Been collecting CDs for the simple pleasure of actually owning my media. Did some digging on games. Switch 1 is the last console where the same thing is true.
Been buying physical CDs again recently. Not for nostalgia, honestly just because I enjoy having the media in my hand, not depending on a third party to keep streaming it to me, and not paying a monthly fee for access I never actually own. That habit just feels right in a way Spotify never did.
That got me wondering about games. Like if I buy a PS5 disc, do I actually own it the way I own a CD? Spent the weekend going down a rabbit hole and tbh the answer kinda bummed me out.
On PS5 and Xbox the disc is yours but the game is licensed. The EULA literally says that, revocable license not ownership. Most modern AAA ships broken without the day-one patch so the disc by itself is half a game anyway. Get your account banned and you start losing stuff.
On the Switch 2 Nintendo invented “Game-Key Cards” which are basically cartridges with nothing on them. You buy it, put it in, download the full game from Nintendo’s servers, and you still need the cart inserted to play. Most third-party Switch 2 games are launching this way now. It’s just digital with extra steps.
Then there’s the original Switch, and honestly it stands alone. First-party Nintendo carts (BOTW, TOTK, Mario Odyssey, Smash, Metroid Dread, Pokémon) actually have the entire game on the cartridge. No patches required, no online activation, no account binding. The console will eventually wear out like any electronics will, but the cartridges themselves are the game, the way a CD is the album. They work the same the day you buy them as they will the day a Nintendo server gets shut off.
And the rest of the industry is going the opposite way fast. Ubisoft pulled The Crew from people’s libraries after they paid full price for it. Concord shipped, flopped, got shut down and the money is just gone. The FTC literally had to tell digital storefronts to stop using the word “buy” because it was misleading. Game Pass and PS Plus are eating ownership and everyone’s treating it as progress.
Honestly the more I look at it, the more the Switch feels like a small miracle. It’s the last mainstream console still keeping the old promise. Buy the game, the game is yours, plug it in, it works. No subscription, no server, no account, no patch. Nintendo catches a lot of flak for being stubborn and behind the times and yeah some of it is earned, but on this one specific thing they’re the only ones who didn’t sell us out. If you’ve got a Switch with a real cartridge library, you’ve got something that genuinely doesn’t exist anywhere else in modern gaming. Worth appreciating while it lasts.