Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. With this setting on, your primary console can now be locked out of games if you're caught offline and without the virtual card. That wasn't possible before.
memphis
joined 2 years ago
Though I don't understand your point about being offline. If you are using the current primary / secondary console, then you can't play on secondary console unless you are online, right?
I could have explained better. My docked Switch is set as secondary console, which forces online checks. That's fine because I never take it outside. My Switch Lite is set as primary console, which means it (used to be) able to play any downloaded games, no questions asked – if the connectivity check fails, it will just warn you that your cloud save status couldn't be verified.
Say I have a virtual game card of Suika Game loaded in my docked Switch. I now need to leave home, so I close the game and bring my Switch Lite with me which has Suika Game downloaded. During lunch at work, I open my Switch Lite and start up the game. That used to be fine, but now there's instead a prompt to move the virtual game card from my docked Switch at home to this one, which I can't do because I don't have internet at work. I forgot my digital copy of Suika Game at home even though it's downloaded on the console I'm holding.
This is a hypothetical example, and sorry for the wall of text, but it's a needlessly complicated system that is a net negative for the user.
So, I have two consoles. A regular Switch that I use docked only, and a Lite for portable. Switching between them was always cumbersome due to cloud saves (they fail 1/20 times so I got used to always updating them manually), but this adds yet another step (it's actually 4 screens to go through, with loading between two of them).
Not to mention, if the console with the virtual card is offline, and you wanna play the game on the other console – you can't. If you or Nintendo are having connection issues, you can lose access to your downloaded digital games.
Another problem is if you lose physical access to a console with virtual game cards on it. The games are then gone with the console.
I've been a strong Nintendo supporter (monetarily) for years, having played through just over 100 games in this setup, so this is very, very disappointing to me.
Thanks for the compassion and discussion today. I saw your other comment about keeping all virtual cards on the primary console and you're 100% right. I've been mulling over this all day but that solution just... Didn't occur to me. Thanks again!