Nintendo’s Nightmarish Virtual Game Cards Make the Switch 2 a DRM Minefield

Nintendo originally billed Virtual Game Cards as the Switch and Switch 2’s new means of managing the games, making the process of loading digital titles as simple as slotting in your physical Game Cards from one console to the next. In practice, Virtual Game Cards are one of the more restrictive examples of DRM we’ve experienced. Not only does it mandate you have a single copy of a game at any time, but you can also only have one instance of local save data on one system. Virtual Game Cards will also restrict you from playing Switch 2 games if you don’t have your original Switch nearby. Those with an original Switch have the option to do a system transfer to the Switch 2 on startup. The process also turns all your digital games into Virtual Game Cards. If you want to play your old games on the original Switch, you have to “eject” the card from the Switch 2 and “load” it on the original Switch. Your save data kept on Nintendo’s cloud servers should remain tied to your Nintendo Account, ... Read full article.