Nintendo has just announced a major development for Pokémon Pokopia, which will be available for the Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5, 2026. However, the excitement was quickly overshadowed by one contentious issue—the physical release will consist of a Game Key Card instead of a conventional cartridge. This is definitely not what the gaming community was looking forward to.
But, what is this Game Key Card all about? In simple terms, it’s a box containing a digital download code instead of the classical game card that would be placed in the console. People who are media collectors, especially physical ones, are going to be really disappointed. The tweet from Nintendo America showed the box art with a very noticeable “Game Key Card” marking, and players instantly noticed and started mocking them in the replies.
The response was nothing less than dramatic. For example, ‘Blubeans’ did not hold back and immediately attacked the issue saying, “Are we fucking serious? First-party key cards now? How are you so fucking lazy? I bet this shit’s gonna be $70 too. Disgusting shit here.” They were not the only ones, of course. ‘Reshi’ insisted: “Stop key-card, we want full games on the cart,” while ‘Emersom_Biggins’ proclaimed: “Nobody wants key-cards. Full games on cart or not buying.” The sentiment was nearly unanimous across the many replies.
Nevertheless, there is confusion too. ‘Stl1988S’ said that “Pokémon is not developed by Nintendo,” which is true—the core series games are done by The Pokémon Company and Game Freak. Is it a TPC call or a Nintendo one then? ‘Krugmann96’ wrote, “I don’t hate Game Key Cards, but for First Party Games this is a disgrace,” implying that he considers it a Nintendo problem. Conversely, ‘blacktablelol’ trivialized the whole situation as “fake,” but he surely was not the majority in this instance.
The majority of gamers are already thinking about skipping the game altogether because of this. ‘NowSquid’ said, “That’s a bold move @Pokemon, I guess I will skip Pokopia then, what a shame.” Another user, ‘MonochromeMocha’, stated: “If the only way to get this game physically is the game key then unfortunately I will not be buying it as much as I would like to.” This is the revenue that is lost due to this double whammy of a decision.
Another big question is the normal price. ‘spookyhours40’ very straightforwardly put the question “What’s the price, cowards?” while ‘KarmaDash’ wrote “if this game is only a digital code even if you get the physical box there’s no need for it to be priced higher.” Everyone is assuming that this will come with the full $70 price tag even though it is basically a digital purchase in a box.
Amidst all the rage, there were a couple of positive comments. ‘CrunchyHyena’ was very sprightly with “Nice! For a moment I thought it would be in May but this is better and earlier spring!” Moreover, ‘DannyB’ who simply yelled “I CAN’T WAIT!!❤️💕💕!!” also seemed to be anticipating the game which would be creating a Pokémon paradise. ‘SillyMonks67’ also shared their excitement with “I can’t wait for pokopia” and a charming GIF. And ‘XL5000boi’ noted that it comes “2 days after my birthday,” so perfect timing for them.
The “Game Key Card” phenomenon appears to be spreading like wildfire. ‘Krugmann96’ remarked, “Hyrule Warriors is not as well,” which means this is not an isolated incident. And ‘AlinePiroutek’ likewise scrutinized, “Just like Legends ZA,” inferring that the upcoming Pokémon Legends Z-A might be subjected to the same treatment. This could become a routine with the Nintendo Switch 2 physical releases, and the gamers are not going to let it happen without a fight.
What’s even more interesting is that this announcement seemed to be completely out of the blue. ‘Verliswolf’ pondered, “Is this how we randomly find out the release date?” And indeed, it does seem a bit odd to just drop the date of a major Pokémon game like this without a big Direct or anything. Just a tweet, and voila, March 5th is set.
For sure, the collectors community would lose the most in this situation. Collectors of physical games want to possess the actual game media—not just a code that might become worthless if the servers go down. Then there is also the matter of resale value—betraying or selling a used download code is much harder than with a cartridge. If anything, this move nearly wipes out the secondhand market for this game.
A few players have begun to make guesses about the PlayStation and Xbox versions potentially having different release strategies.
