While Nintendo has seen quite a bit of criticism over various aspect of its Switch 2 Edition upgrades for games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the company has now confirmed that players will not be able to import their saves through the cloud backup offered via Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions.
As spotted by Eurogamer, the eShop listings for the Switch 2 editions of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom note that the game does not support the Save Data Cloud Backup feature. Curiously, this only seems to apply to the two The Legend of Zelda titles. Other games part of the Switch 2 Edition line-up like Super Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby and the Forgotten Land don’t have the disclaimer. The same disclaimer is also not present in the Japanese eShop listings for the two Zelda games.
This will likely be quite a problem for players that were hoping to carry over all of their save data on the Switch 2 versions of the games. Since both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are large open-world games that encourage players to spent dozens of hours as they explore the world, a fair bit of progress will be lost by players since they can’t bring over their save data.
Nintendo had also confirmed earlier this month that the Switch 2 Edition of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will not include the content that was originally released as part of the $20 expansion pass for the game on the original Switch. The expansion pass had brought with it quite a bit of content that players who don’t already own it will have to buy it at full price on the Switch 2.
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition does not include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Expansion Pass DLC,” said Nintendo in a statement. “That DLC is available as a separate purchase.”
The company had confirmed that the physical release of first-party Switch 2 Edition games, like Breath of the Wild, will not require players to download anything. Rather, all of the content will be available in the game card itself. The company has stated that this applies to all of its first-party titles, including Super Mario Party Jamboree and the upcoming Metroid Prime 4. However, it has left the door open for third-party developers to make players download additional content.
“Physical versions of Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game and its upgrade pack all on the same game card (i.e. they are exclusively Nintendo Switch 2 game cards, with no download code),” said Nintendo in a statement. “Alternatively, some publishers may release Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging, with no game card.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 is slated for launch on June 5. The Switch 2 Edition releases of both Zelda titles will also be available on the same day.
