Switch 2 physical cartridges frequently contain only download keys rather than game data, leaving players with plastic boxes and an SD card-like token. Publishers often cite the high cost of large-capacity Switch cards and Nintendo's lack of smaller options as reasons for the practice. Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws uses a key-only cart, apparently because of hardware limitations that make fitting a large open-world game onto the handheld difficult. Fans are impressed by technical achievements but frustrated by preservation risks. The reliance on online stores means purchased keys could become unusable when servers shut down, forcing emulation or repurchases.
The Switch 2's game key cards have proven a source of extreme consternation since the launch of Nintendo's latest console. Physical carts in plastic boxes that don't actually contain the game at all, making a mockery of game preservation and the entire purpose of owning a physical copy of your game. The reason for their use is usually presumed to be cost, given how expensive a 64GB Switch card is for a publisher (apparently $23 each!), and that Nintendo right now is not offering a smaller option to publishers.
However, in the case of Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws it seems it's a due to a more significant weakness of the Switch 2. So far, tech geeks are super-impressed with how Ubisoft has managed to get such a large, complex open-world game working on the handheld console. As much of a step up from the original Switch as the Switch 2 might be, it's still not exactly cutting-edge technology, and the requirements to be able to run on a handheld device can be restrictive.
More than anything else, it's the knowledge that Nintendo absolutely will one day switch off the eStore that processes the keys to allow the games to be downloaded. As with every previous generation of digital store, the servers will go away, and the purchased games will disappear into the ether. This leaves people either looking at emulation (which Nintendo deeply loathes), or re-buying the same game again when it's released as a "Classic" download on the newer device (where, hilariously, Nintendo makes it available via emulation). This all enormously sucks. So yes, one day your copy of Star Wars Outlaws Switch 2 will be nothing but a very bad-tasting SD card.
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