Nintendo Switch Storage Capacity Revealed

Following tonight's Nintendo Switch presentation, the storage capacity for the Nintendo Switch was revealed.

[moegooner88]

32 Gbs really. My mobile phone comes with more storage.

[NotoriousWhiz]

Mine doesn't. 🙁

[Utalkin2me]

Yeah, that automatically hampers the portable solution. Means you can have 1 AAA title or a few indie games. Makes no sense at all if you ask me. I know games come on carts. But what about people that like digital?

[UnHoly_One]

Nintendo is lost in their own little world.

They are clueless.

[FallenAngel1984]

32GB is not going to go far with how huge game downloads & patches are these days.

This sounds like a joke, but Nintendo seems to be serious about this. They didn't even increase the max storage from their Wii U days, and this time an external HDD isn't going to save you.

[Summons75]

games are on carts...carts hold all the data...when was the last time you had to install the cart onto your 3ds? Never, that's what I though. Oh, you can also upgrade...shocking I know.

[peewee11016]

Cds can hold all the data as well.. DUDE stop acting stupid

[NotoriousWhiz]

In an increasingly digital industry, who wants all of their games on carts? Not to mention there will be plenty of digital only games and DLC that will need to be installed on your hard drive.

[souljah45]

Who wants games on carts? People who have a brain and may want to trade games in once they're done with it.

[NotoriousWhiz]

@souljah, the key word in my post was "ALL"

[Kokyu]

The industry moved away from carts almost 20yrs ago because of the limitations carts present. Having a system with carts in 2017 isnt a plus.

Edit: souljaboy you act like you cant trade or sell a cd......

[Dasteru]

@peewee11016:

CDs do not hold patches or save files. Carts can. I know it is fun to ignore the facts while calling others stupid but when the truth is so obvious, it only serves to make you look like a fool.

@NotoriousWhiz:

Anyone who cares about collectibility or being able to resell/trade the game when they are done with it.

@Kokyu:

People moved away from carts 20 years ago because of the limitations of ROM media that was available back then. Modern flash media has advanced far beyond any disk. It is the same type of memory used in SD cards, USB flash drives and SSDs. A 12X 4-layer bluray disk is 100GB of storage and operates at 54MB/s. Modern flash memory chips have storage caps in the 256GB range (Per chip, SSDs use multiple chips) and can have a read speed upwards of 1500MB/s (Not a typo, ~28x faster than bluray). Even a 32GB card will actually be better than a 100GB bluray due to the ability to compress data on it and have it decompressed on the fly. No format of disk has the speed to do that. You will never need to install anything to HDD with carts. You can actually install patches and theoretically even DLC (If Nintendo decides to design them that way) to the cart which further increases collectibility, as 1-time activation DLC codes become obsolete. When you resell the cart, you sell all the DLC/patches with it.

@kayoss:

The average Switch game will most likely be compressed down to <16GB, with the larger games capping at 32GB. A 2-4GB secondary memory reserve on the carts would be enough for compressed patches and DLC. Nintendo has always optimized file sizes alot better than Sony or MS and they also have the advantage of being able to heavily compress the data this time around, due to the read speed of the flash media.

[Summons75]

@Peewee

Is that why I have to manually install them on my pS4?

[kayoss]

Sorry but what about patches and updates? 32gb for just patches alone is not enough.

[darthv72]

Lets all take a deep breath and just relax. those who say that switch games are going to have large patches need to realize this is nintendo we are talking about. not sony or ms where by games are released unfinished and have such large downloads to patch the game.

For all we know, nintendo will require the games be finished products with the option to have extra content be available (like it used to be). I can say that I only have one game that had any extra content not found on the disc for the wiiu and that is mario kart 8.

the core of the game is completely intact as it should be for any games released. Knowing the 'limited' storage capacity will cause developers to release finished products to switch unlike other platforms.

[Utalkin2me]

So im going to have to carry around carts now? Why would you do this when things are going heavily digital? This is about as stupid as their launch lineup.

[Summons75]

32 gbs is fine considering 1) you can upgrade and a new microSD card is pretty cheap and 2) ALL THE GAMES ARE ON CARTS, unlike PS4 and Xbone there is no manual installs! Gasp! Just put in and play!

[eferreira]

Um it will be an issue for 3rd party games. Some patches or updates are like 4-8gbs

[mcstorm]

Could the update not go into the game card? I'm not saying it will but maybe the way it's working is that an update is installed on the cart rather than on the switch it's self. For me it's all if buts and maybes just press ordered my switch with colour pads and Zelda. Can't wait for march 3rd now.

[RosweeSon]

Well they need to learn how to compress a bit better then ;)

[nitus10]

Depends on the game. I have seen patches in the order of 17GB for some PS4 games.

