Summary
It’s safe to say that there are mixed feelings about theSwitch 2currently. While a more powerful console that can play the latest triple-A games is great, fans are disappointed by the price point of first party games likeMario Kart World. Evenformer Nintendo staff were left a bit disappointedafter theDirect.
While prices and launch lineups are one thing, it was also revealed thatmany of the cartridges for upcoming Switch 2 games will only act as game key cards. This means they will not have the full game stored on them, but will initiate a download when inserted. This will especially be a problem for the big triple-A titles and Switch owners who aren’t used to big downloads. However, it seemsCD Projekt Redhas decided to keep the entirety ofCyberpunk 2077on the cart, as it’s the right thing to do.
CDPR Recognizes That The Nintendo Audience Is Different
In a conversation withThe Game Business, CDPR VP of business development Jan Rosner said that the studio took a conscious effort to ensure the entire game is on the cartridge. “The [internal storage] was way lower than it is now. A game like The Witcher 3 would take up to 80% of your internal memory if you don’t have an external memory card,” he explained.
“But a plug and play experience is a really cool thing. We’ve already seen from the original Switch that Nintendo players are quite receptive to that. It was a goal that we wanted to achieve fairly early on.” As for why Cyberpunk won’t be using a key card like some other games, Rosner explained that Nintendo audiences are different. They are used to the “plug-and-play” experience, and CDPR wanted to give them that.
He noted that “it’s especially important for the Nintendo audience. We maybe could have got away with it, but is there a point? The right thing to do was to have it out on the cartridge with a plug and play experience.
Do not underestimate the physical edition. It’s not going anywhere and Nintendo players are very appreciative of physical editions that are done right.”
