PSA: You Can Still Play One Game Across Two Switches, But Not Online Anymore

With the launch of Virtual Game Cards, Switch users can now effortlessly transfer digital titles between different Switch consoles. Nonetheless, it has been observed that gamers can no longer start the same title at the same time on two Switch consoles while online.

The positive aspect is that, although the previous approach involving primary and secondary accounts is no longer applicable, there exists a workaround that allows launching the same game on multiple devices. (More details on that shortly.)

The negative aspect, however, is that simultaneous online gameplay across two different Switch consoles is not feasible. Therefore, you can’t engage in Splatoon 3 matches using just one digital copy of the game. Users on ResetEra have expressed their frustrations, some labeling it a “significant downgrade” while others simply expressing that “it really sucks”.

In a similar vein, there doesn’t appear to be a practical way to enjoy local multiplayer. We tested this using Fast RMX, but were unable to set up a local session.

If you wish to explore the workaround for ‘sharing’ a single digital game across two Switch consoles, it involves the Online Licenses feature found in User Settings. Essentially, enabling this option allows you to play a downloaded game even if the Virtual Game Card isn’t inserted into your device. By transferring a Virtual Game Card to a second console and activating Online Licenses, two users can play the identical game concurrently on both systems.

The key is to ensure the secondary Switch remains offline after you load and download the Virtual Game Card. By turning off the Wi-Fi, the primary Switch cannot conduct an online verification to check if the secondary console is using the game.

Feeling puzzled? Don’t worry; it can be a bit complex. You can reference our guide for comprehensive details, but here’s a simplified summary:

• Connect Switch A and Switch B to use the Virtual Game Card on both
• Load the game on Switch B, thus ‘removing’ it from Switch A
• Activate ‘Online Licenses’ in User Settings on Switch A (System Settings > Users > Online License Settings)
• Turn off the Wi-Fi connection on Switch B (or enable Airplane Mode)
• Now launch the game on both consoles

Have you experimented with this yourself? What are your opinions on the absence of simultaneous online or local multiplayer? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.