Nintendo Unveils Game Card Hiding Feature

Nintendo's newly introduced Virtual Game Card (VGC) system, now live with the latest Switch update, offers users the ability to keep their game cards out of sight. This feature is particularly useful for those who wish to maintain privacy regarding their game collection. As demonstrated by a user on X/Twitter, you can now hide your Virtual Game Cards from the list of acquired games on Nintendo's VGC portal, ensuring that others won't see any games you've chosen to conceal.

I personally tested this functionality and successfully hid games such as Suikoden I&II HD Remaster and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. While these games still appear in the list on my OLED Switch if installed or loaded, they vanish from the list once uninstalled. To view the hidden games, you'll need to navigate to the "Redownload Software" section and then to "Can't Find Software?" after logging into your Nintendo account. The same applies when accessing the site, where hidden games are tucked away behind the "Can't Find Software?" option in a separate folder.

This feature could be particularly handy for those sharing their console. If you want to keep games like Mortal Kombat or Doom out of reach, this could serve as an effective parental control tool. Alternatively, if you're concerned about certain titles appearing when you're at social gatherings, this provides a way to keep those games under wraps. It's worth noting, however, that the process is a bit cumbersome, as you'll need to unhide and reload games to play them again. Also, my account still showed as playing Suikoden I&II HD Remaster in the Play Activity when I booted it up.

Alongside this new feature, the latest update also includes redesigned icons, a system transfer feature in anticipation of the upcoming Switch 2, and has largely closed a popular loophole for game sharing. For more details on the new Nintendo Switch firmware update, you can read more here.