Capcom says Nintendo Switch 2 Game Key Card releases aren’t true physical games—despite the box and cartridge, every sale is classified as digital. This move squeezes the boxed market even further.

Physical video games have been industry icons for decades, but with Switch 2, Nintendo’s Game Key Cards blur the lines—they only hold a fragment of the game, and the rest must be downloaded. For buyers, this means the box and cartridge are just props for what is essentially a digital license.

These days, nearly every big publisher—including Capcom—uses Game Key Cards for their Switch 2 releases. In a recent financial report, Capcom made it official: every Game Key Card sale is counted as digital, not physical. Even the new Street Fighter 6 release for Switch 2, which helped the franchise surpass 5 million sales, doesn’t show up in boxed stats.

Why Do Publishers Love Game Key Cards?

With Game Key Cards, companies save big on manufacturing and distribution—no need for full cartridges. While you can resell the card, the new owner won’t get access to DLC since it’s tied to the original user’s account. So players get less, and the publisher still counts it as digital.

This practice distorts sales statistics and gives publishers another excuse to phase out genuine boxed games. Fewer and fewer companies are releasing true, full-value cartridges for Switch 2. Thankfully, Nintendo has confirmed all its first-party titles will be fully on-cartridge, with no Game Key Cards for now.

A standard Switch 2 cartridge holds up to 64 GB, yet CD Projekt RED managed to fit Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty on one card. Alongside Marvelous and a handful of others, they’re among the few offering a real physical release.

Source: 3djuegos