Looking into this a bit more, it's to do with the Game-Key Cards that will be adopted by certain Nintendo Switch 2 games. Basically, when there's not enough room to fit a game on a cartridge, you'll get a makeshift cartridge that has to install the title over the internet - and then still has to be inserted in order to play the game.
That's what Nintendo says, and now here's a look at some of the Xbox-related reaction we've spotted:
And by the way, it's not just this Game-Key Card feature that's bringing up the Xbox One references! Windows Central, for example, has pointed out the similarities with game sharing and the new camera for the Switch 2:
Now, to be honest, I don't personally look at the Game-Key Card thing as being very similar to the Xbox One launch and its original focus on being a permanently online console, as it's really just an evolution of the code-in-a-box strategy that has been employed with many Switch games up to this point. A lot of the anger around the Xbox One in 2013 was that you wouldn't be able to play offline or resell games, which is not the case with the Switch 2.
What it does signal though, is that once again, the preservation of physical games is becoming harder and harder to maintain. Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo now all adopt the practice of forcing downloads over the internet for many titles, and when those servers eventually shut off, some of those discs and cartridges will potentially become useless.
That's unfortunately the way it's going to be - and Nintendo is simply following the trend with a feature like this.
