Hey everyone, quick question about Nintendo Switch games and game keys. If I buy a digital game key and download the game either to a micro SD card or directly to my console, would I still be able to play that game after Nintendo eventually shuts down its servers, say in 15 to 20 years? I know that physical cartridges have the license linked to the cart itself and not a Nintendo Account, but for digital keys, is the license permanent as long as I don’t delete the game? Basically, I’m wondering if digital copies bought this way can be played forever offline without any issues.
3 Answers
In my experience with older Nintendo digital stores, you can still download games you’ve purchased even years later. So even if some parts of the online service shut down, the ability to redownload your games or play already downloaded titles usually sticks around for quite a while.
From what I understand, if you’ve already downloaded the game, you should be able to keep playing it even if Nintendo’s servers go offline years down the line. I’ve heard that games you bought digitally on older systems like the Wii can still be downloaded and played, so there’s a chance Switch might be similar.
It probably depends on how Nintendo validates game ownership. If it’s all checked locally on the console without needing to ping their servers frequently, you should be good playing offline forever. But if they require online license checks regularly, there might be issues once servers shut down.
Good point, I hadn’t considered the possibility of periodic online checks. Hopefully it’s local.
That’s reassuring! I figured maybe the digital licenses stick around like that too.