However, you could trade in physical Nintendo Switch games for store credit (in order to buy prepaid Nintendo eShop cards) or cash which you could then use to buy digital games for your Switch. No, it’s impossible to trade physical Nintendo Switch game cards for digital Switch games. Can you trade in physical Switch games for digital ones? I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing worse than buying a new game, inserting it into the console, and then having to wait for ages while a huge file is installed ( God of War Ragnarok I am looking at you). When you first insert the game card into the console, you can play straight away. One of the big advantages the Switch has over other consoles (in my opinion) is that no installation is required before playing a physical Switch game for the first time. This also means that if you have a digital copy, the Switch game save data remains even if you archive or delete your game.

It’s not possible to download the entire contents of a physical Switch cartridge to either your console’s hard drive or an inserted SD card.įor physical Nintendo Switch games, the only data downloaded to the console storage is save data, which is stored separately from downloaded games. I’m not saying you or I would do this, but I definitely know people who would say their physical copy is lost or damaged in order to get free access to a digital copy, thus allowing them to sell or give away the physical copy that they still have. If you lost or damaged your Nintendo Switch game and Nintendo was happy to hand out free digital copies as replacements, there would be plenty of mischievous people ready to take advantage. I accidentally left my copy of Mario Odyssey on a plane. If you lose your Nintendo Switch game cartridge, you won’t be able to simply head to the Nintendo Store and download a replacement digital copy for free. Can you download a switch game if you lost the cartridge? In both cases, I was forced to save up and buy the games again. I’ve lost and damaged physical Switch games.

If you want a digital copy of the game, you’ll have to buy it separately.

Can you get a digital copy of a game you already own on switch? (Conclusion)Ĭan you get a digital copy of a game you already own on Switch?īuying a physical Nintendo Switch game doesn’t mean you can download that same game in digital format for free from the Nintendo Store.Do Switch games run better digital or physical?.What’s the difference between physical and digital Nintendo Switch games?.Can you trade in physical Switch games for digital ones?.

Can you download a switch game if you lost the cartridge?.Can you get a digital copy of a game you already own on Switch?.

Download switch games to sd card free