Nintendo Virtual Game Cards Explained

In what may be the last Nintendo Switch 1-dedicated Nintendo Direct, the gaming company revealed Virtual Game Cards, a solution to moving digital purchases between Switch consoles and even lending them to family members who are part of your Nintendo Switch Online family account. 

But how exactly does loading, ejecting, and sharing games work on Nintendo Switch and upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 systems? 

Loading & Ejecting Nintendo Switch Virtual Cards 

For many of us who own multiple Nintendo Switch consoles and buy games digitally, the process of ensuring those games are actually playable is pretty daunting, since an internet connection can be required to load the game. Many players have solved this problem by designating a Switch Lite or OLED as their primary Switch and the console they use at home as a secondary Switch. 

Virtual Game Cards are supposed to make this process simpler by allowing you to view your Virtual Game Cards on a designated menu and simply load or eject them between two consoles. The idea is to be able to play your digital purchase on either console without the need for an internet check, but being online is still necessary. 

The fine print on the Nintendo Virtual Game Card page reads: "An internet connection is required the first time you start a game that you have loaded to your system. An internet connection is also required each time a loaded title is ejected."

So even though only a local area connection is required to change the games between systems, you'll need to be connected to the internet to actually launch the game. The two Switch consoles must be linked to the same Nintendo Account, and any user on that account has access to that game. 

The Virtual Game Cards management system in the Direct also indicated a simple drag-and-drop method of loading and ejecting cards between two systems. It will be interesting to see if the real thing is as seamless as they make it to be, but it makes sense with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 release that they want users to more easily share digital games between Switch 1 and Switch 2 consoles. 

It's currently unclear if you'd be able to load a digital game onto a family member's primary Switch console if your account is on there as a secondary user, but you can at least lend games to other NSO members on your family plan. 

Lending a Nintendo Switch Digital Game to a Family Member

Up until now, letting family members play digital games you own has been a cumbersome process that usually involves setting your Nintendo Account as the primary user for the console they'll be using. 

With this system, users can lend a Nintendo Virtual Game Card to people on the same Nintendo Switch Online family account. However, only one game can be lent per person at a time, and you can't lend the same game to multiple people at the same time. I suppose this is primarily to prevent one person buying Splatoon 3 and making it possible to squad up with three other people with just one copy of the game. 

There's also an expiration: the Virtual Game Card will be loaded onto the second user's Switch for 14 days before it's automatically returned. Nintendo didn't clarify if the lender will be able to also play the game during this lending period, but seeing as Virtual Game Cards are supposed to be the digital variation of a physical game cart, it's likely not. 

With that in mind, if lending Virtual Game Cards is supposed to be as convenient as lending a physical cart, it's extremely weird to have the 14-day limit. It would make sense for the person lending to have the ability to pull the card back at any time, but the idea of lending a game like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom for only 14 days is absurd. 

It's implied the lender should be able to lend the same game out again immediately after the 14 days expire, but this wasn't explicitly stated. For these reasons, those wanting to freely lend their games out with no restrictions may want to stick to physical media for the foreseeable future. 

What Are the Nintendo Virtual Game Card Limitations? 

As covered above, the main Nintendo Virtual Game card limitations include:

• Only being able to load and eject Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 games between two consoles. 
• Only lend out one game at a time per person through the NSO family plan. 
• Games can only be lent out for 14 days at a time before automatically being returned to the owner. 
• It does not appear like the owner will have the ability to play the game they lend out during this period.

The Virtual Game Card is a solution to a problem that Nintendo created by not allowing digital games to be easily played and shared between different users. A platform like Steam has a much better game-sharing system, and I don't see a reason why Nintendo wouldn't adopt something like this to make their games be more easily enjoyed by more people, apart from the fact that they're Nintendo. 

Are Virtual Game Cards going to be an easy and convenient way to swap digital purchases between consoles or just a cumbersome step that could potentially feed into an algorithmic marketing machine to better gauge gaming interests from a young age? Only time will tell.

Those concerns aside though, we did get a cool reveal in the fine print of the Nintendo Virtual Game Card webpage. 

What About the Different Switch 2 Game Types?

In the April 2 Nintendo Direct about the new console, the company confirmed that there would be three "types" of games in its ecosystem: Switch 1 games, Switch 2 exclusive games, and Switch 2 edition games.

Regarding how they all interact with this game-sharing system, the disclaimer on the Nintendo Virtual Game Card webpage reads: "Compatible systems must be linked to a Nintendo Account to use virtual game cards. Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games can only be loaded on a Nintendo Switch 2 system."

We now know that Nintendo Switch 2 will offer Switch 2 versions of their games, most notably Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends ZA. Nintendo also confirmed that Switch 2 upgrades will be available to purchase for Switch 1 games, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Party: Jamboree and many others.

The full list of Switch 2-upgraded games is available on the Nintendo website. For those subscribed to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack pass, the Switch 2 upgrades for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will be available at no additional cost so long as you own the original game.

Read More: The Best Legend of Zelda Games

Virtual Game Cards in Spring 2025 

Available as an update in late April 2025, Nintendo Account users can start experimenting with Virtual Game Cards. As for the digital titles we already own, will those transfer and become a Virtual Game Card? I don't think we'll know for sure until the update actually drops. 

Nintendo Virtual Game Cards were a cool reveal, but I think in practice they're going to be much more cumbersome than they're worth.

Maybe this will be a fun feature for families with lots of kids who want to load and eject Virtual Game Cards frequently, but for a company that still sells a significant number of physical games, it feels like a half-step solution that won't be worth the trouble. 

That being said, I'm looking forward to checking this out for myself in April when it launches and see if it's measurably better than the current system for digital purchases.