The Nintendo Switch has been a one of a kind device. Nintendo managed to create a fully functioning console that you can easily walk around with and turn into a multiplayer console whenever you need to! Something that no one saw coming.
With a regular console, things are pretty easy and simple to deal with. The cords are attached permanently, and the disks are always kept in one place. With something like a Nintendo Switch, nothing “stays in one place”, that’s the whole point of it!
With how “untraditional” this console is, it is expected that the way games work on it would be different too, and it is. On the Nintendo Switch, games come in two forms: The first being the Physical form and the other would be the e-versions of the same games.
A physical game would be the actual cartridge that you can buy and keep on you, and the e-version is the version that you pay for online and download onto your console.
Depending on the type of person you are, the type of game that would be better suited for you would differ, there are a few factors that play into this, we will be going over the main couple of them.
Pros of buying cartridge versions of Nintendo Switch games
The Nintendo Switch itself only comes with 32 GBs of internal storage. In today’s world, this isn’t enough storage for anyone. For people that are using only the digital versions of the games, they would run out of this space fairly quickly and would have to buy an SD card for extra storage. This is just an added cost to something that already costs a couple of hundred dollars.
Physical cartridges hold the game in them, and you only install a section of the game in your console itself. This lets you save a lot more games than you would be able to if you were only getting digital games. For the same price, you get to actually play a lot more games without having to delete anything off of your console to accommodate games. This is simply effortless, and anyone with any level of tech knowledge can get this done very easily since it just needs you to insert your cartridge in and get to playing!
Another Pro of having a physical cartridge game is that if you live in a house with multiple switches, or just have a lot of friends that play the games too, you have the option of finishing your game and swapping it out with a friend or sibling to let them play the game too without having to handover your console for weeks!
People that don’t have anyone to swap games with can still benefit from getting physical Nintendo Switch games. This is because since the game is separate from your console, you could just spend the money once, and sell the game once you’re done with it and buy another! This way you won’t have to rack up the bills and still get to play multiple games!
Pros for downloading the e-version of a Nintendo Switch game
One of the biggest pros of downloading switch games instead of buying a physical version is that if you use the switch on the go like it was meant to be used, with physical games you would have to take the cartridges with you everywhere. This might seem easy because the cartridges are so small, but their packaging is still over ten times their size. If you take them along with the packaging, they will end up taking too much space. On the other hand, if you take only the cartridges, you would risk losing them because of their small size. A digital game would always be in your switch, one tap away.
Another advantage of getting a digital copy of a switch game is the fact that you can play the games immediately after you place the order. This means that if a game has just released, you can just make your payment and not have to wait for the game to be shipped out, you immediately download it onto your console and begin playing. There is zero waiting involved. This is great for people that don’t want any spoilers while they are playing a game because you can be one of the first people to play it!
When it comes to buying Nintendo Switch games, both downloading and buying a physical cartridge are good options. They both have their advantages and appeal to different types of people. Depending on your lifestyle, either of these could be a good option, but generally, a physical copy is more risk-free and easier to use!
