Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition 2 Switch Rekindles Controversy With Game Key Cards
Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition was part of the first set of games revealed to be part of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition last year, but it hasn’t been released yet. Developer FromSoftware has delayed the game from its original 2025 release, but on Thursday, pre-orders opened to retailers. Some players, however, are not happy about the news, although not for the reason one might expect.
Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition will cost $80, according to pre-order the listalthough there is no confirmed release date yet. I Switch 2 version includes the base game of 2022 and the Shadow of Erdtree DLCwhich costs the same price on other platforms. What’s different about the Switch 2 version and the others is that it comes in a Game Key Cardcausing irritation to gamers.
Game Key Cards are Nintendo’s solution for storing great games. Since the Switch 2 still uses cartridges, a game like Elden Ring will need cartridges with enough storage for the entire game, meaning in the game boxit is 75GB. A game-sized cart can have a significant hardware cost, especially considering current shortage of storage.
To reduce cart costs, Nintendo created Game Key Cards, cartridges that don’t contain the game, enough to authenticate the game with Nintendo’s servers and allow it to be downloaded to the Switch 2. Once the game is downloaded to the Switch 2 and the cartridge is installed, it won’t need an Internet connection to play it.
Why are people upset about the Game-Key Card feature?
While the Game-Key Card feature helps reduce the cost of releasing a portable game, it also prevents the consumer from actually owning a physical copy. There is a growing concern about the lack of ownership of video games, as more publishers are releasing games, which means they are removing them from the storefront. Once a game has been removed from the online store, it is almost impossible to re-download that game from another device. PUBG for PS4 and Xbox One was released in 2018, for example, but the publisher announced that it would no longer support those versions, rendering them unplayable.
A consumer organization called Stop Killing Games aims to challenge the legal right of game companies to destroy games purchased by consumers. We have made progress in the UK and EU, hoping that the relevant legislative bodies will pass consumer protection laws to prevent companies from disabling games that have already been purchased.
Will the digital version of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition be cheaper?
Starting with the release of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book in May, Nintendo will charge $10 less for the digital version of its games, meaning a $70 physical game would cost $60 when purchased digitally from Nintendo. It is unclear whether other publishers will follow suit. Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition has a listing on Nintendo’s website, but no price yet.
What’s new in Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition?
When publisher Bandai Namco revealed the Tarnished Edition of Elden Ring, it confirmed that there would be new content, although not much. This includes new weapons, armor and customization features for Torrent’s appearance. There will also be two additional starting classes: the Knight of Idis, who is fast and very agile, and the Heavy Knight, as the name suggests, who wears heavy armor and starts with a greatsword.
Adding new starting classes to the game doesn’t change much, as players can change their stats, equipment and abilities as they play, meaning a class that starts out relying on magic can end up using heavy weapons and vice versa. Fans of the game, however, can get a piece of new information from these new classes, as each starting character has their own background that provides more information on the world of the Elden Ring.
Bandai Namco says that the new content in the Tarnished Edition will make its way to other platforms through the Tarnished Pack DLC which will be available at the same time as this version of the game. The publisher has not announced the price of the DLC, but it is expected to cost $10.
