All right, we’ve got a lot of new Nintendo Switch 2 news and updates to break down and discuss today. Quite a few different topics to go over here, some of them bigger than others, but we did get a look at just how the mouse mode looks, specifically on the home screen navigation of Switch 2, and it’s kind of exactly like you would expect, but at the same time relieving to see. We have a big reason why the physical game key card situation is the way it is in this console generation. And while we may do a separate deep dive video on this, yeah, this one kind of seems like it’s on Nintendo at the end of the day. Then we also have Nintendo officially confirming that their research and development costs are at an all-time high, which basically just spells good things for the future. And it also kind of ties into one of the headlines from their recent investor briefing around innovation for their gaming consoles going forward. And there is also now a new game confirmed to be headed to Nintendo Switch 2 that was not previously a thing. So we’ll get on the same page with all these details. But before we do, make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on your bell notification to join Sun Nation if you’re new here. And shout outs to you guys cuz we did hit the 90K milestone on the channel. I am eternally grateful to you all. We will be revealing the winner of the giveaway for the Nintendo Switch 2 in the next video. So, if you’re not already subscribed, this is your last chance and honestly like middle of the day today because I will be drawing the winner at some point for tomorrow’s video during the evening today and I will be reaching out to you directly through the community post and tagging your exact channel if you are the winner and you’ll be announced in tomorrow’s video. So, I want to first kick off this conversation over at X where you can see Stealth40K’s post on Twitter, which is just an uploaded video from the Nintendo today app, but uh easily accessible here. And we actually get another look at the UI, but specifically how things look in mouse mode, which this is just cool that I mean it was kind of an assumption that this would be a feature, but just seeing an actual cursor, literally a fullfledged mouse mode setup from Nintendo and kind of a better look at their UI and that same color scheme when you’re highlighting different icons and things, that rainbow uh kind of purple blueish color. We’re seeing that in more action than we’ve seen before so far. Not the most exciting UI out there, especially if you are used to the Nintendo Switch, but just to see Nintendo do something like an optical mouse and full support. And you do kind of get a nice little look at highlighting a game with mouse mode. It just basically gives that colorized uh look to the actual icon. You’re highlighting it over being Mario Kart World in this case. Uh so there’s some different options that you can like really slow down and read through everything if you want to. But just kind of seeing this in action, it makes me realize we’re that much closer to Nintendo Switch 2 being a thing. And I personally am a big fan of mouse mode. Uh specifically, I will be checking it out with a game like Metroid Prime 4 because while I’m not super big on mouse and keyboard uh shooter controls or anything like that, I do uh definitely pay attention to different ways to play Metroid Prime 4. And I do think that the responsiveness from the sounds of things online and people who have been able to play that game hands-on, it sounds exciting enough to check out. So, moving on from there, kind of one of the bigger topics in today’s video uh that we do need to spend some time on has to do with the reason that we are seeing a lot of game key cards in the Nintendo Switch 2 generation. And just to give you a brief recap in case if you’re not fully familiar with what a game key card is, it is still a physical cartridge that you can go pick up at any retailer. However, it does not have the actual contents of the game on the cartridge itself. Rather, it is a reusable and not tied to a specific Nintendo account download code to essentially let you download the file in full. The cartridge does have to be inserted in the console to be able to play the game. you will only need to download the game that initial time and obviously once it’s on your system memory it’s good unless if you were to delete it. Uh which you might realize could become a problem with the amount of storage that’s on the Switch too which we might also touch on in a different video. But there’s been a lot of confusion around why so many third-party companies are opting to use the physical game key card. because outside of a few third-p partyy games that are confirmed to be full-on cartridge like Cyberpunk 2077 and a handful of others, uh pretty much everything besides firstp party Nintendo games has been announced as a game key card. And there was this idea floating around online that potentially Nintendo was only supplying one type of cartridge or maybe two like a very small cartridge and a large 64 GB cartridge as an option to their partners. Uh and now we have some confirmation around this because there was actually a leak that hit a company that is a partner of Nintendo uh because of a hack mind you so not obtained lawfully or anything like that. This is actually an unfortunate thing that happened but it did reveal some of the inside information and the questions to what fans have been wanting to know which is why are we seeing all these physical game key cards or game key cards rather as a physical option as opposed to games on the cartridge like we saw in the Switch one generation. Well, Necroilipe over on X has a full breakdown in Portuguese. We are using his translated post which says, “Thanks to leaks from Ark System Works. Only three types of formats have been found to be available for games being planned for the Nintendo Switch 2. You have that digital game DL or digital game only, 64 GB cartridge with the full game, or potion, which is what he just uh outlined, which is the code name for key card format. So, once upon a time, we were hopeful that this format would actually eliminate codes in a box altogether. Unfortunately, Split Fiction from EA publishing it uh confirmed that that’s not the case as that will be a physical codeinbox option uh for