I have multiple switches at home and also have a family account for everyone. For digital purchases, sharing games is very annoying: If someone has a different Nintendo account, it means buying a new copy. But this is changing, a bit of a virtual game card. The message is Nintendo Direct Streaming the week before Switch 2 reveals On April 2, it may be a big deal for my home, and it may be yours.
Read more: The biggest news from Nintendo Direct, March 2025
I'm used to sharing digital content with my family: we share iTunes purchases and Kindle books. Virtual game cards look like they are managed as card-style icons that appear on your switches and can be sent locally between switch systems for use or borrowing.
According to Nintendo, two switches can swap digital games over a local connection (for the first setup), and then both of the two switches for transmission require an internet connection), “pop up” the game and load it onto another system. This solves an annoying thing on the current switch, where only one switch can be made a “main” device. For example, now I have several switches with my Nintendo account, but I can only play games offline on one of them. Others must verify the game online. Nintendo got rid of this, at least between the two switches.
Another part of the virtual game card involves borrowing between family members. This feature looks the same as transferring digitized card files locally, but the game can only borrow for two weeks. After that, the file will “return” to the original switch. The game saves data and does not lose it, so the game can be reinstalled to refresh the borrow.
The virtual game card icon will be generated for the digital games you have and will be managed in a new section of the system software.
The development as a whole is welcome news, it recommends a new approach to digital gaming before the Switch 2 releases. But that doesn't solve all my problems. I want a way to share the game permanently among all family members, or at least buy a lower cost license to do this. The limited two-switch limit on offline gaming on one account is better than before, but anyone who makes more switching on one account still has to take into account both.
But it does show that Nintendo is trying to change the way new customers move to Switch 2. Previously, new console settings involved annoying restore payloads and authorizations, including reassigning which switch was “main”. Virtual game card support will arrive before Switch 2 in late April, which should mean that setting up Switch 2 and moving digital games may be easier than before. I'm still curious about how all of this works, and how the limitations really feel, but for that we may have to wait until the end of April to test it.
