Nintendo just took us through a tour of its upcoming games in its latest Direct, and while I am hyped up about the Dragon Quest I & II Remake, what caught my eye was the Virtual Game Card.
Virtual Game Card is Nintendo’s solution to transferring your game licenses from the original Nintendo Switch to the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not one and done, either; you swap the games back and forth as needed.
That’s nice and all, but the unique feature is the ability to lend your digital games to any system you want. If you connect with one of your friends physically, you can transfer your game to them for a limited time.
The idea might seem small, and there are some stipulations, but in some ways, it might even be more revolutionary than the Switch 2.
Virtual Game Cards are the future
Let’s get the stipulations out of the way first. You can lend only one game at a time to individuals who are a part of your Family Group. This group can fit up to Nintendo Account users, and as stated earlier, the games must be shared locally.
As far as the time, you get two weeks with the game before it zaps back to the original owner’s library. That’s not a lot of time, but it may be enough for folks outside of RPGs. Additionally, you get to keep all your save data.
We’re not really sure what the requirement is on resharing, specifically if there’s a time limit, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
So, outside of the two-week time limit, it very much feels like you’re lending a physical copy to friends so they can play your games. In an age where digital media has stripped this kind of bonding and sharing, this is an immensely refreshing feature.
Nintendo has already revolutionized the gaming space with the Nintendo Switch. It may not have been the first handheld gaming device, but it is the most popular for a reason. I can’t see Nintendo impacting handheld gaming PCs like that again with the Switch 2.
However, what I’d love to see is the Virtual Game Card system becoming a standardized feature on all gaming platforms. Right now, you can get away with sharing on Xbox and PlayStation by swapping home consoles with a friend, but that’s more of a loophole than it is a feature.
Now, it’s not very practical to haul your console over to a friend's house every time you want to share a game. However, Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam all have apps on mobile devices. Similar to the Switch, you could set a Home mobile device in order to maintain the integrity of the system, and then you can dish out games in your library.
You can argue that Nintendo is going to lose money off of this, and that is awesome. I mean, how often is it that a game company does something because it’s cool and not because it’s a grand scheme for cash?
It may be easier for Xbox or PlayStation to implement something like this, but I’d love to see a Steam equivalent so those who are rocking handheld gaming PCs get the joys of sharing games with their friends.
I’m hyped for this new feature, and I hope that the Nintendo Switch 2 can deliver similarly exciting goodies when it comes to its hardware. We’re getting a Nintendo Switch 2 Direct on April 2, so stay tuned for news and our following hands-on experience with the device.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
