Switch 2 pub backs off Game Key Cards after leaking lower-cost cartridge options
The Switch 2’s data-free, download-enabling Game Key Cards have proved controversial with players who worry about long-term ownership and access issues to their purchases. But they’ve remained popular with publishers that want to save production costs on a boxed Switch 2 game release, since Game Key Cards don’t include any of the expensive flash memory found on a standard Switch 2 cartridge.
Now, though, at least one publisher has publicly suggested that Nintendo is offering cheaper Switch 2 cartridge options with smaller storage capacities, lowering production costs in a way that could make full cartridge releases more viable for many games on the console.
Earlier this week, R-Type Dimensions III publisher Inin Games explained to customers that it couldn’t switch from Game Key Cards to a “full physical cartridge” for the retail version of the Switch 2 game without “significantly rais[ing] manufacturing costs.” Those additional costs would “force us to increase the retail price by at least €15 [about $20],” Inin Games wrote at the time.
from Gaming – Ars Technica https://ift.tt/roKn6eO