Nintendo Patents Watch announced its latest discoveries on social media platforms:

"I noticed something in the Switch 2 game card patent, but I want to confirm it first. After confirming it with someone who knows more, it is confirmed as follows:

Game Card 2 (Game Card 2) communicates with SoC (system-on-chip) through the eMMC standard

·The maximum data transmission rate of eMMC and this card is 400MB/s

·Game Card 1 Generation (GC 1) uses a private protocol

·The host built-in converter, convert it into an eMMC signal and then pass it to the SoC

eMMC is faster and more energy-efficient than this private protocol

> The above information is consistent with previous user speed test results: Switch 2 Internal Storage (UFS 3.1) > microSD Express Card > GC 2 > GC 1.

> This also means that if the data transmission rate required for a certain game is indeed >400MB/s, the game card cannot be used for the second generation, but must be on the internal storage or microSD Express card.

> However, this situation should be extremely rare."Cyberpunk 2077" runs well through the 2nd generation of the game card.”

What does all this mean?

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S use SSD as internal storage.Many CD versions of the games on both consoles are actually installation disks, with the purpose of loading the game into the SSD.This is because the speed of optical drives reading data is slower than running games on SSDs.

If this information is correct, Nintendo faces a similar problem.The Switch 2 game card runs the game at the same speed as internal storage.This also adds a hint of complexity to the various information we have heard and speculated about the host.

If true, what impact will it have?

1. This may explain why you switch to Micro SD Express (rather than Micro SD): The Micro SD Express card runs on the PCIe 3.0 NVMe interface and is closer to SSD.

2. This may also explain the existence of the Virtual Game Card project: Nintendo's project seems to be aimed at helping players manage digital games, but they obviously foresee that players still want to install some of the games into internal storage.

3. Most importantly, this may explain the launch of Game-Key Cards: Nintendo has long known that third-party manufacturers will be dissatisfied with the performance of the Switch 2 game cards.And through the game key fob, they can sell games (physical cards) in retail channels while ensuring the game achieves the best performance.

Of course, this also creates a new problem for discussions around physical games and game ownership: if physical cards cannot provide the best running effect, will players still want to collect all games in the form of game cards?

This seems to be a question that needs to be discussed by the Switch 2 community.But Switch 2 users undoubtedly need to have a broad understanding of this situation.