Misleading / clickbait title. The game just needs an update.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Headline is a bit misleading, you just also need to update Wonder and then you can play offline. Headline makes it sound like this is an always-online requirement.
This is still yet another point against those people insisting that physical copies mean anything. Right now, it's "just update the game and you can play it". But that's exactly as limiting as a digital copy - you still need an internet connection, an account in good standing, the company's CDN to be online, and everything else to play the game that's "on" your glorified $60 DRM key.
As more Switch 2s get firmware updated, this change means every "physical copy" of Mario Wonder has become a "Game-Key Card" retroactively. The only difference is that the download is slightly smaller for a GKC.
True, but it's worth noting that this only applies to playing it on a Switch 2. If we're talking about an eventual scenario where you lose access to updates someday, at least the carts should still be playable on Switch 1 hardware.
And if this practice continues for Switch 2 games, or was in practice for the Wii U, or etc etc...
It's a bad practice, even if right now there are ways around it for one game. It's a bad practice even if it's only for the current console on the current firmware. It turned a physical copy someone bought into a keycard. I'm of the opinion that all physical console games have been keycards since the day they started having day 1 patches, but at least that argument has the reasonable counterpoint of "you can still play the buggy incomplete v1.0 that's on the cart/disc, that makes it better than Switch 2 Game Key Cards, which are better than account-locked Digital Games".
This is direct and complete proof that your physical copy means nothing. The company can still restrict your access whenever they want to. The Switch 1 still gets firmware updates, after all, and firmware updates can't be rolled back. The physical copy guarantees fuck all in the face of every preservation concern that's a criticism of digital downloads. DRM-free digital and piracy are the only trustworthy methods of preservation.
FWIW, this likely just has to do with backwards compatibility fixes, since S2 is software emulation rather than hardware. I don't think they're likely to go back and intentionally restrict anything on Switch 1 through new firmware updates.
I agree that in an era of patches, physical copies are becoming increasingly imperfect from a preservation perspective, but I hesitate to say they mean nothing. Depends on the game really, and how complete it is at launch.
Correction: Switch 2 Back-compat is not emulation. It is a compatibility layer in the same vein that the Steam Deck runs Windows games despite running on Linux.
So this isn't news, basically. Surely this is common in the software industry. Software needing an update when firmware also updates. 🤷♂️
Especially since switch 1 games are emulated on 2, and they're still working on it to get the few incompatible games to run. A firmware update a week ago fixed Crypt of the Necrodancer that was unplayable on 2 until then.
Not very surprising that changes in the emulation software might break other stuff. As long as they fix those quickly, I prefer they keep working toward 100% backward compatibility.
This sounds more like a bug to me, not deliberate manipulation by nintendo. But the fact that it can even happen by accident is very dissapointing
Games can have bugs crashing them on startup or any point of gameplay too. That's just reality
This is what no consumer protections on digital products looks like.
Its ok, we are just rolling over and taking it. Why own things when we could pay more to rent?
Because nothing beats consumption in a dying world.
Sucks for legit owners of the game.
I've had it on my pc for months now, and it works fine.
Have you actually read this clickbaity article?
Yes. And?
...and you didn't understand it. Thanks for letting us know.
What are you phishing for an argument for?
The article is about Nintendo updating Wonder to only work online. How does that invalidate anything I said?
Did you even reply to the right comment? Lol
to only work online
You did not read the article.
Lol, this article doesn't say anything about that. It has a bait for the title and says the game needs an update to run on Switch 2. And you need to download it from the internet. How else would you want this update to be provided? On 500 floppy disks, USB drive or a tape?
500 Floppy diskettes.
I wonder how much would that cost, and how big are is that update. Seriously though some of Nintendo's games are re-released as Nintendo Switch 2 editions on cartdridge and that solves the "issue" some might have
Nintendo has seemingly disabled offline playability for Wonder following the Switch 2's latest firmware update (20.2.0).
Right in the article, spitfire.
Read the rest of the article, they clarify. It is poorly written and misleading, but that's why it's important to correct misinformation now before it spreads.
"Seemingly" might as well be "we did not bother to check". Maybe someone did not read the info about virtual cartdridges, or whatever else. Has anyone really confirmed this?
You seem to be confusing me with who wrote the article.
All I said was My copy hasn't had any problems at all.
Yet you seem to be repeating points made in the article, which simply seem to be wrong to me (and you saying your copy works confirms as much). This article (yes, I realise you didn't write it and I am not criticising you here) seems to be nothing but fake news, simply made to generate clicks.
What in the world are you talking about? My copy is played on my pc. That's the entire point.
Working just fine on my Retroid Pocket 5 too