Final Fantasy VII Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi has spoken openly about the controversial Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards. While he admits that there are positives and negatives regarding the Game-Key Cards he says that generally they aren't about reducing cost, but are instead used to quickly load data assets in games which the cartridge cannot do. Here's what he said:
"I have heard the reaction that the various Nintendo gamers have towards the Game-Key Card," he said via an interpreter. "I understand where they're coming from, definitely. I can see the things that they are maybe annoyed with, maybe why they don't like it, and I get that, I really do. But certainly, among developers, the discussion about the Game-Key Card format is perhaps a bit different to what the fans maybe expect.
"It's always, I think, looked at in terms of the memory restrictions. And that is an issue, that's not something we can ignore, the fact that the standard cartridge has a smaller memory, and we have to work around that.
"But I think perhaps the biggest issue for developers, certainly for people like us who make high-end HD games, is the loading speed, because you compare that to the solid-state drive and the speed you can get from loading from that, it's going to be inferior to that. It just has to be, that's the way the media works, physically.
"So that's the bigger issue, really, in terms of making games, making high-end games for the Switch 2, and what it allows, obviously, by doing a semi-download version of the game, you can then use the SSD and rely on that for that smoother loading. So that's perhaps the bigger issue in terms of a developer."
"This is just my personal thoughts about this, but I'd kind of like, if possible, maybe Nintendo fans to understand the Game-Key cards and maybe come to accept them as part of the culture of gaming on Switch, because it allows more opportunities.
"It's an option – it's not that everyone has to use it – but it's another option to deliver the games to fans, and I think we could lose out on opportunities – there may be people, if we didn't have that option, who wouldn't get to play the game. So from a developer's perspective, it allows us to bring more high-end experiences to Switch players, and I think that's a good thing.
"I really get where people are coming from in terms of their negativity towards it, and there are good reasons and debates to have there. But if people come to accept it more, I think there are advantages too, and from a developer's perspective, it does let us do things that maybe we wouldn't otherwise."
