Square Enix Director Naoki Hamaguchi commented on the performance trade-offs when using full-fledged cartridges for Switch 2 and explained why Game-key Cards are used.
Developers note that Switch 2 cartridges load slower than the built-in SSD, which limits the capabilities of high-budget games. Hamaguchi explains that Game-key Cards allow the release of projects like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on Switch 2, giving developers more flexibility, despite fan criticism.
Switch 2 is a significant step forward compared to the first console, but cartridges can be a limitation. This is one of the reasons why many games are released on Game-key Cards. The main problem is speed: the internal Kioxia storage reaches up to 2.1 GB/sec, while cartridges do not provide such performance. In other words, games on SSD load faster than on external cartridges.
At TGS 2025, Hamaguchi stated that loading from cartridges is inferior to SSD, and this is a serious problem for high-budget games. He emphasized that without Game-key Cards, some games would not be able to release on Switch 2 at all.
