But doesn't that still ignore the more storage required on these slower carts still raises the price?

It does seem like GCK cards are the best solution for matching the cost of disc on PS/Xbox. Disc simply offer the best bang for your buck vs cartridges and ofcourse disc are a non starter for a mobile device. No matter what Nintendo does cartridges just cost too much for most 3rd parties to swallow.

I won't tag as responding to a few earlier response.

Yes the carts may be slow, and yes you may have to copy to internal to play it faster. But at the end of the day if the gaming industry wants us to embrace digital they need to make it user friendly to be treated as something that I own and can do what I want with it.

I don't want to be virtual ejecting games from one console to another. If my account is logged in on my consoles it should just work.

If my console fails and I buy another one I should be able to simply plug in my external with my games on it and be able to play it.

There is way too much DRM software locking and hardware locking that makes modern console effectively useless when a generation ends if they go down a full digital path.

Hell a Ubisoft employee (maybe it was the CEO), said that gamers should get used to not owning games.

If that is the attitude of the industry, people will switch to piracy as they want it to be easy access and own it.

Because of this shady DRM nonsense, I have reduced my gaming purchases by 98%. I have zero desire supporting any developer if they can't respect the consumer. If they make my life difficult on one system, I just don't buy their games on any system anymore. I know at the end of the day I am one consumer, but eventually there will be enough people out there who will simply give up and the gaming industry will start to shrink again.

Storage required isn't an issue IMO. The S2 has a decent amount built in and most games are under 32GB. It's about physical media being able to function as physical media and actually storing the game code and access to the game out the box. The price would be significantly lower with a cheap/slow card, not as a low as a Disc but as low, if not even lower than Switch 1 catridges. 

GCK have offered publishers an official out whilst pretending to be physical media and that has opened pandoras box. If it wasn't offered by Nintendo in the first place, most publishers would just eat the  tiny cost because having retail visiblity and physical availability helps game sales. And the cheap catridge solution would make the cost negligible

I mean what exactly is so restrictive about digital? We are just playing the games, so how exactly do you feel like you don't own them? Are you not playing them?

It also doesn't help that you complain about digital lacking something that physical lacks also. You don't want to eject virtual cards but that's exactly what you would do with a physical game lol. You are essentially upset you can't rip them off lol, why wouldn't they attempt to block that? Just because a game is digital doesn't mean they owe an unlimited amount of copies, you have to eject the game so you can't play the game on another console at the same time, that would be like owning two copies of the game. Do you get two copies of a game when you purchase it physically? 

Storage required is an issue because there are several games above 32GB and would need larger/more expensive carts to fully hold these games. This is why GKC cards are so popular, they are more cost effective and operate similar to physical games ie allows a game to freely transfer ownership at one's desire. Digital games are locked to an account and real physical games come at a higher price tag due to the storage needed. GKC is literally the best of both worlds, not to expensive and no limits to ownership.

The second paragraph is flat-out wrong, if Nintendo didn't offer GKC then 3rd parties would just go back to digital code in a box or raise the price of physical (Switch Tax remember), thirds aren't eating the cost lol. The misinformation about GKC has to stop.

Steam let's me install my games on multiple devices. It is tied to your login not your hardware. If I want to play it on my desktop at home I can. If I want to travel and take my laptop with my games I can.

If my hardware dies, I simply buy new hardware log into steam and can just install the games.

The problem is longevity as modern consoles no longer become a device for retro gamers.

Say I like the Wii U for example and the game experience it offered. I got all my games digital, the services are now off in my country for Wii U. If my Wii U dies, I am screwed. I can no longer redownload the games nor can I use backups to put them on another Wii U (say a second hand I bought one). This is a big issue.

At least with Wii U discs, I can play those games on any Wii U.  

All I want if games are to be digital only on consoles, is for them to be easy to manage as I could with retro consoles.  

