Switch 2 should have used PS5 strategy regarding physical media

[Soundwave]

HoloDust said:

RolStoppable said:

Like game-key cards, they sit somewhere inbetween physical and digital. They constitute only a slight improvement over game-key cards, namely that no internet connection is required to get the game on the internal memory.

Technical specifics aside, what matters in the end is how consumers see it. People who want physical games want game cards. Any proposed compromise is not good enough, especially because there's no good reason to have a compromise in the first place.

Nintendo uses game cards. CD Projekt Red did the same, so did the small publisher Marvelous. When Marvelous can do it, then what exactly is the barrier? Nobody has ever dared to give an answer to this question on VGC, so maybe you'll be the first one.

We're seeing things quite differently - when you buy CD/DVD/BD, that's very much a physical copy of the game. Whether or not it requires installation (like most PC games from mid 90s onward required), either partial or full, is irrelevant. What matters is that it comes on physical media that you bought and can store, and eventually whip out of that storage 20 years later and it will work on supporting hardware. This would be the same case with proposed cheap "install required" Game Carts.

GKC is just a code on the card, instead of code in a box, and doesn't work without servers from where you must download the game.

What real difference is there between having the data on "holder cartridge" that is otherwise useless at running the game itself versus downloading the game online onto a SD Card?

The data is the same in either case, no? If you pop the SD Card in there 20 years later, you should theoretically have the same data as you would on a cartridge.