What's the lifespan of switch cartridges, would you say like, 20 years? 50?

You got them mixed up. First and second gen Pokemon games used battery saves and like you said, replacing them meant that you lose your save data. Third gen, meaning gba games used the battery only for clock based events and Firered for example doesn't even have a battery.

They will last for a long time dude. I have GB cartridges from two and a half decade ago and they are going strong. DS release games for example are nearly 15 years old and they are fine too. It won't matter as long as you preserve them well.

Plus your console is just reading data from the cartridge and if it saves onto the cartridge, it only writes to the allowed part. Constant reading and writing on flash store wears it down but just reading data from it is pretty much okay.

Game boy cartridges kill themselves from the clock battery, so not all cartridge designs are reliable

Stuff like this can be prevented, just keep it in the game's box or atleast in an area where it can be kept safe. I was a dumbass kid leaving old Xbox games disk out on the open. And barley any of them even work anymore, so I've learned from my past mistakes and learned to just keep them in the box or somewhere safe when I'm not playing them.

Alright, all Switch carts are on flash storage which, very basically, stores data in capacitors, and that data takes the form of the presence or absence of a charge.
Flash storage doesn't degrade with age, it degrades with write cycles. The more you write, meaning the more you discharge the capacitors, the harder it is for those capacitors to hold a charge. That said, it takes between ten and twenty years of literally constant reading-writing for those capacitors to lose the ability to hold a charge and for the stored media to degrade.

Switch carts are read ONLY, meaning there's no writing going on, so the storage will last for much, much longer. Theoretically as long it takes for the plastic and silicon to break down, which could be tens of thousands of years.

So long as you don't routinely store your switch carts underwater, or accidentally put them through a wood chipper, your switch carts will outlive you, your grandchildren, and their grandchildren. If you put a switch cart in a hermetically sealed container today, the day that cart becomes unusable, there won't have been a functional switch for hundreds of years.

Those are trivial to replace

>I know nintendo cartridges from other consoles don't last much
I don't know what snoyboy breeding ground you get your info from but my nes games from 33 years ago still work fine

Its the discs you gotta watch out for, all it takes is one little scratch in the wrong place

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They take up to 1000 years to decompose under normal conditions. They're probably gonna last longer than the world, ROTFLMAO

they're already better than discs, you can fit a 512GB game on the fucking thing, probably 2TB if they wanted to

I have thr original Legacy of Kain, kept in its case and protected from dust. Still plays fine

Flash memory uses NAND gates to store information.
They will lose function after so many "write" cycles but since these switch cartridges had only one write cycle at the factory they should last.

keeping them in a dry environment away from direct sunlight should be enough to keep cartridges functioning for the rest of your lifetime

Ive got a functional pokemon red copy thats never been referbished

earthbound is another one that likely needs a new battery. that and pokemon gs, but those are super easy.
the best bet nowadays is a flash cart like sd2snes, they play fantastic.

The gen 1 save batteries run out much slower than gen 2 since the latter are also drained by the clock function.

in addition, a lot of those consoles that you see that were "yellowed" from the bad batch of flame retardant material are starting to crack and break apart. thankfully the internals on most nintendo systems save for the 72 pins will last for a long time.

1st and 2nd gen GB games used batteries for save files.

However on 3rd gen batteries are only used for RTC events, if you replace the battery all you need to do is to edit the RTC to the current date via GBA/DS flashcart so every time based event works again.

My old nintendo carts still all work, and I've had them most of them since the early 90s. It really does depend on how things are stored and maintained. I have all my old sega cd. saturn, and ps 1/2 games too and they all work perfectly fine as well.

id come across second hand carts filled with dirt and junk. how did people let their stuff get that bad?

You'd be surprised how many people in the 80's and 90's didn't bring their games with them when they moved out of their parents homes. Games sitting in boxes in crawl spaces, attics, garages, etc.

So does this mean that i should get every switch game i can on phisical instead of digital

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keep it cool and it'll last forever

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Two days since my copy of Crash Racing ended up getting washed in the washer

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i still have nes carts of ff1 and zelda that i can save and play without any issues. im sure your fancy switch games will be fine

No, digital is a lot better.

Shouldn't it still work if you let it dry?

How did you accomplish this you unfortunate user?

Old games used a battery backed up RAM to keep the saves, and those yes can go kapoof.
But anything released after the N64 or anything without internal save capacity is safe from that plague.
But i would run the game from 10 in 10 years or so just to be sure, because flash memory use a bizarre quantum teleport shit to keep data, and it can teleport back out.

I think you should be able to get both for a single purchase.

By switching out games. I decided to play some smash brothers so I took crash out after I got tired of losing and put into my pocket instead of my switch case that I had in the other room. Like a dumbass I forgot about it and washed my pants later on. I found out just recently and now my switch won't recognize the game. FML

If you're gonna do that, just beware that some of these Switch games don't even put the full game on the cartridge, and that you'll have to still download the rest once you put in the cartridge

Good example of this would be MK11 and Doom.

Longer than discs and blu rays, totes. Enjoy your PS4 games while you can.

Did you put it in the dryer? That might help.

But the original cartridge still works, you just can't save. And batteries are pretty easy to replace.

Any other examples?

Real question, did you call Nintendo and ask them what you could do to fix it? You may think it’s a long shot but they might replace it since it’s a new game. You’d be surprised what companies will do if you just start contacting them.

nigger maybe if you nigger fuck your games I have psx games that still work perfectly fine from original print. Who the fuck is chewing on disks and cards to the point they dont work.

The pants already went through the dryer user
I might see if I can dig up a contact number. I can't remember if I kept my receipt or not. Hopefully they can just look at my Nintendo account for proof.

who cares? isnt switch jailbreak yet? cant you just store your games on your pc?

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It's just a stick of silicon. They're not going anywhere.

Thats the battery not the cart

Do you throw away the gameboy when the batteries run out too?

it does annoy me that digital isn't slightly cheaper, and that I can't choose to pay a few bucks to get a physical version of a game I already own