Regarding the bolded, I recall their being way less digital codes in the box compared to GKC? Now pretty much all third parties have gone GKC. So GKC has pushed developers away from real physical releases. Games like Bravely Default 2 on Switch came on physical catridges, but HD remaster on Switch 2 is GKC despite them both being the same size (11GB). Developers are using GKC to opt out of physical altogether, we can't ignore that reality.

Storage wise I thought you were referring to Switch's internal memory but you mean the size of the game cards. Yeah, some games would need 64GB storage cards but the point is slow storage cards can be bought for a fraction of the price of the high speed ones needed to actually run the games. These cards would be even cheaper than S1 catridges. We're talking 1/4 the cost compared S2 catridge at least

"GKC is literally the best of both worlds, not to expensive and no limits to ownership."

Ultimately this centres on what you consider people's issue GKC. If someone is looking for ability to play out the box GKC does not allow this and requires access to both internet and storefronts to download the game. Traditional physical does not need this in most games. 

Not a big surprise, but Dusk Golem also says all the RE Engine Resident Evil titles (so RE7, Village, and the remakes of 2, 3, and 4) are coming to Switch 2:

https://x.com/AestheticGamer1/status/1965421437784916412

Kinda expected as they all run on PS4 and so should be easy to port, but still nice to hear.

I'd be inclined to agree with you but then I see Marvelous, who's not that big of publisher, putting their games on the gamecard. Then I think of last gen when you had companies like Capcom having compliations of classic games not entirely on the gamecard when their files sizes would fit on 2GB or 4GB gamecards. If Marvelous can afford to put their games on the 64GB gamecard every publisher can.

I do agree that Nintendo could have down things better. UFS is faster the EMMC. Nintendo could have partnered with a company like Samsung to have faster UFS based gamecards to prevent a Star Wars Outlaws situation where the game card is too slow to stream in the assets. More over they could have also worked with them to produce UFS Cards for memory expansion that matched the data transfer speeds of the Switch 2 internal storage and hypothetical cartridges I presented. That way internal storage, memory expansion, and game cards would all run at the same speeds. I know Nintendo is extremely cost conscious. I'm surprised they didn't leverage buying multiple components from Samsung to get better prices on all of them. 

Side note: The reason I mentioned Samsung in particular is that they are one of the few companies that provide some many of the different system components.

Sorry for the late response. Can't I do all of this on another Switch/Switch 2? I move games back and forth all the time between my Switch consoles. That's what the virtual cards allow. As for WiiU/3DS, we no longer have assess to purchase games via WiiU and/or 3DS but my understanding is the servers are still up to redownload games you have already purchased. I'm not sure why posters are acting like Nintendo is going anywhere anytime soon. Those servers aren't shutting down anytime soon because Nintendo is a proven successful and longterm brand. Mario turns 40 this year!

Sorry for the late response. There were way less digital codes because the AAA third party support was far more limited on Switch vs Switch 2 or in other words if Switch got better AAA support then more code in box games would exist.

The game key cards are likely the most cost efficient method/answer for Nintendo compared to their PS/Xbox counterparts. The larger the cart sizes needed to store Switch 2 games, the higher the cost, slower speeds included. The cartridges are just too expensive compared to the PS/Xbox disc counterparts unless 3rd parties charge more for Nintendo's version. That's why even the slower cartdriges still don't work because the PS/Xbox disc's are just much cheaper. The game key cards are probably the cheapest method while still being somewhat "physical" ie a cartridge that is interchangeable. People acting like using the internet to install instead of installing from the cartdrige/disc is the biggest problem in the world but just seems exaggerated. Nintendi's servers aren't going anywhere and none of you are willing to bet me on that.

If that is the case, they need to advertise this better. I have been under the impression once services are shutdown nothing works for that console. Like on my WiiU it won't let me log into the eshop, so I took that as how do I get my games on a replacement Wii U.

Anyone interesting, I will have to research it on reddit.

I wouldn't be against if you did it all via a computer too. Log into your Nintendo account via web browser, download a purchased game in your catalogue onto a storage device, then plug it in and install.