Continuing the debate about the Nintendo Switch 2’s use of Game-Key Cards for some of the larger games released on the platform, questioning whether they even count as physical releases, Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi has said that its a trend that can’t really be avoided. In an interview with GamesRadar, Hamaguchi noted that physical releases of games are “less and less part of the industry.”
“I think it’s, in some ways, part of a larger trend that we can’t avoid,” said Hamaguchi. He also noted the fact that he understands the complaints behind Game-Key Cards, and why people don’t like the system. “I do understand why there are a number of people out there who maybe don’t like this new format, and I get the reasons why they don’t like it,” he said, going on to note that fans of Nintendo’s platforms tend to appreciate physical releases even more so than other platforms, since Xbox and PlayStation have all been transitioning to digital releases, and the concept basically barely existing anymore on PC.
Further in the interview, Hamaguchi also spoke about the advantages offered by Game-Key Cards, since it allows companies to have “physical” releases of their games while avoiding the technological pitfalls that might come with running a game off slower media. He said, “the trend is going towards digital. But within that, where the key card falls into that – I understand why a lot of people don’t like this and maybe want to push back against it. But from a creator’s perspective, I kind of think it gives us opportunities to put some games on Switch 2.”
One of the more recent major game releases to come out through Game-Key Cards on the Switch 2 was Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws. The company had noted in the past that this decision stemmed from the open-world title requiring faster storage to load game data than the speeds that were possible on a standard Switch 2 cartridge.
While larger games have typically been coming to the Switch 2 through Game-Key Cards owing to the limited storage and speed offered by regular cartridges for the console, the system has caught quite a bit of criticism from fans of physical releases. Even the CEO of Nightdive Studios – a developer known for remastering classic games for modern platforms – and co-founder of the Videogame Heritage Society professor James Newman have noted that the system is “a little disheartening” since it will end up being a bad thing for game preservation efforts.
“Seeing Nintendo do this is a little disheartening,” said CEO Stephen Kick. “You would hope that a company that big, that has such a storied history, would take preservation a little more seriously.”
“Even when a cartridge does contain data on day one of release, games are so often patched, updated and expanded through downloads that the cart very often loses its connection to the game and functions more like a physical copy protection dongle for a digital object,”said Newman.
In the meantime, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will be making its debut on the Nintendo Switch 2 as well as Xbox Series X/S with the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on January 22, and will require 90 GB of storage space on Nintendo’s console.
