Overview

• Nintendo’s latest survey asks Switch and Switch 2 owners how likely they would be to purchase games via traditional cartridges, digital downloads, download codes and activation-only game-key cards.
• Participants can explicitly select “definitely would not buy” for any format, enabling Nintendo to quantify resistance to game-key cards after widespread backlash.
• Game-key cards function as authentication licenses that require full game downloads and must remain inserted to play, a format now used by most third-party Switch 2 titles due to production costs and the console’s 256 GB storage limit.
• The U.S. questionnaire follows a similar poll in Japan and has circulated online through Reddit, indicating Nintendo’s targeted approach to gathering player feedback.
• Preservation advocates warn that activation-only cards undermine resale value, long-term access and archival if Nintendo ever discontinues the necessary online services.