While the Switch 2 reveal and release brought with it all sorts of discussion, when it comes to controversy, there’s one topic that has risen above all others…and it only seems to become a bigger point of contention.
While Switch 2 owners can pick up physical Game Cards for the system, there’s also the line of Game-Key Cards as well. Game-Key Cards have to be physically inserted into the Switch 2 to access a game, but they don’t actually contain game data. This means a download is required to actually play the game you purchased. While this makes Game-Key Cards eligible for trade-ins (an impossibility for code-in-box releases), Switch 2 owners have made it clear that they’d rather have the full game on a standard Game Card.
There’s a litany of reasons why gamers would want to have traditional Game Cards with the full game included, one of them being archival/preservation purposes. Switch 2 owners want to ensure their games can be played no matter what, rather than having to depend on an internet connection or a connected server someone just to access their game. Turns out those against Game-Key Cards have a notable ally in Japan, and they also point to preservation as their reasoning.
The National Diet Library is Japan’s largest library of publications and content, and is the only legal deposit library in the country. Back in 2000, the NDL started archiving videogames for preservation purposes, with Japan mandating that domestic publishers submit copies of all their new works. Those efforts have already begun for the Switch 2, but the library of titles to be preserved is going to be quite small compared to what’s released.
The NDL has said that “only physical media that contains the content itself” is eligible for archiving, which means Switch 2 Game-Key Cards don’t make the cut. In other words, titles like Mario Kart World are suitable for preservation, but Disgaea 7 Complete couldn’t be included, as that’s a Game-Key Card. It’s worth noting that the NDL recently started archiving digital books and magazines, so there’s a chance digital preservation for games could happen at some point as well. With that said, for the time being, Game-Key Cards will remain ineligible for the NDL.
UPDATE: Adding a bit of clarity to the matter, while the National Diet Library does not have the means to archive digital games, they also aren’t permitted to by law. The collection of digital books and magazines, mentioned above, only came about once the law was amended. In other words, there would have to be an additional amendment to the law to permit the archiving and preservation of digital titles. (h/t Nintendo Patents Watch)
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