Nintendo Survey Asks Opinion on Switch 2's Game Key Cards in Japan - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 July 2025 / 3,681 Views
Nintendo has sent Japanese Nintendo Switch 2 players a survey asking about the Game Key Cards.
The survey, reported by SwitchSoku (via VideoGamesChronicle), asks players if they own any Game Key cards, if they know the characteristics of the Game Key Cards, and if they would rather buy a Game key Card or digital download version of a game.
Game Key Cards don't contain any game data and instead have a digital activation key. The majority of third-party Switch 2 games use Game Key Cards due to the Switch 2 carts having only 64 GB available.
The key difference between a Game Key Card and a digital download is users can resell Game Key Cards and they will work with other Switch 2 consoles, without the need for Virtual Game Card lending.
Read the survey below:
Did you know that Nintendo Switch 2 packaged software includes a game card called a “Game Key Card”?
- I own Game Key Card software
- I don’t own Game Key Card software but I know about it.
- I don’t know about Game Key Card software.
Do you know anything about the characteristics of the Game Key Cards? Please select all that you know.
- If you have downloaded the main game data, you can start playing without connecting to the internet.
- When playing the game for the first time, you will need to download the game data via the internet.
- Free space on the device’s internal memory or microSD Express card is required to download the main content.
- You can play the game on another console by downloading the game data and inserting the key card.
- You must insert the key card into the console to play the game.
- I never knew any of this.
After reading the above explanation, if you wanted to buy a piece of software and there was a Game Key Card or a download version available, which would you choose? Please choose the answer that applies.
- I want to buy Game Key Cards as much as possible.
- I would rather buy a Game Key Card.
- I can’t choose either.
- I would rather buy the download version.
- I want to buy the download version as much as possible.
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
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Interesting that they only ask if people prefer Game Key Cards or digital games. If only there would be a third option. Hmmmm ...
Only Japan; interesting.
Japan still is a large supporter of physical games new and old. They have a million stores called Hard off and it's just aisles and aisles of retro games and new games plus consoles from any era.
Were’s the would you rather buy a physical copy with the full game on the cartridge? Not buying the Switch 2 because of this BS!!!
And how many of your games have the full game on your disc for your other consoles? Have you tried keeping your console offline to check how many of your games are actually playable, or not shipped completely broken?
Just check the website does it play. Most games are fully on the disc.
Completely untrue. Many games 'fully' on disc are essentially unplayable. From Cyberpunk to Total War Rome 2 - many games need the update to truly be playable, even if they technically contain all necessary code to allow them to 'run'. Also, via Does it Play statistics, approx 26% of all games need some sort of update or patch to actually be playable. Yes, it is the minority of games, but is a significant percentage.
"If you have downloaded the main game data, you can start playing without connecting to the internet.
When playing the game for the first time, you will need to download the game data via the internet."
These 2 things kill the Switch 2 for me. When it comes to handhelds sometimes I'll grab a game on the day of heading out on a trip. TF am I supposed to do here? Absolutely kills the entire purpose of portability. Can't just put the game in and play. I know this isn't all games but darn I might actually be skipping a Nintendo generation for once =/
These key cards are so bad in the long term as well. Eventually they will be useless with no game in the future. I would only want Switch 2 games with the data on the cart. The fact that isn't standard is a real concern.
they sack! 100% against said the poll
I don't see why game key cards get so much vitriol to be honest. They are clearly superior to traditional virtual purchases, because they are easily transferable - which is an advantage only physical format have usually. Many who act like game key cards are unique are clearly in denial: many games currently published on other console platforms require a day one update to be functional. There is not enough of a difference between such products, and pretending that a physical game is less problematic just because it has some of the game code included (but never really used after day one update) it is hypocritical.
Because they lack the convenience of digital and the security of physical. When a product does a little of both, they usually don't do a very good job of either, and that's basically key cards in a nutshell.
You did not address the clear advantage over digital (it is a transferable product). You speak of security, but for the foreseeable future (likely at least 15 years), the servers will be available (Wii U servers are still available to DL games you own, for example). Yes, at some point in the far future, the product will cease to function. But guess what: several Saturn and Sega CD games also suffer from disc rot already (despite not being more than 30 years since they were published).
You also did not address how many other physical media games are incomplete, and unplayable without a day one patch.
