HoloDust said:
RolStoppable said:
Not really. Game-key cards aren't selling well, so you merely need to have patience. This is similar to how the narrative has been that digital is the future and then more and more indie game developers looked into releasing physical versions of their games on Switch 1. Eventually the bigger third party publishers will realize that having a physical version on its own will already generate a lot of positive interest in their games. They are going to hamfist the game-key card for Switch 2's first year, but it's not going to work. |
GKCs are Nintendo's doing, not 3rd party publisher's. Wouldn't be much better that if instead of them there was slower "game install required" cards on much cheaper media, so that there is actual choice between (something like) premium Game Cartridge (current game cards), Game Cart (install required) and Digital, instead of current Game Cart, GKC (which is glorified Digital) and Digital? |
Each publisher is making their own decisions whether to use game-key cards. As such, it's the responsibility of the respective publisher and never Nintendo's. The same logic holds true for code-in-a-box packaging.
Your suggestion is to replace glorified digital with glorified digital. Either way you quickly run into the need to purchase a large micro SD express card when one of the important points of physical games is that that isn't necessary.
IcaroRibeiro said:
RolStoppable said:
The easiest and best solution would be that third parties compress the data and put the whole game on a proper game card.
What annoys me the most about this recurring discussion is that so many of you start with the premise that third parties cannot possibly do the above |
There are 3 separate issues to be adressed here: 1) Some games simply don't need the current only card option which is a expensive 64GB unit. A game that only has 12GB compressed has no reason to be on a 64GB card. In this case we are simply paying more money to use a unnecessary media. This is the case for Nintendo own first party games as well, in fact for the majority of their first parties 2) Nintendo decision for not allow installing games inside the storage is simply strange. Instead of letting consumers put more money on storage when we feel fit we need to instead put more money on every true physical game purchase (even the ones we don't need as per point 1). If I buy 20 physical games (true physical games not GCK), and each is 10 USD more expensive it's already 200 USD This is the price of 1TB SSD express card, which can store up to 16 64 GB games (actually more since most of those games are smaller than 64 GB) 3) Compression do not work by magic. Some games can be compressed to work on 64GB, but it won't work forever. Cyberpunk could be compressed to 59 GB (it's the size of Xbox edition), compared to its 102 GB from PS4 version. But FF VII Rebirth is 88 GB on Steam Deck (already reduced from the original 145GB+) so unless they really reduce game quality I can't see how they could fit. |
1. So far there's no public information for how much Switch 2 game cards would cost to produce if there were different sizes. The one-size-fits-all 64 GB approach may come down to achieving lower massproduction costs, just like it's common that low capacity SD cards from various manufacturers were eventually phased out because their production became more expensive than high capacity cards due to the volume of production.
Also, you pay $10 more for digital versions this generation. You don't pay more for a physical game because it uses only a fraction of the game card's capacity, so from a consumer's point of view, it makes no difference how much space of the game card is being used.
2. Entirely wrong because digital and physical versions of the same game cost the same in the USA. It's only in Europe where the MSRP for physical games is €10 higher than for its digital counterpart, but that was a Nintendo decision based on European retailers routinely undercutting digital prices in the past, making digital versions more expensive and a worse deal. So when European retailers now undercut the MSRP for physical Switch 2 games by €10 (and that's what they already do), then digital and physical cost the same.
3. Compression rates of less than 2:1 leave a lot of room for improvement. A 3:1 ratio is definitely doable.
