Latest news with #VirtualGameCard
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Your Old Nintendo Switch Is Now Ready For The Switch 2
GameShare makes its way to Nintendo Switch. If you own a legacy Nintendo Switch, and you choose to update your system with the latest 20.0.0 patch, then you'll see that some interesting Switch 2 features have been added to the mix. Namely, the ability to use Nintendo's upcoming Virtual Game Card functionality for locally sharing digital software with friends and family, as well as the option to transfer precious data to a Nintendo Switch 2. Interestingly for me, the update came through today in real-time while I was working on my ongoing Road to Nintendo Switch 2 article series, which so far has included Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and Super Mario Odyssey. It was a real reminder of the rapidly approaching June 5 Switch 2 console launch, and how soon gamers will be moving all their legacy Switch stuff over to brand new consoles. Plus, lending out their digital game libraries like it's 1993 and we're all taking SNES cartridges to school for trade. GameShare makes its way to Nintendo Switch. Apparently, GameShare won't currently work between two older Switch systems, which is a little silly, if you ask me. It has to be initiated on a Switch 2, and nobody has a Switch 2 yet, so this feature will be visible (and mocking us?) on the Switch's home screen, but remain frustratingly dormant, at least for the time being. We've got a month and change to wait before Nintendo launches its upcoming flagship console, so we'll need to hang tight. Additionally, you can peruse the new transfer options in the updated system settings, and you'll be able to partake in the big move either via local transfer or through the ominous cloud. According to the Big N, cloud data expires after a year, which should give you plenty of time to acquire a Switch 2 to house it or re-download the data to a legacy Switch. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder System transfers and licenses have always been a bit convoluted with Nintendo hardware, and this feels right on brand, honestly. So do the Virtual Game Cards, which, while rather consumer-friendly, have their own weird set of rules in terms of loaning the games out and getting them back. After all these years, Nintendo still marches to the best of its own drum, but hopefully these new features will feel mostly seamless. June 5 is right around the corner, and now our old Switch consoles are primed for the mothership that is the Switch 2. Mario Kart World can't arrive soon enough.
Daily Mirror
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Nintendo Switch update brings two major Switch 2 features ready for the console's launch
The Nintendo Switch just got a new update that is set to bridge the gap between this console generation and the next. Hype for the Nintendo Switch 2 has been one hell of a rollercoaster. The reveal of the major new console in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct led to an awful lot of excitement, announcing that Mario Kart World would touch down on day one along with every other Nintendo Switch 2 launch game, and that it would be coming in mere months. The price reveal of the console that came afterwards shocked players everywhere, and with the announcement of the price of games, many swore it off entirely, at least until there are more games to play with. There are heaps to come, though, and regardless of whether you go for it straight away, it's a major shift for Nintendo. It seems that this new era is here already, too, as a new update has hit the Nintendo Switch to prepare it for its coalescence with the company's new era of hardware output. GameSharing the love Nintendo has revealed in a new blog post on the Nintendo Support website that a new update has arrived on Nintendo Switch systems, which is packing a few interesting changes – chief among them, though, is a couple of additions that adds Nintendo Switch 2-led features to the system's homepage that indicate that we're already wading into the era of the new console. The 20.0.0 update has added the Virtual Game Card and GameShare features, offering players the chance to share their games and DLC virtually with friends, and share software with different users akin to the Nintendo DS' Download Play feature. There is also a new feature that will allow players to transfer their save data from their current console to a Nintendo Switch 2. The arrival of the Virtual Game Card feature, first revealed in the final Nintendo Switch Direct, is an exciting means for players to allow their friends to play their own games and vice versa. GameShare is different, though, and in its current state, only serves as a platform to be connected to by a Nintendo Switch 2 console, as it is predominantly a feature designed for the new console. This does mean that your Nintendo Switch will become far more useful throughout the lift cycle of the Switch 2, but for now, it's all but useless as a feature. Full patch notes can be found down below. Nintendo Switch 20.0.0 update patch notes The following icons for new features have been added to the HOME Menu: Virtual Game Card Purchased Nintendo Switch digital software, DLC, and some free software, are now