Nintendo Switch 2’s Game-Key Cards Point to the Inevitable: Physical Media’s Days Are Numbered, Says Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director

Switch 2 is getting a strong first-year push from the big third-party players, but the physical situation is... odd. A lot of those boxed copies are not really cartridges with a full game on them. They are game-key cards that basically unlock a download. Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi has been surprisingly cool with that trade-off, and he just explained why.

Wait, what are game-key cards again?

On Switch 2, plenty of releases from Capcom, Ubisoft, Sega, and Square Enix are shipping as little plastic carts that do not contain the game data. You pop them in, they authorize a download, and you play a digital version. It works, but collectors hate it for obvious reasons: if a store shuts down years from now, that 60-dollar box is not going to preserve anything.

Hamaguchi gets the frustration, but says the trend is coming either way

Hamaguchi, who has previously spoken up in favor of these cards, told GamesRadar+ he understands why fans are unhappy with the format. He also thinks the industry is already headed in one direction: fewer discs and carts, more downloads. Look around: PlayStation and Xbox libraries are mostly digital now, and physical PC games might as well be fossils.

"I think it is, in some ways, part of a larger trend that we cannot avoid."

That said, he is not writing off Nintendo fans. He pointed out that Switch 2 players really do value physical media, so if this shift happens on that platform, it is going to happen slower than elsewhere.

Why developers like the key cards anyway

Hamaguchi made the practical case: from a creator perspective, key cards open the door to bringing certain games to Switch 2 that would otherwise be a nightmare to ship as a traditional cartridge. Big, memory-hungry, high-end titles can push past what a standard cart can handle. A developer on Star Wars: Outlaws made a similar point recently, saying regular carts just could not deliver the performance they needed. In other words, it is not just about convenience or cutting costs; sometimes it is the only way to get the game onto the platform without compromising.

• Who is backing Switch 2 early: Capcom, Ubisoft, Sega, Square Enix.
• What a game-key card is: a cartridge that authorizes a digital download instead of storing the game itself.
• Why fans dislike it: terrible for long-term preservation if storefronts go offline.
• Why devs defend it: performance and memory needs for bigger games can exceed what a standard cart can deliver.
• Hamaguchi’s stance: the industry is trending digital, but the Switch audience will slow that shift; key cards make some ports possible at all.

Side note: the AI question

Hamaguchi also touched on AI and creativity. His take was refreshingly straightforward: even if AI keeps poking its head into the creative process, his team wants to be the kind of creators who can simply outperform it.