Nintendo sneaked in some big news during this month’s Nintendo Direct: virtual game cards! Digital games will transition into virtual game cards that can be loaded, ejected, and shared with other Nintendo Switch devices.
This is huge news. The biggest reason I still buy physical game cartridges for most of my Switch games is so I can share them with family members who also have a Switch.
Starting in April, a system update will transform digital games into virtual game cards.
Virtual game cards appear on a new management screen, with their own dedicated button on the bottom.
These digital games can be “ejected” from one Switch and loaded onto another. The receiving Switch must either be a second system under the same account, or belong to the same Nintendo Account family group. Up to eight people can be part of one family group.
A one-time local connection is required between Switch devices, and only one virtual game card can be lent out to each Switch at a time. Ejecting or loading games does not erase the save data (just like a physical game).
Borrowed games do have a time limit, however. Virtual game cards from other Switch devices last for two weeks before automatically returning to the original Switch. Presumably, you could just re-eject and load again to re-up the timer.
It also sounds like ejecting the virtual game card temporarily removes it from the original Switch, just like ejecting a physical cartridge.
Virtual game cards will also work with Nintendo Switch 2. The virtual game card update will arrive in April.
