"Yes, I've heard the reactions of various Nintendo players to the Game Key Cards. I certainly understand their perspective. I can understand what might bother them, why they might not like them, and I really do. But among developers, the discussion about the format might be a little different than fans might expect.

Perhaps the biggest issue for developers is, certainly for people like us who are developing high-end HD games, is the loading speed, because if you compare that to an [SSD] drive and the speed you get from that when loading, it's inferior. So that's really the bigger problem when it comes to developing games, high-end games for the Switch 2, and what's possible with it.

This is just my personal opinion, but I would like it if Nintendo fans understood the key cards and perhaps accepted them as part of the gaming culture on the Switch because they offer more possibilities. It's an option that not everyone needs to use, but it's another way to make the games available to fans, and I think we could miss opportunities if we didn't have that option, because there might be people who wouldn't be able to play the game otherwise.

I really understand why people are negative about it, and there are good reasons and arguments for it. But if people are more accepting of it, I think there are also advantages, and from a developer's perspective, it allows us to do things we might not otherwise do."

https://x.com/Stealth40k/status/1971149719830225046

PS5: 5.5 GB/s
SX: 2.4 GB/s

I can understand that games designed for nvme drives can have issues loading things (and not just loading screens) from the much slower Switch 2 cartridges.
But the same goes for Blu Rays, which is why you install most of the game from the disc unto the internal storage, and read most of the crucial data from there.
So why not do the same on Switch 2?
Its internal storage speed is close to Xbox Series S.

I already created a thread suggesting the way Nintendo should have designed this system is to use cheap cards storage and ask us to install all cards data into the console

It's what PS5 does and it's pretty good, better than the 256GB internal storage on Switch 2. Has very fast loading times as well

Mr. Hamaguchi should be reminded that games like Octopath 0, Elliot, Bravely Default HD or Dragon Quest I+II HD don't need high loading speeds at all and yet they are or will be in Game Key Cards.

Mr. Hamaguchi should be reminded that when people want a physical game, they don't want some kind of physical monkey-paw kind of situation. They want the game in the card. That's what they pay for. In fact, they are already paying an extra compared to Switch 1 releases just because. So, the least he could do is not be a cheap asshole and throw their fans a bone.

Mr. Hamaguchi should also be reminded that there are already some exclusive current gen or high-end cross gen games that would benefit a lot more from high loading speeds than Final Fantasy VII Remake... And yet they come full in a Game Card and play just fine.

Mr. Hamaguchi should also be reminded that putting a game inside a Game Card and force an installation on Switch's 2 internal memory should also be an option. But of course, Mr. Hamaguchi knows very well that the whole "loading speeds" is just a bullshit excuse to not say they don't want to pay for the full cartridge.

Seriously, this whole Game Key Card situation is just stupid and makes me absolutely livid. From companies making up stupid excuses as to why they "have" to use them and even trying to ASK their customers to just accept them... to people trying to defend this whole mess by being on the side of the multi billion dollar company by spreading even more bullshit: "Ohhh, but it's too expensive to use full carts... They need their benefits... Oh, what's that? They are already charging more money than they did for Switch 1 games despite using literally empty carts? Oh... Well... That's... I mean... THE BENEFITS, MAN, THE BENEFITS! Why can't you understand their situation?! :( ".

+1

no more to add as it's well written.

This,all is said

I haven't bought any physical games yet, for those that have purchased Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart on psychical cards do you notice any slowdowns or problems? I've played some Switch 1 games on the Switch 2 and didn't notice anything off.

I thought the whole claim why Nintendo games are suddenly $70/$80 for physical now is because the new faster Switch 2 cards (a quick internet search suggests S2 cards are 5-10x faster than S1 cards) are much more expensive and therefore physical games have to go up $10-$20 to offset that.

But according to the info in the OP's post, they are still significantly slower than that internal storage. Considering Nintendo's choice to have key cards, and pretty much all third parties using them, seems like Nintendo should have just gone with slower cheaper cards so then physical games should still only cost $60. But wait, third parties are charging $70 even for game cards, and as for Nintendo, well this is Nintendo v.2025 where they overcharge for everything so cheaper cards wouldn't have stopped them from $70/$80 price point anyways. Or Nintendo should have put in like 1TB of internals storage and just adopted the "physical games require big system downloads" approach like the consoles do.

Whole thing is ridiculous. None of these video game companies are honest anymore, it's all about fleecing consumers. If it's digital it should never cost more than $60. If it's a key card which means it literally has nothing on it it should never cost more than $60. If the physical cards to have high speeds are expensive then they should have enough speed to run games well. If a game isn't a huge AAA hyper realistic game then it doesn't require super fast speeds and can either be an actual physical card (at $60 since that means it shouldn't have crazy dev costs) or should be key card at $60. If doing the console thing of downloads for most physical games is how they want to go then Nintendo is certainly charging enough for the S2 to have put in a TB of storage so they should have done that.

Maybe there is no perfect single solution, but these companies sure seem to specifically find the worst solutions.

This all could've been avoided with optional installs for a handful of titles and mandatory installs for most. While some people are frustrated enough that they can't pop in and play the game, the bigger frustration is needing to download the whole thing over the internet.

'I would like it if Nintendo fans understood the key cards and perhaps accepted them as part of the gaming culture on the Switch'

Gamers are too dumb apparently.

Nintendo could have saved the average gamer some cash by having no onboard storage. The express cards are good enough from the looks of things.