The product does not do a 'little bit of both'. It is essentially a transferable digital game, transferable by means of being contained within a physical item. It is much more similar to a disc-based console game that requires a day one update to run, than a key - which cannot be transferred or resold.
I'm just going to go out on a limb here and guess that you've either purchased, intend to purchase, or fully support Switch 2 key-cards.
You are not addressing my points though. I have no key-cards yet, but I don't see how they are an inferior idea to digital keys or regular cartridges. The whole controversy behind them is nonsensical, especially since there are essentially no games these days that can technically run on their day 0 / gold state. A good majority of disc based games will either be fully unplayable when the servers go down (25% of all games currently published), or will be (severely or significantly) affected by diminished performance or missing content.
Also, this is no different to the hundreds of Switch games that had already been released containing little to no game code (from NBA 2K, to XCOM). Incidentally, XCOM on PS4/PS5 also requires a download before your disc can play any game.
During a recent store visit, I noticed that most third-party Switch games I bought years ago on physical cartridges are now sold as download codes in empty cases. If game key cards fail, we may see more download codes in boxes, which are currently overlooked.
The only upside is expensive limited editions on actual cartridges or games available at launch for $70 before being replaced by download codes in boxes if game key cards underperform.
Because only the Japanese buy their products, right?
The options for the last questions shows what Nintendo wants - no physical games.
Nobody wants to sell physical games anymore, that’s just reality. People should have rejected Steam back in the 2000s if they care so much about physical games. Too late now.
Do we have a confirmation that manufacturing lower capacity cards is too expensive? Or at least a better guess than the parallel with SD Express.
I mean, there's a reason they are putting 8GB games on 64GB cards.
Yeah, I was also wondering if the reason for the 1-size card ridge size "solution" is that the base cost of these faster cartridges is so high that a small capacity card would barely be cheaper then a 64gb card. 🤔
Yeah. I work as a stock manager and handle ordering. They may have struck a deal with the manufacturer. This specific size, plus the monthly amount needed for the discount. Then the deal is so big they manage to get the 64GB for the cost of the 16GB. I can’t confirm this is what Nintendo does, but almost every company does it.
You can resell it,until thr servers go down and you have a collection of useless plastic boxes.
Mark my words.
When that happens(and it will)
My ps1 games will still work.
Stop supporting this anti consumer crap!
Nintendo is NOT your friend.
It's only time download
The same thing applies for the vast majority of physical game media you have for your other consoles. Do you think Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be 'playable' with its day zero version of the game? How about the many other games you have that require a day one update to run, or be playable?
I don't understand the hate. It's not different to having games on steam and with key cards you can resell. All you need is one time download via internet
I was told when you download the game. As long as you got the keycard and downloaded files it’s good and downloading it or internet authentication isn’t required. Do you know if this is true? I’m just trying to understand these cards, but people get mad when I ask questions about them lol.
You get downvoted, but it’s true. People just don’t want to admit that Gabe Newell was the problem here.
There are still a hell of a lot of game collectors. Collecting does not include digital downloads. It requires a card or disc with the game on it. I do not own any switch games with the digital code inside. I hate this. I buy physical only because this is the only way you actually own the copy.
Digital copies, you only are given the right to play that copy. Nintendo any the rest can remove it from their servers and prohibited you from playin.
This has happened recently to the game Onrush. I had it this game in my library but now it's been removed. The servers closed and the game is no longer available. I'm glad I didn't pay for it as it came as a free download. But many did buy this from the store and now they no longer own it.
I can explain: Game Key Cards mean you don't own the game. If Nintendo at some point in the future decides to turn off the servers for these games then your game key card does nothing. This is a very bad precedent for game preservation. However I think it is mainly something that game collectors and us 90s kids care about.
I mean, if we are being technical, you don't own any digital games. Not on steam, not on Playstation, not on Xbox. You own a license to play the digital game.
But if you have a true physical game you can always play that game as long as you have the hardware!
Even then many physical discs do not contain full games. I think playstation is the only company that does still have full games on discs, even that I don't think is 100%. Even then so many games have day one patches or required updates to play which can just as easily be taken away. A 'true' physical game is so rare nowadays.
" playstation is the only company that does still have full games on discs" it would be nice if were so but it isnt. PS5 follows Xbox path with more and more disc games that have part of the game, a few GB or even just a few MB(license) on the disc.
I have both PS5 and SX and I cannot find any game I like that are full on disc.
