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Comment by Wowfunhappy | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this problem specific to Xbox and PC? I know for sure that first party Nintendo games are playable 100% offline, not sure about Sony?

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Nintendo Switch cartridges don't have this problem, mostly. It's the reason I buy physical for the family library. Nintendo's digital licensing is terrible (slightly less so with Virtual Cartridges, but miles away from Steam Family) and doesn't really work for a multi-Switch household.

But, I was traveling for work and brought the non-"home" Switch with me along with a copy of Breath of the Wild on cartridge. I fired it up on the airplane, ready to go. And then discovered that because I had bought the DLC and the DLC license check couldn't pass, I was locked out of playing at all. It's given me pause on buying any other DLC on a Nintendo platform.

...huh, do the online license checks only happen if you have the cartridge sharing stuff enabled? Wondering when/if I would run into this, I haven't yet. But I never use their "virtual game card" system, I only have one Switch and I think the whole thing is overcomplicated and too limited.

i have flaky internet and i am always able to play my virtual cards. I've never had an issue with wifi off, either. I just assume it needs to phone home because everything does, but it doesn't need to phone home to play right then.

Now, i got my kid another switch and he decided he wanted his own account tied to the family nintendo plan and now i am learning what a pain the virtual cards are. If he had just let me put my account on his switch he could have all the games i have, but that's not what we went with ;-)

While not great, the virtual cards are an improvement, unless your kid and you never play the same games. One Switch gets to be the home console and doesn't need checks. The other would have to be logged in as you, which requires a license check every time you play. But, save files are tied to the account and you can't move them between accounts. If you use cloud save files, you and your kid are going to be bumping into each other all the time. Then, if you introduced a 3rd Switch, only one of the non-home Switches could play a game under your account at a time, even if they're different games.

I know 3+ Switches sound like a lot, but Nintendo was pushing the Switch Lite like the latest Gameboy. Maybe you concede and decide to buy the same game multiple times to avoid all of this. Well, there's no gifting. You need to enter your billing details into your kid's Switch and buy it there. Assuming you don't want to leave your credit card setup in their Switch, you get to go through this whole dance every time you buy something.

Virtual cards let you avoid a lot of this nonsense for two weeks. You'll rapidly get annoyed having to keep the original Switch and the new one in close proximity to do the exchange, but it'll work. But, it's nowhere near as nice as Steam Family or the iOS Family Sharing.

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