When it comes to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, which will get a full presentation in the form of a Nintendo Direct later this week, featuring games and many more details, it's easy to get excited. The long-awaited console promises to be basically the Switch but better, with improved performance and features.
Still, I wasn't expecting Nintendo to impress me with a feature that's coming to both the Switch 2 and the existing family of Switches when it aired a different Nintendo Direct last week. In amongst a barrage of news about some 30-odd games coming to the Switch, there was an interesting segment about lending digital games.
For a long time, Nintendo's digital game system has been a little bit arcane. Those of us with two Switches will know the interesting complexity of deciding which one should be your "primary" system and which your secondary, in order to let a family member or partner play the games you've bought without constant internet connection checks and asterisks attached.
It's workable if you figure it out, but the way Nintendo created limits on who you could let use your account was fiddly and frustrating. Now, it's changing that with a new system arriving in late April, and I can't wait.
In effect, you'll now be able to lend digital games between the Switch consoles that you own, including Switch 2 when it arrives. As well as being owned by your account, then, a game will also be active on a given console.
That means that console can play it without strings attached, and you don't have to worry about (for example) a lack of connection on a long-haul flight locking you out from your secondary Switch. Nintendo's calling the system "Virtual Game Card", and you can tell it's still a little complex from the fact that its video on the topic is over two minutes long.
There's also a system to let you lend digital games to other accounts entirely, for up to two weeks at a time, which is a nice bonus. All in all, while there may well be some strings attached that only become clear once it goes live, this seems like a win-win, where gamers get some new tools without any downsides.
It's great that it's coming into force before the Switch 2 arrives, too, to let people get used to it ahead of time on their existing hardware. I'll certainly be taking advantage of it once it's live since my partner's Switch does indeed lock me out of playing games on occasion if she forgets what she's got open.
There's no proof that this new system came about because of the upcoming release of the Switch 2, but it sure feels credible for it to have been the prompt. In that light, I'm buzzing to find out what else Nintendo might be freshening up and updating for its new console – and I'm looking forward to sharing games more easily than before.