your Nintendo Switch 2 collection. So, you are literally buying a cartridge with a onetime redeemable code. You cannot resell it. And so, that’s still around in this generation and we will see it from certain publishers. Then you have the game key card. Uh, which again just a big downside if you’re a physical collector because while you do get the cartridge and you do get box art to look at and that kind of stuff, you’re not getting manuals in these things anymore. And over the years, uh, you know, we’ve been losing some of the appeal of physical games because of day one patches and stuff like that. I recall Brilliant Diamond and Shining Shining Pearl when they launched on Nintendo Switch. Uh they basically didn’t have all of the startup screen finalized and the endgame content like that was actually added in in a day one patch and that was very much on my mind when I was buying the physical editions of those games. like I’m going to have to do a day one update from a server, which definitely downgrades the, you know, idea that 20 years in the future if you wanted to just go essentially hook up your Nintendo Switch and enjoy your games. You don’t have to worry about checking in with servers. You don’t have to worry about anything already being installed on the system or not. You’re just having that native gameplay experience that you had all those years ago without any additional hoops to jump through. Uh, and the problem with the game key cards is because that server download is required for the contents of the game, you are in a situation where one day when the servers are truly just taken offline and discontinued, that key card is all but a dead piece of plastic to you. And I have personally made the decision while I have been a lifelong physical collector, especially, you know, even in the digital era, I’ve gotten, you know, certain things digitally that I maybe wouldn’t have opted for before. But Nintendo stuff on the Switch, like third party or first party, I was picking up everything physically still because all the games were on the cartridges. Uh, and it looks like with this situation with only having a 64 GB cartridge from Nintendo, that’s not going to be an option that many developers choose because the biggest reason being is that it is expensive to get those cartridges. And I do believe that I’m just going to purchase third-party games digitally and just get the first party all-on cartridge content stuff as a physical option. That’s how that’s why I’m buying Cyberpunk 2077. It’s all on the cartridge. Not necessarily doing that with some of the other third party games I want to check out. Uh but you have some rumors also floating around online. Not super substantiated, but it sounds like maybe something like $16 cost is maybe what these 64 GB cartridges are running from Nintendo. Now, will that price come down in the future and maybe this having one option for memory eventually that cost comes down or they do introduce, you know, different memory variants later on in the Switch 2’s life cycle. I don’t believe that’s the case. Nintendo and every other company ultimately wants to see an all digital future. It is much better for them as the company. And I do believe that this is part of just giving one less option to essentially say, “Hey, this is going to get us closer to the digital future. It’s also going to kind of incentivize some of those physical collectors to start to pick up things digitally because now we’ve taken away a big upside of owning things physically. Uh, and at the end of the day, the developers, if you’re looking at an extra $16 cost or publishers rather, as well, plus you got the physical casing itself and the artwork that goes into that, you you might be talking $18 to 20 bucks extra off the top besides what you’re sharing with Nintendo on your take-home from your game. So, the Game Key card having probably almost no storage on there is obviously significantly cheaper than that. And that’s where I’m just expecting to see the majority of games land on the Nintendo Switch 2 is on this game key card. Uh unfortunately, which just means third party on Nintendo Switch 2. I’m not going to pick up a ton of games. But we’ll see if this changes as the generation goes on. But I do think that uh things are going to go a little bit more digital for me than I would have expected in this Nintendo Switch 2 generation. And let’s just wait until what happens with the PlayStation 6 and whatever Xbox is cooking up next because I’m expecting maybe the disc drive to just only support previous gen games and it not even be a thing that’s included going forward. I do think that that’s unfortunately the the the time that we are in with physical gaming. But from there, I do want to switch to some kind of better news for the future in terms of Nintendo as they did have their recent financial investor briefing and there were some highlights from that. One of which came from Go Nintendo, which outlines Nintendo research and development costs hit an all-time high and they’ll climb even higher. And starting down into this article a little bit, according to the latest fiscal report from Nintendo, we know that the company spent 143.79 billion yen on research and development in the fiscal year that just ended. That figure is a record high for Nintendo, coming in roughly 6 billion yen higher than the prior fiscal year. Unfortunately for Nintendo, it’s only going to get worse. Nintendo has confirmed they expect research and development cost to climb even higher in their latest fiscal year as they forecasted an increase to 155 billion by the end of the fourth quarter. Hopefully, Switch 2 ends up being a massive hit because Nintendo will need to make some some bank to keep up with the R&D expenses. And you also have kind of related to this R&D conversation is uh Nintendo explains their approach to Switch 2 features, discusses the platform’s innovative aspects and pledges to create new play experiences for Switch 2 that surprise more than meets the eye. And the long and short of this one is because it’s kind of a detailed question. Essentially, somebody asked Nintendo basically stating the Switch 2 seems very much like a Switch One enhancement and it doesn’t feel like it’s that innovative. And they were essentially asking, will the Switch 2 kind of have a short life cycle or just be a