Nintendo Announces New System That Lets Players Share Digital Games On Switch And Switch 2

Nintendo
made
a
surprising
announcement
at
today’s
Nintendo
Direct
livestream:
by
the
end
of
April,
players
will
be
share
their
digital
games.

Now,
obviously,
there
are
some
pretty
big
caveats.
The
biggest
is
that
you
can’t
lend
your
digital
games
to
anyone
–
only
people
within
your
Family
Group
will
be
eligible,
or
other
consoles
that
you
own.

Launching
sometime
by
the
end
of
April,
the
system
works
by
granting
you
a
Virtual
Game
Card
for
each
game
you
buy
digitally.
By
visiting
another
screen
you
can
choose
whether
that
virtual
card
is
“loaded”
or
“ejected”.
Ejected
virtual
cards
can
then
be
used
on
a
secondary
Switch
or
Switch
2
that
you
own.
Nintendo
notes
that
a
“local”
connection
is
required
for
the
first
time,
which
presumably
using
the
Switch’s
inbuilt
mini-WIFI
that
tends
to
be
forgotten
about.

This
feature
seems
a
tad
confusing.
Perhaps
it’s
because
my
Nintendo
knowledge
is
somewhat
lacking,
but
I
can
already
easily
share
all
my
digital
games
across
my
two
Switch
consoles
if
I
want.
A
quick
glance
at
the
Youtube
comments
suggests
I’m
not
the
only
one
struggling
to
figure
the
system
out.

Things
get
more
interesting,
though,
because
you’ll
also
be
able
to
lend
your
games
to
people
within
your
Nintendo
Account
Family
Group.
Again,
the
virtual
game
card
must
be
“ejected”
and
the
Family
Group
member
must
be
connected
locally
again,
at
which
point
you
can
lend
the
game
to
them
for
a
period
of
up
to
14
days.
After
14
days,
the
game
will
automatically
be
returned
to
its
owner.

An
official
blog
post
has
clarified
that
an
Internet
connection
is
required,
along
with
a
local
connection
from
system
to
system.

Under
the
previous
system,
you
could
allow
family
members
to
play
your
games
by
logging
in
with
your
account
on
their
machine,
which
could
be
problematic,
especially
for
parents
who
wanted
to
let
their
kids
player
their
games.

Nintendo
does
also
say
you
can
opt-out
of
this
new
system
if
you
wish.

It’s
currently
unclear
if
this
system
will
include
3rd
party
releases,
or
if
it
only
applies
to
first-party
Nintendo
titles.

Honestly,
I
feel
like
I
need
a
dedicated
Nintendo
fan
out
there
to
help
explain
how
this
is
actually
different
from
the
current
system.
From
my
mostly
outsider
perspective,
this
system
just
seems
needlessly
complex,
much
like
most
things
Nintendo
do
with
their
software.
Has
it
perhaps
been
introduced
to
clamp
down
on
some
game
sharing
loopholes?