The latest 20.0.0 update for the Nintendo Switch has officially introduced Virtual Game Cards and Game Lending along with some other changes. Users who have downloaded the new update will now be able to eject their virtual game cards (the new moniker for digital game downloads) and lend them to friends and family members on their Nintendo Switch Online family plan. This sounds great on paper, but the execution of this has left quite a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths and for good reason.
How Game Lending Works On Nintendo Switch (Version 20.0.0)
In order to actually lend games to other people on your family plan, you will have to physically meet up in person and have both consoles connected to the same network. Now, while this sounds reasonable in principle, the reality for a lot of people is that they probably do not live close to one another. Parents whose children live at home will have no problem sharing games with one another, but what about older family members on the plan that live far away from each other?
I, for example, live in a different country from my brother and sister, who are both on my family plan. I also have a friend and their partner on the same plan who live in a different town from me. It isn’t always easy meeting up with friends when you are adults and have rather busy lives, so getting together just to lend a game virtually when it could easily be done online without the need of being in the same place is not only illogical but impractical.
How You Could Share Games Before (Prior To Ver. 20.0.0)
So, “How has Nintendo officially ruined Game Sharing?” You may ask. Well, before the update, you could technically share games with your friends by having your account saved on their Nintendo Switch and vice versa. You could then download games they have purchased from the eShop and play them on your system. The downside to this is that you could only play the games on the same profile that they were downloaded to. It was a workaround, to say the least, but it worked and you didn’t have to meet up in person to lend games.
On the flip side, you would have to really trust the person as they would have access to your eShop account details and could make purchases with that account if they wanted to. So, although you weren’t restricted in what games you wanted to download and play, you are at risk of sharing sensitive information. That said, it was something my brother and I would use often, especially when it came to reviewing games. If one of us was unable to record gameplay or couldn’t write up a review in time, the other could easily step in and finish off what was started.
How To Fix Game Sharing
Now, even though the current state of game sharing on Nintendo Switch is less than desirable, it can easily be improved upon. For starters, Nintendo should remove the restriction on lending games in a physical space and allow games to be shared with friends when their console is connected online. They could even expand the ability of lending virtual games cards by extending it to anyone on your friends list or, at the very least, those marked as best friends.
Lending a game to a friend has a set period of 14 days. Once that time is up, the virtual game card is automatically returned to the original user. You don’t even need to meet up again to return games, so we see no reason why you would need to meet up in person to lend a game in the first place.
Whether Nintendo will actually look into this to improve lending virtual game cards or not remains to be seen. We are always hopeful that Nintendo will listen to their fans and make lending games a more convenient experience, but only time will tell.
What are your thoughts on Nintendo’s game lending feature? Please let us know in the comments.
I miss the days when physical games were standard, and you could give someone the cartridge, CD, or Floppy Disk as if you’re giving him or her a bag of potato chips.
Yeah, those were the good ol’ days
And don’t get me started on the price hikes all three Nintendo, Sony, and (now) Microsoft have been establishing over the last month. $80 for a video game is just asinine.
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/mario-kart-world-switch-2/
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/console/may-2025-pricing-updates
It’s not good, and it wasn’t a gradual increase either. Going from $60 to $80-90 is quite the hike. Sure, the games are going to be much more than before, but as a consumer, it may force us to reconsider what games we buy that month. Its hard to justify dropping $160 on two games when before you could get them for much less.