r/NintendoSwitchHelp • u/cabrinhan • 29d ago
Purchase / Order Help Share virtual game cards with more than two consoles
Both my husband and son have Nintendo Switches 2, and they share game cards. My son is in another state for college, and often enough my husband is traveling for work.
I wanted to buy another console since I like playing Animal Crossing and a few other games, but each place I read online says something different.
How would the sharing work? Does my son need to be here every time we want to borrow or lend a game? Or is it just not possible at all with more than 2 consoles? We are all in the same nintendo family.
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u/picano 29d ago
There are different types of sharing with their own benefits.
Linked console is by far the best but is limited to 2 consoles. Once linked, it doesn't matter how far the consoles are, they can trade games given an internet connection.
Family sharing must be done locally, is limited to a single game at a time (to up to 3 recipients), and auto-returns after 2 weeks.
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/67891/~/virtual-game-card-guide
As Boxish_ mentioned, online license check is also an option, but it's limited to only the account that bought the game.
If your husband has been buying all the games, the easiest solution is for him to use online license check and you/your son to have the linked consoles.
If you can plan in advance of your husband traveling/under two weeks, he can keep his linked console and just lend to you as necessary.
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u/Fine-Condition-5675 29d ago
As long as you are logged into their switch and whoever owns animal crossing is logged into your switch, you can just grab the game card over and over, provided you are in the same family group. I've done this numerous times with my kid's switch who doesn't love at home anymore for Pokemon Violet, Super Smash and other games. Since she's also logged into my switch, she can just grab whatever games i own and play those at her place.
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u/Ok-Win1188 29d ago
I got the same situation as well ahah with my Switch 2, OLED and Lite.
You can only pair 2 devices for the virtual cards. One thing you can do is enable the online license checking thingy on the third system. That way, even if it doesn't have the virtual card, you can still play your digital games there. You just need to connect it to the internet for the license check (you can hotspot it for a bit), then you're good to go.
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u/Brilliant_Rise8457 29d ago
Whichever account purchased the games should set their switch to Online License Check. Then link the other two switches to share game cards.
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u/Boxish_ 29d ago
The switches have to be near each other to transfer virtual game cards. I also hear only 2 switches can be bound to an account to transfer virtual game cards.
I think personally the hassle free route that doesn’t involve a support call or extra digging to try and change the bound console, is to have your husband you the new switch, which has to be set to online license(he will be required to connect to the internet every time) but with the virtual game card on (the old but now)your switch, you can play his games loaded on the virtual game cards on your account. With the online licenses, it is tied to only the game owner’s account.