Civ VII on Switch 2 - game key or full physical game?

[magicq99]

It would of course make sense for Nintendo to provide smaller sizes.

But I guess Nintendo also has a big incentive to make the publishers happy in this regard. Because after all, Nintendo is still in fierce competiton with Sony and Microsoft, and I am pretty sure they do not want to have a smaller presence in bricks and mortar stores compared to them. And I guess they also sell a lot of consoles in these stores, so they have a strong incentive to maintain the physical edition, from the perspective of brand visibility alone.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

I think Nintendo anticipated this cost issue. That is why they created the game key card version, which is basically a physical key to a digitally distributed game and substantially cheaper to produce, since it does not require the expensive SSD storage. Contrary to regular eShop purchases, which are bound to a specific account and cannot be resold on a secondary market, those game key cards are not bound to a specific account, making it possible to share or resell the game. This is very likely also the intention behind the "game share" feature, which allows you to loan digital games within your family group for up to 14 days. They want to overcome some of the disadvantages people see in a digitally distributed games.

So a "key card" game is essentially the ownership licence that allows buyers of the physical "key card" game to resell it or lend, keeping
intact the tradition of family friendly brand that got associated with Nintendo over all these years.

I didn't see that coming.

It's a smart decision, basically saying NO to the business practice of selling games as a service typical of all other game distributors, leaving the PC market in its
own War field for all of the worst possible tactics being forced-passively implemented by the magic combo MS-XBox and all other Digital shops Steam, Epic, etc.

How would they guarantee the Digital download of a game on "key card" 20-40 years from now it's another topic for another day...

 

[Modeltrainman]

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but Civ 7 is a Switch 1 cartridge, then the Switch 2 version is a $10 upgrade pack.

 

[Ordnael]

If you buy the Switch "1" cartridge, yes...otherwise don't trust Switch 2 cartridges that may be "shadow" published as they are certain to be only game keys, that is if you value your console's memory space.
As fas as I know there's still no proper switch 2 CIV VII full game cartridge release...I saw the partner showcase nintendo direct yesterday and there was nothing on the subject!

 

[Lazy sweeper]

If you buy the Switch "1" cartridge, yes...otherwise don't trust Switch 2 cartridges that may be "shadow" published as they are certain to be only game keys, that is if you value your console's memory space.
As fas as I know there's still no proper switch 2 CIV VII full game cartridge release...I saw the partner showcase nintendo direct yesterday and there was nothing on the subject!

I watched this video about games on key cards for the Switch 2 and there is Civ7 in it. It just says:
If you want to buy it buy Civ6 used at least you'll have the game on cart, otherwise, just skip it entirely..
So... the Nin community doesn't seem to be too happy about it being digital only.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but Civ 7 is a Switch 1 cartridge, then the Switch 2 version is a $10 upgrade pack.

The video above says the same thing, except for switch one there is only Civ6... I'm not aware of aC7 Switch 1 physical release...
It seems also the author of the video made a bit of confusion, as there is no direct way of upgrading Civ6 to Civ7 for 10$...

 

[fantsu]

The video above says the same thing, except for switch one there is only Civ6... I'm not aware of aC7 Switch 1 physical release...
It seems also the author of the video made a bit of confusion, as there is no direct way of upgrading Civ6 to Civ7 for 10$...

There is an Civ VII physical Switch version. Been seeing these everywhere.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

There is an Civ VII physical Switch version. Been seeing these everywhere.

It's a code in a box, it's not physical.
I checked everywhere, and there is not one place where it says that it's physical.

 

[fantsu]

It's a code in a box, it's not physical.
I checked everywhere, and there is not one place where it says that it's physical.View attachment 739189

No, its on cartridge.
Switch 2 version is code in the box.

Not sure if its the same on every market.

 

[Ordnael]

So... the Nin community doesn't seem to be too happy about it being digital only.

The Nintendo Switch (original) gamer community has been kindda spoiled as I wasn't aware until very recently that this shady practice of selling you an almost empty vessel of a physical medium has been happening to the other console gamers. I read somewhere else that Ubisoft is known to ship discs with almost no data and then,ofc, requiring huge downloads for the software to function.

Let me tell you/repeat this...once I have my Switch 2 I will prioritise full cartridges releases for my gaming library, been doing that with the original switch (actually I either have full cart games or digital only, my digital only are way less in number and in price than my physical release games) and I see no reason to stop "voting" with my wallet...we will eventually lose, it's not like some, if not all, of my physical releases aren't dependent on patches to function properly but as a consumer we pay "premium" for memory expansions whilst for the publishers it's just another fee...but No! Let's squeeze the client some more whilst still charging premium for our AAA games! (still thinking about Ubisoft on this one, not an indie developer...and in between indies there are indies indies and indies who like marketing themselves as indie but are just a couple of tiers below a main AAA studio)