How Nintendo's new Virtual Game Card system works
During today's presentation, Nintendo introduced Virtual Game Cards, a digital sharing system for video games. If you were a little confused, you're not alone.
Today, during the Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo unveiled a new concept: Virtual Game Cards. The end of the announcement claimed it was “making digital games even easier to use.” But is that true? For many, this might have been the most confusing part of today’s Direct. Here’s an explanation of how these Virtual Game Cards work, and what they will change about how Nintendo Switch s can share games.
How do Nintendo’s new Virtual Game Cards work and what this means for game sharing
Sharing digital games has always been possible on Nintendo Switch. How it has worked for years is that each Nintendo has a primary console. You can sign into any other Nintendo Switch with your Nintendo , any game you’ve bought from the eShop, but unless you’re on your primary console, you’ll need to connect to WiFi to be able to play it. Notably, near the end of the video, Nintendo seems to clarify that s will still be able to opt to retain this sharing method, though that’s not completely clear. When lending a virtual game card, however, the borrower won’t need to connect to WiFi to play the borrowed game. They’ll be able to play anywhere and everywhere.
So, for example. Say I want to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Somehow in 2025 I haven’t gotten around to it yet. My friend who played it already, decided to sign in to my Switch with their Nintendo . This lets me go to their ’s eShop and Breath of the Wild to my console. But because this isn’t my friend’s primary console, to play, I’ll need to play under my friend’s and with an internet connection. Meaning I won’t be able to, for example, play Breath of the Wild on my bus ride to work, or while traveling, or anywhere other than somewhere with a stable WiFi connection.
Virtual game cards will make it so, in this same scenario, I could play Breath of the Wild as if I had purchased the game myself, just at the cost of my friend not having access to it while it’s being shared. We will also need to establish a link locally, meaning Nintendo Switch friends who aren’t often in close proximity will make this lending method more of a challenge. Virtual game cards can be a helpful way to share games, if the lender doesn’t mind losing access to it and the two s are able to establish a local connection at least once.
It was difficult to find more information outside of the two-and-a-half-minute video shown during the Direct, so this could change as Nintendo shares more about this new digital lending system. The video seems to hint that the lender will lose access to their game while it’s being borrowed, but that’s not completely confirmed. It’s also not completely confirmed that this system will apply to every game on the Nintendo eShop. The video only used first-party titles as examples, so we will need to confirm if this affects third-party games as well. Also, if I lend a virtual game card to someone, are they able to lend it to someone else, or is the virtual game card still connected to my somehow? Hopefully Nintendo will clarify this soon, or we’ll have to wait until late April when this update rolls out.
If you’re not sharing your digital games, this seems to function the same way digital purchases have always worked; it’s just an aesthetic change. “Insert the virtual game card” rather than the digital game. It’s only when it comes to sharing that this new system really comes into play.
Virtual game cards seem best for local Nintendo friends, or even better: Family Groups, which can include up to eight Nintendo s. Lending a game through the family requires a local connection each time, not just when initially establishing a link. You can also only lend one game per person at any given time. That lending period lasts for two weeks, or fourteen days, at which point the virtual game card is automatically returned to its owner. Nintendo does specify that save data is retained, so don’t worry about losing your progress once the lending period runs out. This lending period is only mentioned during the discussion of family groups, so it seems that for non-family group lending, there is no time limit. You may want to be careful about who you lend games to once this new feature arrives.
This new virtual game card system can be a little confusing and inconvenient for anyone not able to easily establish a local connection. For example, many of my friends who play on Nintendo Switch live on the East Coast of the United States, while I live on the West Coast. The next time I see my friends, maybe we could establish a local connection that could then become a digital lending library across the country. But until then, this new virtual game card system is not very useful.
This new update will arrive on the Nintendo Switch in late April, which is presumably before the Nintendo Switch 2 becomes available as well. Unless Nintendo provides any further explanation, we will have to wait to see how people make use of this feature, or if they run into problems with it.
