My purchases in 2025 won’t include a Nintendo Switch 2.
No further questions. Thank you.
Did Nintendo recently buy EA?
Close, they hired a former ceo of them
Ahhh, fuck. I didn’t know that’s where they found Doug Bowser.
I haven’t payed any attention to this so far, it’s not backwards compatible?
The switch 2 is but I believe if you want the enhancements, you have to pay a fee to upgrade.
This article is about buying the switch 2 edition of the game when you have never previously owned the game or DLC.
So a physical S1 copy would work on an S2?
Why would one of the greediest companies around pass up an opportunity to make more money? They know they won’t lose sales.
Oof, that’s real shitty.
This is something real to get angry over, for people looking for reasons, you’re welcome ;)
Of course it doesn’t. Nintendo would never pass up a chance to squeeze more money out of its customers
But will the DLC still work properly if you already have it? Or do we have to buy a switch 2 version of it.
Same for Pokémon or any other games with DLC moving to the switch 2 with or without upgrades.
I am hoping all purchases transfer and work at least as they do now for the switch games.
So… ok, hold on, this gets complicated.
If I understand this correctly there are three pieces of software here. There’s the Switch one game, which can be digital or physical. There’s the DLC, which is always digital, and there’s the Switch 2 expansion, which again can be digital or physical.
So if you buy the physical Switch 2 box you get a cart with the Switch 1 game and the Switch 2 patch in it, but no DLC. Presumably, if you already own the DLC in your account, that’s the same SKU, because the base game is the base game, the Switch 2 cart just includes the Switch 2 patch file in there.
Right?
So if you want BotW physically for Switch 2 you ARE rebuying the full game, which is a weird thing to do, but if you own the DLC that’s the same DLC for the same base game. Same deal if you buy the expansion separately for your pre-existing game.
If you don’t own BotW (or the DLC) this is saying that’s not unlocked in the boxed copy, it’s available separately.
I think making the Switch 2 version a “GotY edition” pack-in would have been worth it just to avoid people having to do this in their heads to understand what’s going on. At the same time I wonder what sort of weirdness happens if you do own the DLC and they put a different DLC key in the cartridge. I mean, they could always just chuck in a download key for the DLC in a printed card inside the box, but I wonder if you can even build that into the cart and keep the same SKU for the Switch 1 game. I genuinely don’t know the answer to that.
There’s a new “DLC” that gives the game Switch 2 specific upgrades. Buying the fancy $80 cartridge includes this “DLC” on the cart, but not the existing DLCs. If you already have the Switch 1 game (as an install or a
glorified access keycartridge) and its DLC, you’ll be able to play that on Switch 2 and also able to buy the $20 “generation upgrade” as DLC for it.The physical copies “have the game on them” but not the software updates and DLC, and once you’ve played on the updated version once, your save file is no longer compatible with downpatched versions. You’re loading part of the game from system memory with or without a cart, so there’s not really a functional difference between a physical and digital copy unless you plan to resell.
See how confusing it is? I mean, for one thing, BotW is fully playable offline on Switch 1 cart-only and presumably that remains the case in Switch 2. Despite being a launch title, BotW is one of the larger titles in the Switch library, but they still splurged for the bigger cart size, so no mandatory downloads besides DLC and patches.
For another, I’m not clear that the title updates will be downloadable in the Switch 2 cart. Switch 1 carts do have an allowance of storage to build patches into the physical copies (for re-releases, later prints, discount lines, GOTY editions and the like), so I assume the build you get in the Switch 2 cart is a latest-patch build. There’s no confirmation on this beyond knowing that the functionality is built into the original Switch format, though.
So no, I don’t think you’re right. I’m not sure about what happens with your saves if you do own the DLC but you don’t download it, or what happens if you try to load a fully patched save from the old game with a downpatched cart version, but I’m pretty sure you can play through the whole upgraded Switch 2 game (sans DLC) beginning to end entirely offline indefinitely just with the cartridge.
The latest version of the game is not guaranteed to remain the latest version when it’s getting rereleased on a new console. “No mandatory downloads besides DLC and patches” means yes mandatory downloads. They’re free (or you-already-paid) mandatory downloads, but them being mandatory downloads at all are a bullet in the head of preservation - a banned console or end of service or a whole lot of things can lock someone out of the eShop.
Updates are never downloadable to cartridges on the Switch, and won’t be on the Switch 2. Nintendo can rewrite a cartridge, the user cannot.
As for what happens if you try to load a save from a patched/DLC-installed version of the game on an unpatched/no-DLC version, the game tells you that the save is incompatible and won’t let you load it. This is verifiable on the Switch 1 and Wii U versions of the game. I don’t think we have concrete information on if Switch 2 will cross-save to Switch 1 via a Nintendo Account, so it’s safe to assume it won’t and Nintendo will do the same one-way System Transfer song and dance they’ve been doing since the Wii.
Here’s a fun wrinkle to what Nintendo thinks about physical cartridges preserving downpatched game editions: the console firmware of the Switch 1 has a version whitelist. If you have the latest firmware on your Switch 1 and insert a 1.0.0 BOTW cart without being online to install the game updates, the system will not allow you to boot the game until you update it. This is because Nintendo fears exploits like Smash Stack on the Wii or OOTHax on the 3DS.
