Nintendo's Nightmarish Virtual Game Cards Make the Switch 2 a DRM Minefield

Gizmodo

14 hours ago

Nintendo originally billed Virtual Game Cards as the Switch and Switch 2's new means of managing the games, making the process of loading digital titles as simple as slotting in your physical Game Cards from one console to the next. In practice, Virtual Game Cards are one of the more restrictive examples of DRM we've experienced. Not only does it mandate you have a single copy of a game at any time, but you can also only have one instance of local save data on one system. Virtual Game Cards will also restrict you from playing Switch 2 games if you don't have your original Switch nearby.
Those with an original Switch have the option to do a system transfer to the Switch 2 on startup. The process also turns all your digital games into Virtual Game Cards. If you want to play your old games on the original Switch, you have to 'eject' the card from the Switch 2 and 'load' it on the original Switch. Your save data kept on Nintendo's cloud servers should remain tied to your Nintendo Account, but getting those titles from one system to the other requires both consoles to be in the room at the same time, at least for the first time you set things up.
When we happy few on the Gizmodo consumer tech team received our Switch 2 unit, we weren't considering just how messy this process could get if you didn't think to bring your original Switch. For review, Nintendo granted us codes for Mario Kart World, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. We loaded two of our own profiles onto the Switch but tied those games and services to one account. After spending close to four hours setting up the Switch 2—downloading the big initial system update file and then downloading Mario Kart World off Nintendo's slammed servers—we loaded up the game only to be met with a pop-up window telling us we would need to transfer game cards onto the Switch 2 from the account owner's original Switch.
So we waited 4 hours for the Switch 2 to download Mario Kart World and now it's telling us that I need to have my original Switch on hand in order to play it. Anyone know if unlinking my Nintendo account through the web will mess up my OG Switch? pic.twitter.com/s9DbdLh5tf
— Ray Wong (@raywongy) June 5, 2025
After getting to this screen, the only two options we were left with were bringing the Switch 2 near the original Switch or remotely transferring the data from Nintendo's 8-year-old handheld through a browser. This option is meant for people with missing or damaged Switch units, but it's the only way to move forward if you don't have immediate access to your older handheld. Doing so may not brick the original Switch, but it would mean your system would be factory reset and you'd need to reinstate the user account on that device.
Virtual Game Cards have been available to the original Switch family for close to a month, and Nintendo fans already had their share of complaints, but the Switch 2 is throwing these DRM issues into stark relief. When transferring save data from the original Switch to the Switch 2, Nintendo deletes the data on the older console. Unless your files are backed up in cloud saves, you cannot simply jump from one system to another without downloading the save data first. This data transfer can go awry if you don't carefully read any on-screen prompts, as Gizmodo's Senior Editor of Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, experienced when moving his Mario Kart 8: Deluxe game save to the new handheld. He said he accidentally overrode the transferred game save with a new, no-progress one that was saved in the cloud. It seems the console took the new cloud save as the one dedicated to the Switch 2, effectively deleting hundreds of hours of effort and vehicle unlocks from either system. As Wong voiced on X: why is a game save deleted from a Switch instead of simply copied over to another Switch?
The game save is really gone… I'm heartbroken. Just heartbroken 8 years of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe progress gone in seconds because Nintendo thinks it's smart to delete the game save off the original Switch when transferring it to the Switch 2. WHY is game save deleted and not just… https://t.co/2zxHKTRyGc
— Ray Wong (@raywongy) June 6, 2025
Virtual Game Cards don't just hang up the process of playing games on a Switch 2. It means playing games across any of your Switch systems becomes a time-consuming, restrictive hassle. For example, Wong transferred several game saves for newly minted Virtual Game Cards from his Switch to his Switch 2, but in order to play those digital games on his Switch with his progress, he'd need to transfer the game save back from his Switch 2. This can be both annoying and confusing.
Ok this is obnoxious. Apparently I can't play SMM2 like I always have because my Switch Lite is in the other room and powered down. Virtual game cards = 👎 pic.twitter.com/CfSRBZHvi4
— Mario Mike (@mariomykol) June 3, 2025
The reason Nintendo invented Virtual Game Cards was to make sure nobody had more than one copy of a game tied to any one system. Rather than keeping all your games accessible from any compatible device, like on Steam, Nintendo's digital cards are a kind of digital rights management software that restricts you from sharing your old console with a friend so he can play your library.
If you want to share games with your friends' systems, you can go through the process of temporarily transferring a game you own to their account, so long as they're in your 'Family Group.' You have to do this over local wireless, and the game loan times out after two weeks. It's as if Blockbuster came back and started offering game rentals again, except you're doing it through your cousin's Switch 2. Nintendo's obsession with mandating every Switch owner only have a single copy of a game has only entrenched the decline of ownership in gaming. Your save data isn't yours. Your games aren't yours.