Following the epic Nintendo Switch 2 port of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft is seemingly prepping to release Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Nintendo’s latest handheld.
Following an earlier ESRB ratings board leak in April, French retailer Auchan has listed the massive open world game for Nintendo Switch 2. Unlike most early listings, this comes with seemingly official box art and a product description.
In the listing, archived here, the retailer shows the full box art of a Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. “Enjoy Assassin’s Creed Shadows in a whole new way with Nintendo Switch 2” reads a translated version of the game’s description.
Unfortunately, the physical version of the Japanese-themed open-world game is listed as a Game Key Card, meaning that players will have to download the game and cannot play from the cartridge.
On the other hand, this is completely unsurprising as Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a massive game. The size of Ubisoft’s open world game on other platforms exceeds 100GB which is considerably larger than the maximum capacity cartridges offered by Nintendo. At the time of writing, the largest Switch 2 cartridges come in at just 64GB.
Additionally, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a game that requires a high-speed SSD to properly draw in the game’s dense open world. Previously, Ubisoft employees revealed that Nintendo Switch 2 cartridges are simply too slow for some demanding games which could lead to performance problems if played on a physical cartridge.
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While this may be seen as a disappointment, it also appears to be an inevitability for the Nintendo Switch 2 for playing games of this size. For some games—such as Square Enix’s Bravely Default remaster—Game Key Cards don’t make sense at all, but for huge performance-heavy games, it seems like the only path forward unless Nintendo is able to increase the capacity and speed of its cartridge technology.
For more Nintendo Switch 2 coverage, read about how a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Red Dead Redemption 2 is reportedly on the way. Additionally, some leakers have claimed that Silent Hill 2 is making a jump to Nintendo’s platform in the near future.
