Dev says Switch 2’s physical Game Cards were too slow forStar Wars Outlawsport

Nintendo's innovative Game Key Cards, designed for data-free downloads, have garnered attention from game publishers, despite criticism from fans of traditional physical media. However, a developer involved with Star Wars Outlaws has revealed that the Switch 2's Game Card interface may be a significant factor discouraging some publishers from pursuing fully physical game releases on this platform. In a recent discussion on BlueSky, Rob Bantin, the Audio Architect at Snowdrop, shared insights about the performance challenges faced with the Switch 2 port of Star Wars Outlaws, which is available only through downloads or Game Key Cards. Bantin explained that the development team relies heavily on disk streaming for creating open-world experiences, and unfortunately, the performance of the Switch 2's Game Cards did not meet their quality expectations. "If we had developed the game specifically for the Switch 2 from the start, the outcome might have been different," Bantin noted. He elaborated that the game was initially designed around the high-speed SSDs of other platforms, which became a challenge when adapting it for the Switch 2, which was introduced later in the development process. The technical specifications reveal that the Switch 2's eMMC cartridges, with a maximum speed of around 400 MB/s, load game data significantly slower than the console's MicroSD Express cards, which can reach speeds of over 800 MB/s, or its internal storage, reported at 2100 MB/s. This discrepancy could lead to longer loading times in games like Mario Kart World when using a Game Card. Star Wars Outlaws, in particular, was engineered to stream data on-demand from the high-speed SSDs found in consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, which can achieve speeds between 4.8 to 5.5 GB/s. Bantin's comments suggest that the developer prioritized maintaining the quality of the game over compromising it by utilizing the more restricted bandwidth of the Switch 2's physical cards.