One of the Switch 2's many new features revealed in today's Direct is 'GameShare', a new way to play select games with your pals across multiple systems.
GameShare lets you play multiplayer titles locally across different systems, with only one of you needing to have the game installed. This feature is available between Switch 2 systems and from Switch 2 to 'Switch 1' systems, so you can finally play with a screen of your own.
Nintendo stated that GameShare will only be available on select titles at launch, kicking things off with a future free Clubhouse Games update. The showcase also highlighted Captain Toad, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Super Mario Odyssey and Big Brain Academy in the feature, so expect to see these in the future.
What do you make of the GameShare feature? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 24
Welcome back, Download Play.
Welcome back, DS Download Play.
@HotGoomba JINX
I never thought we'd get Download Play back, my favorite multiplayer experience!
Please port Nintendo Land!
As other people have said this is basically DS download play but with switch.
I think I called this in the C Button comments yesterday.
Now just for the winning lotto numbers...
Yep, as already mentioned by others here this is practically Download Play and I absolutely love to see it back!
Been wondering when they'd bring back a download play replacement. We've missed you!
wasn't there already something like this for the Switch and Club House Games? I'm very certain that we own one copy, then downloaded a free app that allowed us to play locally on the other 2 systems with one card. Called Guest or something??
I love this feature. It shouldn't be on "select", it should be on all games.
@dkxcalibur : Very few games had a demo or separate app that enabled players to share a single full version copy, but that required a whole new piece of software every time.
It's so much better now that they have streamlined such a feature akin to the DS/3DS.
Brings back the old StarCraft: Broodwar multiplayer-only spawn discs. This feels super pro consumer. Playing Clubhouse and other games with a friend (without buying another copy) is a huge scenario for me. I have another Switch as my primary console right now just so another person can play board games and card games with me without spending hundreds of dollars on duplicate purchases. I remember Clubhouse had something like this and It Takes Two didn't require 2 copies even for online play but very few games were that open minded.
And the game chat is great too! It's like they really paid attention to how folks wanted to play together during the pandemic and made playing together front and center.
The real challenge will be encouraging 3rd party publishers to not be greedy. I would want this for Catan: Console Edition. But even 1st party won't be immune. I wouldn't expect Mario Kart or Mario Party Jamboree to be so generous so I'm curious how the line will be drawn.
Ok now make us another four swords adventures ASAP!
@FaroreAbhorsen I could see them making it available for Mario Party or Mario Kart. It only applies to local wireless, so it's not like it would eat into their sales for online multiplayer. It would be a really small subset and honestly could promote sales if people sort of "demo" a game with their friends.
That being said, with those two games--Mario Kart in particular--I think there's a chance it may not be technically possible for Gameshare to work since there would be so much resource-intensive and synchronous stuff going on in the game. Of course, my expectation is that these would be very minimal implementations that have to downloaded on the other Switch devices. If they're a larger download, then I suppose it could still be possible!
According to their website, you can also share compatible games over the internet, only with other Switch 2 owners. That's huge!
You share them through GameChat. So it's also locked to NSO subscribers.
Anyone else remember this on the DS and how they barely ever used it on that system? Let's hope that it is used more liberally this gen and not used only for screen space filling on the main menu.
Can you really not do this with the current Switch? DS had this 20 years ago
Please clarify something for me. Can I use a Switch lite as a controller for local multiplayer?
Did I miss a local multiplayer mode in Mario Odyssey?
This really looks like an evolution of DS's download play feature. This has a lot of potential for many fun moments between people
Dang, I was hoping to hear Switch 1 could share Switch 1 games to Switch 2... Such as Clubhouse Games 51. Odd to me.
Captain Toad and Mario Odessey are getting ONLINE CO-OP on Switch 2 with this feature!
None of the podcasts I listened to about the Direct could remember the name of this DS feature. But we as NL readers knew.
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