The start of Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders in Japan has revealed an interesting statistic regarding the proportion of third-party Nintendo Switch 2 physical editions that are Game Cards and Game-Key Cards.

While the entire game data and software license are stored on a Game Card, Game-Key Cards only contain the license for the product, meaning that the game data must be downloaded and stored on the Nintendo Switch 2 internal memory or microSD Express Card before you can play.

Out of 13 third-party physical titles currently listed for pre-order on Yodobashi Camera (excluding titles that do not have boxart), an overwhelming 85% (11) are Game-Key Cards, with the remaining 15% (2) being Game Cards.

The only 2 titles that are Game Cards happen to be Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games from the same publisher – Marvelous. However, there’s one Marvelous game, DAEMON X MACHINA TITANIC SCION, that isn’t a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition title but is also on a Game-Key Card.

Game-Key Cards aren’t necessarily limited to games with large file sizes. Survival Kids and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S have the smallest file sizes at 3GB and 4GB respectively, and yet they are also on Game-Key Cards.

These signs may suggest that the number of Game Card sizes have been severely reduced on Nintendo Switch 2.

It is worth pointing out that at this point of time, Japanese product listings do not clearly state whether or not a game is a Game-Key Card. The only way to tell is by looking at the boxart of the product listing. You won’t be able to tell on listings with no boxart.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.