September 5 News — Some developers have opted to release games on the Switch 2 in the form of a “Game Key Card,” not by choice, but because the performance of traditional cartridges is insufficient.
Ubisoft Snowdrop engine audio architect Rob Bantin stated on Bluesky that Switch 2 cartridges cannot support the graphical targets of Star Wars: Outlaws. Since the Snowdrop engine relies heavily on disk streaming in open-world environments—and this game was built for the SSDs of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S—the only feasible solution was to use a “Game Key Card.”
He emphasized, however, that this does not mean all future Switch 2 titles will face the same limitation. If a game is designed and optimized specifically for Switch 2 from the start, standard cartridges can still suffice. It is primarily large-scale cross-platform productions, like Star Wars: Outlaws, that must depend on the “Game Key Card” approach.
According to Wccftech’s report tonight, the Switch 2 version of the game, while showing a noticeable downgrade in graphics compared to other platforms, can still run stably at 30 FPS in an open world and supports ray tracing. As Switch 2’s specifications become public, developers may eventually find ways to overcome cartridge bottlenecks and release more standard retail editions.
Since the launch of the Switch 2, these so-called Game Key Cards have sparked player dissatisfaction — they do not contain actual game data, only a code to activate the digital download. At present, the vast majority of third-party titles for Switch 2 are released in Game Key Card format, with very few exceptions. Reportedly, this is because Nintendo currently offers developers only one cartridge capacity option: 64 GB.
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