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Veknoid_Outcast on 27 March 2025
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Jules98 said:
Slownenberg said:


The virtual game card thing sounds cool, lending and whatnot. Though from the comments on here maybe it is a restriction in some ways? I assumed if you had two Swtiches you could only have your games on one system, thus this virtual game card thing would be an improvement, that's how they made it seem in the video (this being a solution for digital games), but by the amount of complaining comments on here I'm guessing you could already play your games on more than one system assuming you're using the same account? So sounds like virtual game cards are in some ways restricting things while also adding nice things as well specifically the lending to shared NSO account members.

Allow me to attempt to explain:

From what I can tell, the virtual game card aims to replace the current (and rather convoluted) system of primary and secondary consoles, where the secondary console can play digital games from the primary console, but only with a persistent internet connection and only if the primary console isn't also playing digital games.

With the Virtual Game Cards, you can instead share digital games between consoles by "ejecting" and "loading" the virtual cards. As such, a virtual game card is available on only one console at a time. An Internet connection is required when ejecting and loading virtual cards, but not when playing the games. This is ultimately the main difference with the current system. Virtual game cards can be shared between consoles that are linked to your Nintendo account, and consoles that are linked to accounts part of your family group. When lending to accounts that are part of your family group, there exists a 14 day time-limit, after which the virtual card is automatically returned.

This is helpful.

So, the new system is less restrictive in that it removes the persistent online requirement, but at the same time it’s more tedious because it requires ejecting/loading individual games each time you want to swap systems.

I suppose the ability to lend your games to others inside your family group — even with the two-week limit — is worth the extra hurdle.