Nintendo Switch 2 physical game price differences

Last week I was able to purchase a Nintendo Switch 2. The console was due to arrive on Monday, so I also picked up a physical copy of Mario Kart World for $80 USD (compared to $70 USD for digital). This is the first time I can remember that Nintendo had a different price for an identical game, just based on the medium. At first glance this seems like a $10 USD difference, but there's a detail that gets obscured by comparing sticker price alone: who is paying storage costs.

Mario Kart World requires 23GB of storage. That's not a trivial amount of storage space! I suspect Nintendo's rollout of "Game-Key Cards" isn't simply because companies wanted users to have a better experience than opening an empty jewel case. The new hardware capabilities of the Switch 2 mean games will require more storage for HD textures, sounds, video, and models.

Fast and large storage is expensive, and the more a publisher has to spend on storage the fewer margins there are for their games. Pushing games to be digital means that you, the user, are paying the storage costs instead of the publisher (in addition to the downsides of digital-only media, like fewer ownership rights, less flexibility, DMCA, etc).

So how much of that $10 USD savings for buying digitally is diminished by having to pay for storage instead of Nintendo or other games publishers? Remember that the Nintendo Switch 2 requires the use of microSD Express (or "EX") cards, so let's look at "prices per GB" for that storage medium on the market today:

• SanDisk 128GB ($60 USD, 0.47 USD/GB)
• SanDisk 256GB ($72 USD, 0.28 USD/GB)
• SanDisk 512GB ($120 USD, 0.23 USD/GB)
• Lexar 1TB ($200 USD, 0.19 USD/GB)

So if we assume that microSD Express prices don't suddenly drop, around 23 cents per GB is a decent price. Many users will be paying more to avoid paying another $100 USD on top of the Nintendo Switch 2 price. If Mario Kart World uses 23 GB, that's $5.29 USD worth of microSD Express storage (23 × $0.23 = $5.29). So when storage costs are considered, the difference between physical and digital games is less than $5 USD.

You might already also have digital games from your previous Nintendo Switch (you did migrate them over, right?) that will be taking up this more valuable storage space, too. How many more games do you expect to purchase over the Nintendo Switch 2's likely 8+ year lifetime? The Nintendo GameCube app for the Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to grow by 1.3GB per game added to the service. GameCube archivists will recognize that number as being the size of a mini-DVD, the medium used by GameCube games.

All of this adds up, and you might need to upgrade your storage medium down the line. If you do upgrade, combined with the Switch 2's single microSD card slot means you'll be double-paying if you don't pay for enough storage up-front.

Buying physical copies of games whenever possible (not "Game-Key Cards") will alleviate all of these concerns, even if they're a few dollars more expensive outright. Reminder that this is all food for thought. Being the physical media lover that I am, I want everyone to have all the facts when deciding how to buy their games.

Have thoughts or questions? Send them my way:

sethmlarson.99 (Signal)
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