got five NES carts for cheap. All I have to do to play them is clean them off, pop them in, and bam... I'm playing forty-year-old games on a console that hasn't been supported in decades. For the vast amount of games these days, you're not going to be doing that in forty years time. Half of them require internet checks, and all digital titles require hard drives to function. And when those hard drives die, and the kind of hard drives required to play your PS5 are no longer being made, or Sony has shut down those servers, a whole slew of your games just won't work. So you're never going to have the security and longevity with digital titles. Not without hacking the games etc. and jumping through hoops and playing them on your PC via emulation etc.
Gamers are such a tough crowd to navigate. While this update introduces a feature that wasn't available before and represents progress in the right direction, it's important to recognize that the situation was actually worse prior to this quality-of-life improvement. Providing feedback is valuable and may lead to further enhancements, such as customizable time limits or a different number of shares. However, criticizing digital content for being license-based isn't directly related to this update—it's simply the nature of digital media. This update moves things closer to the experience of physical media. It's not flawless, but it's still a positive step forward.
Well, whenever we talk about what we can and can't do with digital games, it's inevitable to talk about the license nature of digital copies. Because that's the very thing that limits what we can do with our digital copies.
Giving us more options is fine. But if I'm gonna pay the same price for something that doesn't physically exist and something that does, I don't want "improvements". I want EVERYTHING. Because I'm paying the exact same price. If there was no concievable way to get it done, I wouldn't even criticize any of this. But we know they can. They can, and instead of giving us everything, they take baby steps because they can't live with the idea of various people enjoying a single copy of a game.
You have a good point about price. I remember thinking twenty years ago that digital was going to mean games arriving at half the price. Because surely, without all the transport and manufacturing costs, and everything else that is needed for physical products, the cost to the consumer would plummet... but that didn't happen. It a real shame, and yes, beyond insulting.
So when you "load" a digital game onto a second system, I'm guessing you would have to still download the entire game onto the system first. It's not as seamless as inserting a physical game card and the Switch then reading from the game card itself, allowing you to instantly play. And then "ejecting" the game just means completely uninstalling the game from the system itself.
Games only work in 2 systems?
Also, they literally took away the only benefit of digital games, convenience. Why would I want to have to load and eject freaking digital games and move between both systems instead of simply having access to all my digital games instantly?
The game icons as cartdriges are the only cool thing, but this is ridiculous, wtf.
to clarify: “share it” referring to Nintendo Switch systems which aren’t logged into your account. If you own multiple Switch systems and you’re logged in on all of them, for instance, then there’s no need to “insert/eject.”
I also had to check it. Currently you can simply start the digital game you've purchased on any console (even a friend's console), but you must log in and start the game with your account. If you want to start a digital game with a different account, you get an error message, that you haven't purchased the game, even if your account exists on the other console. You also get an error message, if the game is already in use with the same account.
So currently it's similar like on PS5, where you can play all digital games you've purchased on PS4, if you log in with your account. This eject and load feature would make it more complicated than it currently is. It already works like this, without you have to do anything. The lend feature for another family member is better, though.
Update: I found the reason behind this new system. Currently you can start the game with a different account on the console you've bought the game and start it with your account on another console. So you can play the same game on two consoles at the same time, which you've purchased only once. In future this won't be possible.
On PlayStation you can also nominate one console as your primary PS5 and every game you own can be played on that console by anybody on that system, you don’t need to log in.
So you can make your friends console your primary and they can make your console their primary and you can share games completely.
It's crazy how many people don't know this. One of the reasons why I'm so happy with digital. Me and my brother can play the same game at the same time in completely different places, something you can't do with physical
Right and also both accounts on the PS5 can play the game at the same time. Its great for mutliplayer games like Helldivers 2 or Call of Duty.
Nintendo Switch is if User A's Switch is set up with User B's primary account, and User B's Switch has User B's secondary account, then Both User A and User B can play any game in User B's library at the same time on their Switches without having to worry about this convoluted eject/insert system.
This is how it's been for the entire generation.
You don't have to use them. You can start it the way you always do.
Currently, if you want to play on a second system you need to do an internet check before the software will start. This fixes that.
If you have like three switches for some reason then you're out of luck I guess but this seems a fair compromise.
I don't think you understand how this works :)
This is on TOP of what is already working today.,
Today, you have (no matter if it is with Sony, Xbox or Nintendo), one MAIN (home) console which can play all your games, no matter if you are connected or not.
On top of that, you can play any of your game, on an addiotional console if you are logged on it (no matter who own that console).
This will ALSO add the possibility to basically associate your game to anotehr console temporarly without thje need to be logged on it to play it. This is great and something on top of the existing capabilities, so nothing wrong with that.
This is great and one thing I am actually very intrigued about this system, is : can I buy multiple copy of a game and share the virtual cartridge to 2 people to play with. This would be amazing. (I have 4 kids...)
It's a bit sad that the sharing function only works for other people, who are within your Nintendo Switch Online family membership and not for other friends.
Yes, it would be amazing, I agree
Neat idea.
I remember giving a class mate my Secret of Mana on SNES some decades ago with a "you get it back anytime soon" and then he just disappeared lol. That would've helped 😆
This sounds like a great thing and a step in the right direction. Now make it so you can store digital purchases on these cards forever (basically transferring the licences) and we are truely getting somewhere.
So what they are saying is: "people want physical games, but screw 'em"?