stepping stone to the true innovation that Nintendo has next? Like, what else do you got cooking back there? Cuz the Switch 2 just isn’t a brand new idea or brand new way to play like I’m used to expecting from Nintendo. Uh, and while Furka did point out that proposing new ways to play is of their top priority, they also pointed out that games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza uh, that will include new ways to play couldn’t really be realized on the Nintendo Switch with the current hardware. And they go on to say the Switch 2 really is completely redesigned from the ground up. And while it looks physically similar to the Nintendo Switch with the hybrid concept and everything um that basically it’s still an entire new generation, but there is some talk related to the R&D as I said where it says going forward we will develop a variety of titles centered around Nintendo Switch 2 and provide new play experiences by creating hardware that continues to surprise consumers with with fresh content. We aim for Nintendo Switch 2 to set a new standard for Nintendo Switch. So, is there some weird wacky gameplay ideas coming? Yes, that will be the case. Dragon Drive or whatever it’s called with the mouse mode controls is already one of those games in that wheelhouse in my opinion. And I’m sure they’re going to have some of their more creative teams come up with a lot of different wacky ways to play. A camera game, mini games in the Mario Party Jamberee is obviously another example of that, and I think Nintendo will dabble into that stuff a little bit here and there. Uh, but I am on board with Nintendo being a more traditional gaming company and doing what makes sense and not necessarily having to try to reinvent the wheel when it doesn’t need to be reinvented. Like I enjoyed the Wii generation for what it was and it ushered in motion controls. But Skyward Sword is probably my least played Zelda game in 3D Zelda that is uh just because it was like forced waggle motion controls with the sword and like it’s there as an option on the Switch re-release in Skyward Sword HD. I still prefer to just play button controls. I want a traditional pro controller in my hand to enjoy that game. And it actually takes me out of it a little bit even having it mapped to the right stick because it the whole game was designed around that motion and a lot of games were in the Wii generation. So, while it is cool to see innovation from Nintendo every now and then when they’ve hit their stride and they have a very successful console generation, I actually think it makes more sense for them to double down on that formula and essentially, you know, upgrade the power, upgrade what us gamers want at the end of the day and give us more options on how we play our games. And taking games on the go is something that Nintendo’s the only traditional mainstream company in the console market really doing this right now. Steam Deck is in that conversation. A little bit of a different setup there. Uh but in terms of PlayStation and Xbox, while there are rumored and even Xbox cases, uh leaked handheld out there, they’re partnering with another manufacturer on. They’ll probably do an in-house one as well. You know, they’re going to get to that point with native onthe-go play experiences for both Xbox and PlayStation. But for now, it’s only Nintendo delivering on that front. And I would much rather have that still continue to be the core of the gameplay experience for Nintendo gamers. this generation. And then if you want the weird wacky idea stuff, have it as an optional feature. Make it something that’s not actually where the new Mario game has to be played with mouse controls or some kind of weird VR accessory attachment or whatever direction they go in from here. Nintendo shouldn’t be weird just for the sake of being weird, only whenever some kind of new gameplay innovation is really needed uh for the times. But that’s my two cents on that. Next and last thing that I’ll just briefly mention uh just as a headline to close out the video. Sega announces latest Virtua Fighter game is coming to Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox. Plus, a new character has been revealed for the next Virtua Fighter. So, this is just a cool confirmation. It’s one of those things that makes me realize while not all games that we are seeing around the corner and that are already announced are slated for Nintendo Switch 2, we are going to be in a period of time now where we are going to see more and more modern-day current genon games that are supported in this generation of consoles, meaning PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC and stuff. We’re finally not going to be sitting out of that conversation as Nintendo Switch players like we have been for so long at the end of the Switch’s life cycle. Switch 2 is going to be in the credits at a lot of different uh gameplay events. You know, Summer Games Fest comes to mind in June uh shortly after the console launches. Like, we’re going to find out about new projects and Nintendo Switch 2 will be in that conversation day and date or shortly thereafter. And we still know due to reports a lot of thirdparty devs don’t have developer kits yet. So, Nintendo’s not sending those out to everybody until June actually hits. So, there will be a backlog, but there’s those preferred partners that already have their hands on dev kits, obviously, and some of them are ramping up tons of content for the Switch 2 at and after launch. So, let me know in the comments down below what you make of all the roundup of the different Nintendo Switch 2 news today. Where are your hype levels for the console as we get closer to that June 5th launch date? Have you secured your pre-order? I did make an updated guide yesterday on how to pre-order a console if you’re still on the hunt for one. So, make sure to go check that out on my channel. And finally, let me know which game you’re planning on hopping into first when you pick up your Nintendo Switch 2 at or after launch. So, make sure you share all your thoughts and feelings in the comments down below before you leave, regardless if we agree or disagree. Also, make sure you like, subscribe, turn your notification bell. And with that, I’ve been Sunbro. You’ve been Nation. Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you guys in the next