Cyberpunk 2077 developer comments on Switch 2 key cards, says having proper “cartridge with a plug and play experience” is “right thing to do”

Physical games remain vital to Nintendo players and developers should not “underestimate” this, an exec at Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt has said.

CD Projekt is currently getting ready to launch Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2 and, unlike many games set to be released on Nintendo’s new console, on its Switch 2 launch Cyberpunk 2077 will offer a physical game cartridge with the actual game on it.

This puts CD Projekt in the relative minority, as many other third party studios are instead favouring ‘key cards’ for their own Switch 2 releases. These key cards don’t actually contain game data, and instead trigger a download from the Nintendo eShop when they are popped into the device.

But while there has been a general lean towards digital media over the past few years, CD Projekt says it has used its learnings from releasing The Witcher 3 on the original Switch when deciding upon a physical Switch 2 release for Cyberpunk 2077.

Having Cyberpunk 2077 as a “cartridge with a plug and play experience” on Switch 2 was “the right thing to do”, CD Projekt’s VP of business development Jan Rosner told The Game Business. The exec noted the original Switch’s internal storage was “way lower than it is now”, and a “game like The Witcher 3 would take up to 80 percent of your internal memory if you don’t have an external memory card”.

Nintendo players “are quite receptive” to that “plug and play experience”, Rosner furthered, and so CDPR knew having a physical cartridge version of Cyberpunk 2077 for Switch 2 with no download required was “a goal that we wanted to achieve” from early on.

“Nintendo at physical retail is still strong, and retail is, in general, not going anywhere,” he said, adding he doesn’t see “a reality where we’re just having all games digital” for a while yet.

“It’s especially important for the Nintendo audience,” the exec continued. “We maybe could have got away with [a key card], but is there a point? The right thing to do was to have it out on the cartridge with a plug and play experience.”

Rosner advises other studios to “not underestimate the physical edition”, saying this form of media is “not going anywhere and Nintendo players are very appreciative of physical editions that are done right”.

In the same conversation, Rosner said he believes that we will see “more and more third-party titles on the [Switch 2], which we may not necessarily expect” on the original Switch.

“The previous generation has proven to be so successful, and there [are] so many more players to be reached with that, and I think that the [console’s capabilities] will surely allow it,” he said.

This seems like a more than reasonable assumption. After all, along with Cyberpunk 2077, Hazelight’s Split Fiction will also be a Switch 2 launch title. Other third party titles also confirmed for the platform include Elden Ring, Hollow Knight: Silksong, IOI’s James Bond game and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, although these won’t be available on the console’s release.

So, with all that said and done, does it seem likely we will also see a Switch 2 version of The Witcher 3 further down the line? Well, the studio is skirting that question for now and earlier this year, CD Projekt told Eurogamer it is “all in on Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition” on Switch 2.

“Our relationship with Nintendo goes back to the original Nintendo Switch, where we released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We were happy with how that game was received by players so, when we heard about the more powerful Nintendo Switch 2, we immediately thought it would be the perfect platform for Cyberpunk 2077,” CD Projekt’s gameplay technical design expert Filip Downar told Eurogamer, adding that the studio was “thrilled” to be working with Nintendo again.

For more, you can check out our handy guide to all Nintendo Switch 2 launch games here.