By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales - Over 75% of Cyberpunk 2077's sales on Switch 2 were physical

Darwinianevolution on 30 August 2025
TheRealSamusAran said:
Darwinianevolution said:

Good. The whole fake cartridge situation is absurd. Either allow physical media or go full digital and accept the consequences, but trying to fake it to both publishers and the public was absurd. Hopefully now the publishers adopt fully physical releases, since it's clearly what the userbase wants.

Nintendo created the "game key-card" branding and demanded those to be clearly identified IN THE FRONT of the box to do the exact opposite of "trying to fake it", but trying to do something good and getting criticized for it, is just natural for Nintendo at this point.

The moment you release a cartridge that is empty and needs a full digital download to function, it is a fake cartridge. The point of the cartridge is to contain the game, not to serve as a glorified download code. It's e-waste of the worst kind.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

Around the Network
Sephiran on 30 August 2025
Darwinianevolution said:
TheRealSamusAran said:

Nintendo created the "game key-card" branding and demanded those to be clearly identified IN THE FRONT of the box to do the exact opposite of "trying to fake it", but trying to do something good and getting criticized for it, is just natural for Nintendo at this point.

The moment you release a cartridge that is empty and needs a full digital download to function, it is a fake cartridge. The point of the cartridge is to contain the game, not to serve as a glorified download code. It's e-waste of the worst kind.

The fact is a lot of games released physically on PS/Xbox also downloads content, meaning the only reason Nintendo gets more hate is because they seemingly have more physical gamer extremists that buy their consoles compared to PS/Xbox.



Kyuu on 30 August 2025
Sephiran said:
Darwinianevolution said:

The moment you release a cartridge that is empty and needs a full digital download to function, it is a fake cartridge. The point of the cartridge is to contain the game, not to serve as a glorified download code. It's e-waste of the worst kind.

The fact is a lot of games released physically on PS/Xbox also downloads content, meaning the only reason Nintendo gets more hate is because they seemingly have more physical gamer extremists that buy their consoles compared to PS/Xbox.

Not the only reason, no.

As I understand, most Switch 2 "physical games" are empty cards or require a digital download to be played. This just isn't the case on Playstation where as far as I know the vast majority of games can be played offline without connecting to the internet.

Not sure how it goes on Xbox, I heard it's worse than Playstation but I don't think it's nearly as bad as Switch 2.



Wman1996 on 30 August 2025
Kyuu said:

I'm kind of surprised that Nintendo didn't launch a slightly cheaper Switch 2 digital edition. It's one surefire way to accelerate digital adoption.

I think that would only make sense if it also removed some other features like HDR and 120hz on the screen.

While it would be a cheaper piece of hardware for consumers, Nintendo saves maybe $10 ($20 at most) removing the Game Card slot.

The optical drives on Xbox and PlayStation are larger in volume on the hardware and save more money to remove. 



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)

PS5: 122 million (was 105 million, then 115 million) Xbox Series X/S: 38 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million. then 48 million. then 40 million)

Switch 2: 120 million (was 116 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

IcaroRibeiro on 30 August 2025
Kyuu said:
Sephiran said:

The fact is a lot of games released physically on PS/Xbox also downloads content, meaning the only reason Nintendo gets more hate is because they seemingly have more physical gamer extremists that buy their consoles compared to PS/Xbox.

Not the only reason, no.

As I understand, most Switch 2 "physical games" are empty cards or require a digital download to be played. This just isn't the case on Playstation where as far as I know the vast majority of games can be played offline without connecting to the internet.

Not sure how it goes on Xbox, I heard it's worse than Playstation but I don't think it's nearly as bad as Switch 2.

I can confirm. I have more than 40 physical games among PS4 and PS5 and the only one I cannot play without download, if I'm not mistaken, is Hogwarts Legacy. It might have others but this is the only one I can think of. Many of them will even come with a separate disc to install the data because the Blue Ray don't come with enough space to store all the game 

I think people are mistaken day 1 patches with mandatory download patches. Granted some of those game would be borderline unplayable with the patches (Cyberpunk is a disaster without the patches), but I would still not call them fake physical games 

Switch 2 seems to be suffering from a disproportionate number of fake physical games. I believe there is a behavioral reason here: Once Nintendo explicitly allows you to sell fake physical games, developers will naturally do it