Switch 2 game-key cards won’t be account- or console-locked

Good news: Switch 2 game-key cards won’t be locked to the first account or console that uses them.

“[Game-key cards] will start up on the console or system that it is slotted into, so it’s not tied to an account or anything,” Tetsuya Sasaki, general manager of Nintendo’s technology development division, told GameSpot.

Unlike regular game cartridges, game-key cards simply allow access to a digital download of the game in question when inserted into the Switch 2.

“Game-key cards are different from regular game cards, because they don’t contain the full game data,” Nintendo’s support page explains. “Instead, the game-key card is your ‘key’ to downloading the full game to your system via the internet. After it’s downloaded, you can play the game by inserting the game-key card into your system and starting it up like a standard physical game card.”

Nintendo has yet to say which games will be released on game-key cards and why, but common speculation considers the format as a way to distribute games that have grown too big for the Switch 2’s 64 GB cartridges while appeasing those who continue to push back against an all-digital future. Unfortunately, there’s no indication game-key cards will be any cheaper than regular physical cartridges — you may have heard, but Mario Kart World will cost a whopping $80, and that was before Trump’s tariffs announcement — and an internet connection will be necessary for the initial download.

Switch 2 launches worldwide on June 5.