Yeah, that's why I said 'i think.' I didn't think all of playstation games were, but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder why Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth came with a data disc if they could have just used an internet download. I could only find sources for Xbox not having full games on discs after a quick google search. It definitely feels like its a by company basis. I also have a vague recollection of EA using discs as license checkers back in the mid 2010s but I couldn't remember completly if that were the case.
Exactly. I acknowledge that many people don't care about this, but I do and this is why people like me buy a physical game over a digital game any day. But when a physical game is only a physical license for a digital game then this completely defeats the purpose of a physical game for me.
You should go on GOG.
No, it is stored on your device, not on your key card. The whole point of the key card is that it is cheap to produce because it doesn't have any storage. If you never delete it from your storage then yes, it is yours forever and if you are happy with this solution then good for you.
Wait till you're my age and you wonder why all these awesome classic games are offline and caught in legal limbo:
https://gamerant.com/no-one-lives-forever-game-remake-nightdive-studios/
From a purely practical standpoint they are the same (at least I don't believe servers will go down anytime soon) but from a subjective one what you have is a token as the content is not present, therefore it's not part of your stuff. Thus, that sense of "owning" is not satisfied.
Not only the so-called 4k textures are useless for most gamers, but they will be wasted Switch 2 anyway. I would prefer any games with 720/1080p textures, stereo sounds and just english language, thus having the games reduced to just a quarter or less of the balloon-up 150-200GB. Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate edition on Switch 2 is a good example.
The difference with PC and Steam is that... Steam is a perennial platform, it doesn't "reset" it's userbase every generation.
When Steam eventually dies and shuts down it's servers (Keep in mind Steam has been around for 21~ years and is still showing growth, but nothing lasts forever!), you can just download those same games you own "licenses for" via other legal sources such as the Internet Archive.
For example... Take the original StarCraft that I bought in 1998, I can still use that key and download an image of the original game and play it perfectly legally online with 2025 hardware... Try doing that with a PS2/Gamecube or OG Xbox, you just can't.
When Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft shut down their online systems, which tends to happen relatively rapidly when their old platforms depreciate... You are stuck, you can't just download those games conveniently with a few buttons.
And that is the issue with Game Key Cards, they are just e-waste, once those servers go offline, they might as well go in the bin.
And the best part? You are NOT saving money with Game Key Cards, it's just more profits in multi-billion dollar companies, while they ream the consumer.
And that is why I absolutely have voted with my wallet with the Switch 2, that if your game isn't on a proper cart... Then you lost my purchase and any profit that goes with it.
If we all do that, then publishers will get the message and we will get proper game releases rather than useless e-waste cash-grabs.
People also don't understand if you want to play the bigger third like cod down the track. Theres no catridge big enough to have the entire cod game in one catridge. It's impossible without playing a huge prices for game .. game key cart is useful for that.
It's just a one time download . If you think about bravely default has been out since 3ds days. It takes awhile for Nintendo to shut servers for their game or any third party.
The future is digital whether people like it or not. The amount of people buying digital is rising very quickly.
That is blatantly false... There is a middle ground here.
And that is including just the non-online component of Call of Duty... Aka. The Single Player Campaign.
No point having the online component that constantly gets new content and patches and eventually made useless in the future on a cart is there?
Conversely, the Switch 2 having less capable hardware will be running with lower fidelity video, textures and assets anyway.
Uncompressed audio can take up 10's of gigabytes, but ask the average gamer and they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between high bitrate quality audio and an MP3 stream on their cheap sound bar anyway...
Plus I believe we need to provide an incentive for developers to stop bloating install sizes and start optimizing, space is at a premium now.
The other advantage to carts is you can just keep everything compressed and use the decompression block on the SoC to uncompressed on the fly on a per-needs basis.
On the original Switch that used to be done on the CPU, hence why some games saw MASSIVE load-time increases when Nintendo unlocked the CPU clocks when loading.
And yes, the future is digital, but not just yet... Having a digital game in physical media is not a "compromise" that is needed. It's just e-waste, it has literally no advantages.
Steam is a “perennial” platform… until it isn’t. Nothing is forever., and Steam will be no exception. Gabe Newell is not Santa Claus, no matter how much the PC gaming community wants to believe him to be.
You literally just regurgitated/repeated my own statement... I already stated that nothing lasts forever. ...Thus making your entire comment literally useless.
Game Key Cards > Digital Download
Why?
