While Nintendo has been catching some flak for its use of the new Game-Key Cards system to sell “physical” versions of what would otherwise be digital-only games, CD Projekt RED business development VP Jan Rosner believes that selling full games through physical media is “especially important for the Nintendo audience.” In a conversation with The Game Business, Rosner spoke about the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition as a launch title for the Switch 2.
According to Rosner, the experience CD Projekt RED got in dealing with Nintendo with its release of The Witcher 3 on the original Switch taught the company quite a bit. One of these things was the fact that, for an audience that uses the Switch as its primary gaming platform, a game being available through physical copies is important.
“It’s not a matter of getting away with something,” Rosner said when asked about publishers selling their titles through Game-Key Cards under the guise of physical releases. “Nintendo at physical retail is still strong, and retail is, in general, not going anywhere. I don’t think we’ll soon experience a reality where we’re just having all games digital.”
“But again, 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.”
Rosner caps things off by advising other studios that they should “not underestimate the physical edition,” since Nintendo players tend to love medium. “It’s not going anywhere and Nintendo players are very appreciative of physical editions that are done right,” he says.
When it comes to bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to the Switch 2, Rosner also spoke about whether or not there would be an audience for the game on Nintendo’s platform. However, releasing The Witcher 3 on the Switch also taught CD Projekt RED that it could expand its audience by bringing more of its games to the platform. However, there were also concerns about Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Switch 2.
“We were absolutely looking at that,” Rosner said, referring to the technical limiation of Nintendo’s upcoming console. “We wanted to make sure that it plays right. It would have been apparent very early if [Switch 2] is not capable of running the game of this scale.
“There’s always a thinking in the back of their head [of whether] people are going to compare it to, or expect, the PC level of performance,” he explained. “But again, with our The Witcher 3 experience, players in general are… I don’t want to say forgiving, but understanding of platform’s performance limitations. And they tend to not maybe expect an experience like they’re used to on the most capable platforms out there. It is a big AAA RPG on-the-go. We want to make sure that you can play it from start to finish, without making any major compromises. And I think we’ve managed to do that.”
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be available as a launch title on the Nintendo Switch when it hits store shelves on June 5.
