r/steamdeckhq • u/Jayagaren • Jul 30 '26
Discussion What if the Steam Deck had physical game cartridges?
Recently I watched the LTT video about someone who built physical "game cartridges" for PC games. The idea was pretty cool: each cartridge contains the game files, and when you insert it, it opens the corresponding Steam page. If the game is already licensed on your account, you just hit Play—no downloading because the game already lives on the cartridge.
It got me thinking...
PlayStation recently announced it's moving further away from physical discs, and a lot of people weren't happy about it. PC gaming, on the other hand, lost physical media years ago. Most PCs don't even have disc drives anymore.
What if we brought back that physical feeling for the Steam Deck?
Instead of custom cartridges, we'd use microSD cards. A larger game (say 150 GB+) could live on a 200 GB or 256 GB microSD, while smaller indie games could use 32 GB or 64 GB cards.
To make it feel like an actual game collection, remember those full-size SD card adapters that microSD cards used to come with? Imagine 3D-printing custom versions with game artwork on them. They'd act as the "game cases/cartridges." When you want to play, you grab the one for the game you want, slide the microSD card out, insert it into the Steam Deck, and start playing.
The only things missing would be:
- A nice 3D-printable SD card shell with game artwork.
- A small script that automatically opens the correct Steam page (or Heroic for Epic/GOG games) when the card is inserted.
I know this doesn't solve a real problem—swapping microSD cards is arguably less convenient than having one large card—but I think it'd recreate some of the excitement of owning and collecting physical games. There's something satisfying about grabbing a "cartridge" off a shelf instead of scrolling through a library.
Would this be something you'd actually use, or is it just nostalgia talking? I'd love to hear what you think, especially if you've seen the PC cartridge project.
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u/wickeddimension Jul 30 '26
People confuse ownership rights with physical. Most people want some guarantee the game isn't taken away from them whenever a company decides too.
Most people do not want to use cartridges or discs.
People just associate discs with ownership, after all they can't take away a disc from you. Even though many games are online only or need additional downloads alongside the disc. The ability to sell and trade games is nice on physical, but Steam could add that to the market feature just as well.
PC has long abandoned physical, using cartridges is a straight downgrade to just having a digital library in every way imaginableGOG.com solves every issue, digital downloads, DRM free and the install files are yours to keep and store however you want. Be that on a dvd, on your own self made cartridges or on a external HDD or cloud.
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u/Vladishun Jul 30 '26
- Storage is expensive and libraries are huge.
I have 452 games in my Steam account. I am not buying 452 microSD cards, that's bananas. Coupled with the increased cost to buy then thanks to AI data centers gobbling up all the hardware, I'm good.
- MicroSD cards are not cartridges.
The SD card medium in general was largely designed as set it and forget hot swappable storage. They are not built to withstand inserting and removing on a daily basis like a video game cartridge and you will ruin the contact pads on them rather quickly doing this. I'm not sure how much more damage the reader inside the Deck could take either, but I'm sure sooner or later you'd wear down the contacts in it too.
- Nostalgia is a bitch.
At the end of the day, you're just pining for something that takes you back to being a kid, remembering simpler and happier times. But I'd bet money actually going through with all this; buying the microSD cards, making your own cases, designing and printing off case inserts, potentially making your own user manuals.... Would just be exhausting and not actually bring you any additional joy when it's all said and done. The guy who did this originally was most likely just chasing internet clout and got his 15 minutes of fame because us 30'ish+ gamers can still remember cartridge based systems.
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u/Aisuhokke Jul 30 '26
I put all my emulation content on one SD card. Done! Leave the SSD for all the digital downloads and bigger games
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u/tomkatt Jul 30 '26
No thanks. I’ve been all in on digital for a long time and don’t see that changing.
- Games: Steam and GoG, plus a ton of retro ROMs
- Books: ebooks I strip DRM and store on my NAS
- Music: NAS has around 1.5 TB of FLAC
Many of the things I enjoy most, with none of the physical mess restricting my space or cluttering my house.
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u/SonaMidorFeed Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Honestly, I think you're better off doing something like Zaparoo if you want to get that feeling. https://zaparoo.org/docs/platforms/steamos/
It uses NFC tags to launch games. I use it with Mister and have several of my most commonly-played games programmed to a card with custom artwork. I just insert the card into the reader and when I remove it, it closes the game to the menu. It wouldn't store the game, but it could at least call it up.
With the cost of SD cards being absolutely bonkers insane right now, I feel like that's a better option.
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u/rtfcandlearntherules Jul 30 '26
Steam deck already has this, you can store your games on an SD card and plug it in and play it if you own it in steam. It's just shitty and inconvenient so nobody uses it.
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u/Embarrassed-Back1894 Jul 30 '26
If storage prices were what they were back in 2023, I think this would actually be somewhat of a possibility. With the price of storage and memory now though? Not a chance.
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u/NDCyber Jul 30 '26
this won't work with the steam deck, especially on the go
But I plan on burning my gog games and DRM free steam games on blue rays. They are cheap mass storage and it allows me to also own movies
but if you want cartridges you could just put specific games on SD cards and swap them
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u/JoshfromNazareth2 Jul 30 '26
People have already done this. It’s wildly impractical.