The reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 has expectedly brought a lot of excitement, but the days since the Direct have also brought a lot of confusion. There’s been conflicting info on a few different things, including game prices, but one that fans have been particularly concerned about are the physical copies of Nintendo Switch 2 Enhanced Edition games — like Breath of the Wild. Now we finally have confirmation that the Upgrade Packs for those games will be included on physical cartridges, meaning there’s no extra download if you decide to buy a physical copy.
Over the last week, we’ve gotten mixed signals about how the Enhanced Editions work. The “new” content comes in the way of $10 Upgrade Packs, which you can purchase digitally if you already own copies of the game. However, things got muddy when a Nintendo customer service representative told one user that the Enhanced Editions would include a code in the box for the Upgrade Packs.
This obviously led to concern over the state of the physical games. Would paying that extra $10 mean you just get a Switch 1 cartridge, and you wouldn’t be able to loan out the game with new content to friends and family, or even trade it in? Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the case, as a Nintendo spokesperson confirmed to Australian website Vooks that everything will be on the same game card.
A statement provided to Vooks says, “Physical versions of Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game and its upgrade pack all on the same game card. Alternatively, some publishers may release Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging, with no game card.”
What that means is that first-party Enhanced Editions from Nintendo itself will all be included on the card itself. Right now, that would be four games: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Mario Party Jamboree.
But the catch is that this won’t apply to any third-party Enhanced Editions, if we see them. There currently aren’t any third-party games with an announced Enhanced Edition, but it’s certainly possible we’ll see those happen after the console releases. In those cases, it seems like it will be up to the publisher on whether the physical boxes come with a card that includes everything, or simply a download code. We’ve already kind of seen this with Square Enix’s remaster of Bravely Default — which is simply a box with a code if you buy a physical copy, there’s no card at all.
But perhaps the bigger problem here is that everyone had to spend a week figuring out what the answer was about these Enhanced Editions — something that should have been cut and dry in some kind of frequently-asked-questions from the very beginning. It shows that Nintendo’s communications around the Switch 2 hasve been a bit of a mess.
You can see that clearly in how a lot of the excitement from the initial presentation has fizzled out, caused by confusing and unclear information. The Switch 2 Direct didn’t announce any prices, so when the console was announced at $449.99, that was already a bit of a blow, followed by Mario Kart World priced at $80. Suddenly, everyone wondered if every Switch 2 game would be $80 and how that would affect physical games, and it took days to get a clear answer that Nintendo would be using “variable” pricing that approaches every game individually.
Then it was reported that the new Chat feature, which has a dedicated button on the Joy-Cons, would require a Switch Online subscription to use. While it is a pay-to-use service, there’s a “free period” that ends on March 31, 2026 — at which point you’ll need to have a subscription. Again, it took days for this information to get confirmed.
All of these problems have already been further compounded by problems outside of Nintendo’s control, specifically the uncertainty around the United States’ tariffs that caused the delay of pre-orders, and questions about whether it will even affect pricing.
Things like Enhanced Edition cartridges might seem like small non-issues, but when you have multiple issues stacked up, it really detracts from the positive messaging around the Switch 2. Between now and release, Nintendo really needs to come out strong with clear messaging that doesn’t create any confusion whatsoever, especially since the Switch 2 is already going to be fighting an uphill battle with economic forces out of Nintendo’s control.
