Ubisoft veteran developer Rob Bantin has defended the decision to release the Switch 2 version of Star Wars Outlaws on Game Key Card. In a BlueSky thread discussing the choice of distribution format, Bantin explained that the Snowdrop engine that powers Outlaws required faster data streaming speeds than the Switch 2’s Game Cartridges could provide.
Another user in the thread looked through the Switch 2 Game Cartridge patents and discovered that the handheld’s card reader communicates via the eMMC standard, which is rated for 400 MB/s. This is also the same standard that the original Switch 1 uses, though with a different proprietary communication method (as the same user explains in a reply further down the thread).
This leads me to wonder why Nintendo didn’t opt for a faster card reader, especially as the handheld already has a microSD Express slot. A full-sized SD Express slot is rated for up to 3,940 MB/s, which is faster than the Switch 2’s internal storage, so would be more than sufficient for a game like Outlaws.
A more conspiratorial mind might say this was a conscious decision made to push users to buy Game Key Cards, which are cheaper, harder to pirate, and give Nintendo some control over the resale market.
One likely reason is that SD Express cards would be too expensive to mass produce. After all, the Switch 2’s current eMMC cards are rumored to cost a whopping 16 USD per unit to produce.
Star Wars Outlaws is out now on the Nintendo Switch 2.
