INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
You could even argue that Nintendo is more likely to offer longer-term support for Game Key Card downloads since backward compatibility
seems to be a priority for the Switch hardware line
If we presume that future Switch systems will remain backward compatible, we can probably also presume that Nintendo will want players on
new hardware to still have access to their old Game Key Card purchases (or to be able to use Game Key Cards purchased on the secondhand
market).
A pile of physical games that will never require a download server to work.
Credit:
Aurich Lawson
A pile of physical games that
will never require a download server to work.
Credit:
Aurich Lawson
There
are no guarantees in life, of course, and nothing lasts forever
Nintendo will one day go out of business, at which point it seems unlikely that a Game Key Card will be able to download much of anything
Short of that, Nintendo could suffer a financial malady that makes download servers for legacy systems seem like an indulgence, or it could
come under new management that doesn't see value in supporting decades-old purchases made for ancient consoles.As of this writing, though,
Nintendo has kept its Wii game download servers active for 6,743 days and counting
If the Switch 2 Game Key Card servers last as long, that means those cards will still be fully functional through at least October 2043.I
don't know what I will be doing with my life in 2043, but it's comforting and extremely plausible to imagine that the "eighty dollar rental"
I made of a Switch 2 Game Key Card back in 2025 will still work as intended.Or, to put it another way, I think it's highly likely that I
will become "e-waste" long before any Switch 2 Game Key Cards.