virtual game cards and displayed in a list in this menu. You can virtually load and eject virtual game cards between up to two Nintendo Switch systems. Virtual game cards can be lent to others in the same Nintendo Account family group. GameShare Compatible software can be shared from a Nintendo Switch 2 system to other nearby system(s) to play together. You can only play together via local wireless, and the Nintendo Switch 2 system must initiate GameShare. This feature cannot be used between two Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model and/or Nintendo Switch Lite systems. User-Verification Settings has been added under User > User Settings. You can restrict access to the Virtual Game Card menu by requiring entry of a PIN or signing in to your Nintendo Account. Online License Settings has been added. When turned on, you can play downloaded software or DLC you've purchased while the system is connected to the internet, even if you don't have the virtual game card loaded. For more information, please refer to the details about the option on the System Settings screen. The Nintendo eShop and Nintendo Switch News icon colors on the HOME Menu have been changed. Multiple save data can be selected and transferred at once in 'Transfer Your Save Data' menu. System Transfer to Nintendo Switch 2 has been added under System Settings > System. You can perform a system transfer from your Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2 using local communication. For users that will lose access to their Nintendo Switch before receiving their Nintendo Switch 2, there is an option to upload system transfer data to a dedicated server which can then be retrieved on their Nintendo Switch 2. After you upload your system transfer data to the dedicated server, the Nintendo Switch system will be initialized to factory settings, so only perform this transfer if you'll be able to complete the transfer on Nintendo Switch 2. If you want to continue using your Nintendo Switch until you have a Nintendo Switch 2, we recommend completing the system transfer using local communication after you have acquired a Nintendo Switch 2 system. An internet connection and Nintendo Account is required to complete both local and the server-based system transfer service. For more information, see System Transfer from Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2. The appearance of some user icons have been updated. A number of other features have been revealed, including the appearance of changeable Online License Settings and a couple of icon colour changes, but it's the arrival of Virtual Game Cards and GameShare that has made this update so interesting, taking us one step closer to the arrival of a new era for Nintendo. More updates like this are expected down the line but for now, we're another toe into the waters of the Nintendo Switch 2, as if our excitement wasn't already accelerating at an incredible pace anyway.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nintendo's digital Switch game sharing plan could be so much simpler
In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern. Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another. The only catch is that the consoles need to be connected over local wireless (as in, be physically near each other) when the trade happens, and be able to access the internet to download the game and run it for the first time. You can similarly share a Virtual Game Card with anyone in the same Nintendo Account family group for two weeks, after which the game automatically returns. In both cases, saves for each game stay on the console where the game was played, making it simple to share the Virtual Game Card again and keep playing. In comparison to Nintendo's current system, which requires defining a Switch console as "primary" and able to be used offline and other devices as a "secondary" and needing an internet connection to play shared games, Virtual Game Cards are a meaningful improvement. If you're a parent trying to share games with your kids or a super-fan with multiple Switches (something Nintendo no doubt wants to encourage), Virtual Game Cards have basically solved the problem — or at least made it much easier to manage and understand. The company isn't exactly leading the pack here, though. If I own a game on PlayStation, I can download it on my Playstation 4 and PlayStation 5, and play on either console, without needing to go through the rigamarole of ejecting virtual cards. The same goes for Steam games. Valve even goes further and lets the vast majority of games be shared and played on accounts connected to the same Steam Family, without your computers needing to be near each other when you "hand-off" games. People are highly sensitive to any kind of DRM. Just ask Xbox, which had big plans to change how loaning games work when the Xbox One was announced, but had to dramatically backtrack after basically everyone complained. Nintendo isn't pulling an Xbox, per se, but it is pitching something adjacent. Virtual Game Cards are inarguably better than how things work now, but they require an internet connection and they still limit how many people can play a game at once. Nintendo came up with a better mental model for sharing games, but not necessarily a better way to do it.
