Switch 2 pub backs off Game Key Cards after leaking lower-cost cartridge options

The Switch 2’s data-free, download-enabling Game Key Cards have proved controversial with players who worry about long-term ownership and access issues to their purchases. But they’ve remained popular with publishers that want to save production costs on a boxed Switch 2 game release, since Game Key Cards don’t include any of the expensive flash memory found on a standard Switch 2 cartridge.

Now, though, at least one publisher has publicly suggested that Nintendo is offering cheaper Switch 2 cartridge options with smaller storage capacities, lowering production costs in a way that could make full cartridge releases more viable for many games on the console.

Earlier this week, R-Type Dimensions III publisher Inin Games explained to customers that it couldn’t switch from Game Key Cards to a “full physical cartridge” for the retail version of the Switch 2 game without “significantly rais[ing] manufacturing costs.” Those additional costs would “force us to increase the retail price by at least €15 [about $20],” Inin Games wrote at the time.

In an update posted to social media earlier today, though, the publisher said that “there is no better timing: two days ago Nintendo announced two new smaller cartridge [storage capacity] sizes for Nintendo Switch 2. This allows us to recalculate production in a way that wasn’t possible before.”

As such, Inin said it has decided to replace the Game Key Cards that were going to be in the game’s retail box with full physical cartridges. That change will result in the game’s asking price going up by €10 (about $13) “due to still higher production costs,” Inin explained. Still, that’s still less than the “at least €15” Inin was speculatively quoting for the same change just days ago. And Inin said early pre-order customers for R-Type Dimensions III won’t have to pay the increased price, essentially getting the full cartridge at no additional cost.