Nintendo Keycards might not be the physical game savior many hoped for!
We recently got an example of what the future of Game Keycards will look like based on their reliance on downloading games from Nintendo’s servers. This isn’t anything unexpected for those in the know, but might be an eye opener for the casual gamer.
A user recently purchased the game Rudolph, a GameMill title which physically came on a Keycard. They quickly learned that with their new Keycard they had no access to the game.
As reported on Reddit GameMill seems to have forgotten to upload the game to Nintendo’s servers at release. This caused the user to be unable to download and play their new Christmas classic.
Another user @RampantLeaf on YouTube decided to try to purchase the game from the eShop to find out if it was possible without the keycard. To no surprise the game was unable to be downloaded from the eShop as GameMill appears to have again forgotten their game was released.
I’ve embedded the video he posted below of RampantLeaf trying to access the game purchased from the eShop:
Outside the fact that Rudolph would easily fit on a GameCard at 82MB [GameCards are generally 64GB] instead of being a key, it gives an easy to understand example of the issue with the KeyCards themselves. The games are still a digital copy.
Keycards do have advantages however. You can Buy, Trade and Sell them, handing off game access to whoever has the card in hand.
These are all things you can’t do with a digital eShop purchase. Both only work however if Nintendo has the game on their server.
This demonstrates how reliant we will be on Nintendo and other console manufacturers to keep their digital storefronts up and working. This after recent announcements of some digital storefronts being sunset by Nintendo and Sony.
Do you think Keycards are a valid form of preservation or would you prefer publishers to put the whole games on GameCards?
GameOn
CellPhish
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