You can resell, loan, or otherwise share your game key card. Digital downloads are strictly tied to a specific account.
Yea, until they shutdown the servers and you can't download the game anymore. There will be no retro game key cards because it will just be nothing more than e-waste at that point.
Wii and Wii U games can still be re-downloaded if owned. The stub version of the Wii eShop still functions for this sort of thing. Released in 2006, it means 19 years it has been run. By the same measure, Switch 2 is also likely to permit downloads for game key cards until at least 2044.
Let's also not forget disc rot. Although not the same thing, in practical terms, many old games are already unplayable even if you had a physical format. Particularly Sega CD and Sega Saturn games are very much affected. Most of them were released after 1994, so it means that did not even survive 30 years.
I say this as a games collector who actually owns a vast library of retro games across all such consoles, from Saturn to Jaguar CD. Some of my physical games are now just boxes with a non-functioning disc inside.
I know many on here swing left politically and were accommodating to the Great Reset effort which was rolled out during Covid.
What was lost in that moment was that GR wasn't just collectivist in nature, but also corporatist as well. Companies like Nintendo, which I have supported for far longer than many members here were alive, are showing that the effort is still alive and well.
"You'll own nothing and be happy" is the goal; this game card push is merely another attempt to normalize the anti-consumer mentality along with Office 365, housing unaffordability and ride shares.
We may disagree on much, but at the end of the day I don't want anyone (left, right, up, down, etc) to be enslaved to either the government or a handful of investors through their corporations.
I second what xl-klaudkil said earlier: starve the beast, and make Nintendo afraid of ever thinking of trying this nonsense ever again!
Nintendo will put all of their games on game cards, so why should any logically thinking gamer be angry at Nintendo? It's the AAA third party publishers who need to feel the wrath.
"will put all their games on cards" are you fucking Nostradamus? Nintendo has put their launch games o physical cards is the only fact/reality, the rest is speculation. Also, the options for the last questions in their survey shows their intention to kill the physical games.
What you are doing is also speculation but your wording "is the goal" reads as actual Nostradamus. The actions "Nintendo has put their launch games o physical cards" points the other direction.
Fact is that Nintendo wants to make money. When ~70% of their first party game sales come from physical copies, they certainly won't skip physical versions. They are also aware that game-key cards aren't recognized as physical games.
Your argument is that Nintendo is against making money from their own games. That's a ridiculously stupid argument.
And your argument is that Nintendo will do what it currently does not, and has never done. Wonder which argument holds its own better....
Okay, but why are third party publishers doing so?
Why not put them on 16 GB or 32 GB cards like they did during the NS1 era?
Oh wait..
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-says-switch-2-game-key-cards-help-third-party-publishers-bring-deeper-larger-and-more-immersive-content-on-the-platform
Looks like you realized that you lost the argument. You have no choice but to concede that Nintendo is doing it right.
Additionally, your deflection is laughable. The third parties that have been using game-key cards are the same ones that didn't use 16 GB and 32 GB cards on Switch 1, instead they put codes in a box or used a smaller card to force a mandatory download for the rest of the game.
Even the cost of Switch 2's 64 GB cards don't work as an excuse when the small publisher Marvellous has put their games on game cards. So once again, the logical conclusion is that AAA third party publishers suck because they are the ones who want to get rid of physical games.
My original premise was based on third parties' treatment; you're jumping to conclusions instead of reading what I'm saying.
So why not also go after Sony, Microsoft, and Steam? Why is only Nintendo being held to this standard? Steam’s entire premise is “you will own nothing and be happy,” Game Pass wants to do away with even one time purchases and get people to accept Microsoft automatically scooping money out of their wallets on a monthly basis.
I only own a PSX, and have been loyal to Nintendo since the days of the NES. (including during the Great 16-bit Schoolyard Battle of 1991-95)
I don't disagree with you that bad is bad, no matter who does it. Personally, I'm only paying attention to Nintendo but I suspect they're getting more heat because they were previously the company which seemed to care about their user base: unlike the PS2, my Gamecube still works; until X360, Wiis aren't known for rings of death; until either Sony or Microsoft, Nintendo actively fought shovelware and took risks internally to design new game experiences.
I'm not letting the others off the hook at all, but just pointing out that Nintendo has had farther to fall (which may explain a new conspiracy I'll invent here that the new Donkey Kong game is a cryptic analogy of where present leadership wants to take the company, smash and grab and all!)
