A Ubisoft developer has explained why the physical Nintendo Switch 2 release of Star Wars Outlaws is a Game-Key Card, instead of having the full game on the cartridge.
Game-Key Cards are Nintendo’s new branding for cartridges that still require the game to be downloaded from the Switch 2 online store before the game can be played. The cartridge doesn’t contain the game data, rather it’s simply a ‘key’ that enables a download.
As a result, a number of Switch 2 players say they don’t want to buy Game-Key Cards for numerous reasons, including the concern that they may not work at some point in the distant future should Nintendo ever turn off the server that enables the game download.
Many have suggested that studios are turning to Game-Key Cards to save money, because the cost to manufacture a low-spec cartridge with a small amount of unlock data on it is notably less than the cost to manufacture a high-capacity, high-speed cartridge.
However, Ubisoft‘s Rob Bantin, who serves as the audio architect for Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine (which Star Wars Outlaws runs on), says the main issue for Ubisoft was the speed of Switch 2 cartridges.
Although Switch 2 cartridges can transfer data at a higher speed than standard Switch cartridges , hence their increased manufacturing cost , they’re still not as fast as the Switch 2 console’s internal storage, or the MicroSD Express cards required to add extra storage to a Switch 2.
According to Bantin, because the Switch 2 cartridges don’t transfer data as quickly as internal storage, the decision was made to release as a Game-Key Card because this was the only way to ensure players were all running the game from internal storage.
“Snowdrop relies heavily on disk streaming for its open world environments, and we found the Switch 2 cards simply didn’t give the performance we needed at the quality target we were going for,” he wrote on Bluesky. “I don’t recall the cost of the cards ever entering the discussion , probably because it was moot.”
He then added: “I think if we’d designed a game for Switch 2 from the ground up it might have been different. As it was, we’d build a game around the SSDs of the initial target platforms, and then the Switch 2 came along a while later. In this case I think our leadership made the right call.”
When another user suggested this was a fault in Nintendo’s Switch 2 design, Bantin suggested it wasn’t entirely fair to criticise the company given the concessions required when making a handheld that has to be both powerful and somewhat affordable.
“To be fair to Nintendo, they have to consider a ton of factors when choosing components for a new console,” he replied. “The Switch 2 is a miraculous piece of kit in most respects.”
VGC recently posted a First Play video showing the Switch 2 version of Star Wars Outlaws in action. Despite initial reports coming out of Gamescom suggesting the game could run poorly, subsequent footage (including our own) suggests this isn’t the case, with Digital Foundry’s John Linneman calling the port “insanely impressive” for the hardware.