Patches are not downloadable to carts by the user, but they can be added to carts by the publisher in re-releases, which is what I presume they’ll do here. No official confirmation for Switch 2 versions of Switch 1 games specifically, though.
I’m not surprised the older saves aren’t compatible, and it can be a bummer, but hey, at least the game does work, so even if you have to start a new run that’s still a lot more than what you get from a digital download.
I am not aware of the Switch having a per-game build whitelist in the firmware. That seems weird, since it’d effectively brick all existing carts after end-of-life. I am familiar with game carts requiring specific minimum firmware versions to run (so the other way around) and including the minimum allowed firmware package in the cartridge to force an update to the correct minimum version. This has been standard on all physical games on all platforms since as far back as the PSP. If you have a source for the Switch doing things backwards on that front and thus being actively engineered to make all carts stop functioning when the patch servers go down by all means please share it and I’ll be the first to go alert the press, but I think you may be getting that one backwards.
I’m confused about what you’re mad about here. You seem to either be mad about things that have been going on for multiple generations (and incidentaly done eff all to curb jailbreaking or piracy, so I have to wonder what’s the point of even trying for Nintendo, frankly) or you’re not right about how the Switch 2 version carts are meant to work.
I’m not “mad” about anything new to the Switch 2. I’m pointing out that anything “new” that indicates physical copies aren’t complete games anymore or that physical copies will not outlive server end of life in a meaningful way Isn’t new. Cartridges and discs have been glorified DRM keys ever since the first patch-enabled consoles came out - “the game” is always delivered in some part via patching, so “the game” is never preserved in any meaningful way by someone having a cart/disc. The only meaningful game preservation is DRM cracking and loadable backups of “all-digital” content.
Hm. That’s an interesting approach to it, but I think it’s probably too black and white.
I mean, yeah, sure, for complete preservation you need archival and version control. I’ll honestly say that’s only legitimately doable on the dev side. You get into preserving the code and the assets there, too.
But on the user end I’d say that any version that is physically stored and can run offline, be it a DRM-free installable GOG-style or a physical piece of media storing a build of the game is much, much better than a DRMd all-digital release.
Even if it hadn’t been pirateable day one, BotW would live on. Not only are there multiple cart versions with multiple patches of the game, including the Switch 2 upgrade, but all those versions will run on all consoles. It won’t be the most up to date version of the game, but it’ll be playable, and that’s already a lot compared to the baseline we’re setting elsewhere. It’s certainly not a “glorified DRM key”.
But that’s at the top end of sustainability for physical media. The Switch 1 has some carts that don’t include full playable builds and need partial downloads to run properly. That’s a different scenario. If a game needs online auth to unlock the media that’s another scenario. Obviously for online only games the cart IS in fact just an access point. And on Switch 2 there will be carts that act as physical keys only.
But not all of those are created equal. I think acknowledging the differences is important. If nothing else to ensure people are educated about the difference between owning BotW in a cart they will get to play indefinitely versus Street Fighter 6 in a cart that won’t work if the servers are down and they don’t have an installed version stored.
Thankfully the Switch 1 was cracked day 1 so the preservation can got kicked down the road to the Switch 2 release. Look up what speedrunners have to do to get the optimal any% patch for Pokémon BDSP legitimately
I think that sums up that they’re aiming only for parents with kids that would pay ransom for their products.
The question is, will Nintendo Accounts (the thing Nintendo made so you didn’t have to get a new type of account with every damn console) that already have the DLC be able to use it on the Switch 2 with the Switch 2 version of the game?
Technically, there shouldn’t be any meaningful reason why not. Aren’t the Switch 2 versions just asset upgrades? Maybe a wee bit of coding to adapt the existing software to newer hardware. So if they’re smart they’ll say “Yes.”
The best reason for a no would be that Nintendo will not have yet updated the assets that are included in the DLC. Meaning people who own the DLC would get to use them at a later date when the teams doing these ports have time to get to them.
The worst reason to say no would be “Buy them again, cucks.”
I had Breath of the Wild on Wii U with DLC and actually called Nintendo to try to get it transferred to the Switch or reimbursed. They outright refused, and said they were different products and I needed to buy it again.
My guess is they’ll demand we pay again.
Switch 2 uses emulation to run switch 1 games. My guess is that the switch2 version is just nicer textures and a little make more fps line.
(Like that thing those evil evil hackers have been doing since 2017)
70€ for an 8 year old game. And they don’t include the DLC. Nintendo.
Free if you already own it on your sw1 isn’t it?
Yeah
Nintendo never put old games on sale.
It would not be a sale to include the DLC on the Switch 2 version. I mean are they gonna offer it on the Switch 2 store? lmao
🤡
Shamelessly stolen from a Simpsons meme group I frequent.
I think they’re even worse than Activision and EA combined at this point.
They might be worse than Hitler even.
Have you ever been to Britain after Brexit?
No.
Good for you. But for context, you land, you go for a passport check, where you need to find the flag of European Union, which is on a sign with flags of a bunch of Commonwealth countries. The officer asks you some questions, like why are you here, where do you stay, and so on.
tl;dr: It’s annoying and sad.
