I think he simplefies the comaprison too much. Its like "Whats the difference between a dog and a cat. Not much. Theyre both animals and they both have fur. So tell me the exact differnence between the two?"

Ahh after having gotten some sleep (I am currently a student in graduate school… we don’t often sleep very much lol), I’m realizing I was being a bit obtuse yesterday.

GKCs have their pros and cons. While in the short-term, yes, these cartridges function virtually identical to your standard fully-on-cart games, the main concern comes from the fact that it is possible for Nintendo to unanimously decide to “pull the plug” in continuing to honor a GKC purchase. You never truly own the game, but merely have access to a license which grants you access to the game at Nintendo’s discretion— it is very clear where the issue lies in this.

That said, while I do perceive much GKC discussion as a tad bit hysterical at times (e.g. those who take issue with GKCs yet continue to download NS2 eShop games or use a disc drive to play their physical PS5 library), there is no denying that this means of selling a game isn’t the most ideal. It is far better than digital in that (a.) it is much easier to transfer your copy between systems, (b.) you sell/trade the copy of your game so long as Nintendo is still supporting GKCs, (c.) it functions almost identically to a physical game in the short-term, for those who love physical, (d.) etc.,… but it certainly is far from flawless nor ideal.

Oomphf I feel bad getting so aggressive and combative with the users in this thread. That’s my bad, all.

Edit— I’m tagging everyone b/c it seems people are still arguing with points made earlier in the forum. @Pemalite, @Shadow1980, @Leynos, @Cerebralbore101, @mutantsushi, @angrypoolman, and whoever else returns to this thread, I’ll add you here.

It all comes down to what a person prefers you know. The feeling of owning something is important to many of us collectors. And even though you do own the game with a GKC, many of us just dont trust publishers enough to not take it down after a few years or forcing a patch that censor parts of the game.

Yes, of course. That makes sense.

I am late commenting here, but it does feel like the OP was disengenuous to their approach and reponses to other posters.

IMHO, it isn´t about anti-GKC people being ¨hysterical¨, they just aren´t interested in buying a GKC, and why should they be?
GKC isn´t equivalent to buying a real physical cartridge (or disc, I suppose), so at that point you might as well just buy a digital download.
GKC isn´t doing anything better than cartridge or download, so it´s just superfluous waste with misleading ¨appearance¨ of physical equivalency.
At best I can see it´s attraction as something physical to buy somebody as a gift, but a real cartridge would generally have been as good or better then.
And of course GKC could potentially be convenient for console bundles. But that isn´t really fulfilling any specific consumer need or demand.

The arguments about physical cartridges wearing out is silly. Yes, that is the case for practically every physical product you can buy.
From a physical book, to clothing, to a house. They all wear out one day, bu this doesn´t detract from the concept of a final physical sale.
GKC remain subject to the owner´s whims, including if said company goes bankrupt, and ultimately amounts to a ¨licence¨
in a way that physical cartridges do not (even if these also are unfortunately somewhat enmeshed in ¨licence¨ concept to an extent)
I don´t even know to interpret the claim that a GKC can still be ¨redeemed¨ after the ¨network has shutdown¨. How, by magic?

I am glad to see the OP has seemingly opened up to fully engaging with other perspectives.
Obviously nobody was demanding the OP personally only buy real cartridge games.
It is sad when people´s concept of communication entails blind rejection of differing perspectives and nuances.

I wonder if firebush 2003 understands why game key cards are bad now

The problem I have with game-key cards is that unlike an actual game card, there's no game data in the game-key card. You'll have to download the entire game to your system when you first put one in. It kinda defeats the purpose of getting physical copies on the Switch 2 in that format because you won't save any storage with them, making them digital games by proxy.

Its literally just pointless e-waste that serves no purpose other than to pollute the planet. Even the Japanese National Diet Library said key cards are not eligible for preservation. They will be useless pieces of plastic 20 years from now.

Its basically the digital version on a cartridge.

No different than a code in a box.

It should be faster than actual physical in terms of load times since Digital version of games have better load times than physical.


Doesnt matter to me personally since I'm 100% digital.

That's something a lot of younger people just don't understand. They grew up in a post iPhone world, where everything is a cheap POS that breaks. They can't comprehend the idea of discs, carts and consoles lasting decades. The library of congress did a study and found that 70% of physical game disks will still be playable after 100 years. Older consoles can break but short of the chips blowing up anything is repairable. And since the chips in older consoles don't create much heat they have a lifespan that makes modern chips look like a mayfly. Seriously, just recap your older consoles, use a good Triad PSU, and adjust the laser after replacing surface mount caps. I can't tell you how many "dead" drives my friend has repaired just by replacing caps, greasing the gears, replacing a gear, replacing a belt, or resetting a pot. 

I can't say this enough. All of our older consoles that don't use thermal paste will last decades upon decades longer with proper care. The same goes for our discs and carts. Edit: And as for PS3/360 people are getting crazy. They are throwing smaller nm chips into late-gen consoles, reballing, and adding ridiculous cooling to make these systems last way beyond reasonable life cycles. 

Doesitplay.org shows that 69% of PS5 games play just fine off a disc, without the need for critical updates. 

Doesitplay.org shows that 69% of PS5 games play just fine off a disc, without the need for critical updates. 

Doesitplay.org shows that 69% of PS5 games play just fine off a disc, without the need for critical updates. 

Doesitplay.org shows that 69% of PS5 games play just fine off a disc, without the need for critical updates. 

Also, the idea that a certain percentage of game sales are digital, therefore physical will die, ignores several key points. First off, many games aren't even offered as physical so the idea that people are freely choosing digital is a lie. Second, microtransactions and DLC are counted towards digital. The sort of bean counters that count physical vs digital don't actually count game sales, but rather revenue. So every Fortnite skin and doo-dad counts as a digital sale when it really shouldn't be. Third, there can easily be a floor effect where a minority of holdouts force a media type to stick around, followed by a resurgence. Just look at vinyl. In fact, that is already happening with a lot of games getting premium and limited physical editions that you need to pre-order.