During its recent Nintendo Direct, the company unveiled a new way that its consoles will handle digital game purchases. This new method will also affect how Nintendo Switch players use multiple consoles with the same account, as well as how sharing games between family members will work. Check out the video below.
As part of the new method, players will have the option to convert all of their digitally-purchased Nintendo Switch titles into Virtual Game Cards. The method, in a bid to replicate the feeling of owning and sharing physical copies of games, will treat each Virtual Game Card as if it is a physical copy of a Switch game that has been inserted into the system.
When the system is enabled, all digital copies of Switch games, including new purchases, are automatically considered Virtual Game Cards that have been loaded on to the system. While players can go on to enjoy the title as they usually would, they also have the option to “eject” a Virtual Game Card. Ejected ones can then be loaded on to other Switch devices. It is worth noting that using the system requires the console to have an online connection when “loading” or “ejecting Virtual Game Cards.
Virtual Game Cards will have their own management screen in the Nintendo Switch’s home screen. Through this, players can then decide which Virtual Game Cards they want to load or eject. Multiple Switch consoles cannot have the same Virtual Game Card loaded simultaneously, and players will have to eject it from one console in order to load it into another. According to the video, Virtual Game Card and its management tools will work for up to two systems.
In order to share Virtual Game Cards across systems, both consoles also need be in the same place for local communication between them to happen. Thankfully, this is only necessary the first time the two systems are linked up, and subsequent management of Virtual Game Cards can be done over the Internet.
Virtual Game Cards also work through family sharing. Nintendo accounts that are in the same family group can share Virtual Game Cards between each other. Each family member can only get one Virtual Game Card at a time through this method, however, and the sharing only lasts for two weeks. After this, the Virtual Game Card will have to be shared again. While the shared games are returned to the original owner, family members will still get to retain their save files.
It is also worth noting that the Virtual Game Card system will be compatible both with the original Nintendo Switch, as well as the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.
Nintendo showcased quite a few other things during its recent Direct, including a new trailer for Metroid Prime 4, a new game in the Tomodachi Life franchise, the fact that Rift of the NecroDancer is out now on the Switch, and even the return of a classic RPG in Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army.