[darthv72]

you assume that 3rd party switch games are going to be like ps4 and xb1 games. As in unfinished and requiring such large patches.

In reality we know nothing of 3rd party development on the switch and if the games will be complete releases or rushed to market. Only time will tell.

[Featuring_Dante]

are you on nintendo's payroll?

[LOL_WUT]

Working overtime ;)

[NotoriousWhiz]

2) I can guarantee you that all the games won't be on carts.

[rdgneoz3]

Exactly. If they want 3rd party support, they'll be getting a lot of digital download games. Tons of Indie games never get physical releases. Most F2P games out there are all digital only (not all F2P suck, some are great like Smite, Warframe, Paladins, etc). Also, companies release demos for games which never really end up getting a physical release. And if they get online MMOs, those tend to have constant patches that take up way more than their initial amount (for example, ESO is around 80 GB on PS4 right now and started probably around 30-40 GB).

[Summons75]

The ones that aren't will be tiny in size. Boohoo.

[nitus10]

There is a very good reason why games on the PS4 and XB1 are installed on the hard disk drive. If you wish to look at the performance of a HDD @ 5400rpm you can get read speeds (ie loading times) of approximately 80 to 100MB/sec with 7200rpm drives about 20% faster and hybrid drive much faster again.

Install a solid state disk (SSD) and you get read speed in the order of 500MB/sec with write speeds of 480MB/sec depending on brand. Of course, you are limited by the system bus which for the PS4 is 300MB/sec (SATA2) and for the PS4pro 600MB/sec (SATA3). The downside of an SSD is that it is much more expensive than an equivalent capacity HDD.

Now let's take a look at cartridges and their equivalent SD cards. https://www.ephotozine.com/... If you look at the web page a top class SD card can reach speeds of 250MB/sec although you are going to pay for this class of card. Most high-performance cards are in the order of 80 to 100Mb/sec with cheaper cards being less than 50MB/sec.

Note: I don't know the performance of the bus that the Switch has so I can't compare although I would assume that the read or loading speeds of games will be limited by the cartridge or the SD card, not the bus.

Don't just take my word on this the web is freely available to prove me wrong if you can.

[Utalkin2me]

32 gigs is not fine, considering i buy most digital and want the convenience of having my games on the machine being able to switch as i please and not have to carry carts and sd sticks around with me.

[Neonridr]

meh, no surprise there. It's part 3DS after all. Digital games could be an issue though, but I am guessing game sizes will be significantly smaller than on PS4/XB1.

[LOL_WUT]

Even in their reveal they mention it's a home console. ;)

[nitus10]

Game sizes depend on many factors such as voice files, video files, game data files and even the game itself. For the PS4 you can get games as small as a few hundred MB to over 50GB. It is very difficult to quantify this unless you can look at games sizes of a game for different platforms and even then you have to ask if anything as been added or left out.

For instance (all games listed will display at 1080p):
1) The Witcher 3, fully patched with all DLC is about 51.75GB.
2) Bloodborne, fully patched with all DLC is about 36.5GB
3) Bastion is 1.15GB
4) Resident Evil 1 is 15.27GB - yet the original on the PS1 fitted into a 600MB CD.

Just looking at the sizes alone any of those games (assuming the same sizes if made for the Switch) would easily fit onto a reasonably priced and performance SD card. However Bluray install media is still cheaper than cartridge but if you have a portable device then cartridge storage is the best but more expensive solution.

[RosweeSon]

Have a look at Wii U some of the top top games are barely a few GB. 64GB Would have been great but VC games take up minimal space in talking MB's not GB's think marionkart 8 was only about 6gb things like Pokemon etc are a bit bigger but yeah Nintendo don't have wasted space on their games... then you get games with 40/50gb it's just cut scenes and music normally filling up the disc uncompressed and just lazy Devs normally. Ubisoft etc.

[kayoss]

We're talking about 3rd support not Nintendo 1st party games.

[Featuring_Dante]

my PS2 HDD came with a bigger storage, and that thing wasn't needed to play games.
This whole nintendo thing is just a DISASTER! Reminds me of the xbox 1 reveal, one hit news after the other.
@fishy fingers
sure, instead of providing a decent argument, you resort to name calling!
I think N4G users would know the difference between trolling and criticism.

[sdcard4gb]

PS2 HDD ? Oh, you phenomenal joker, you.

[Fishy Fingers]

It had one (40gb) that fitted in the expansion bay. Was more or less a waste of money though as support was very limited.

Dante doing his best to hide his excitement for Switch in every tread.... we see through it ;)

Edit: name calling? I used your actual name and replied to sdcards question? Technically, I agreed with you. Strange lad.

[nitus10]

You must be too young to remember but you could install a HDD into the original PS2 and there were quite a few games written to make use of this device. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... (also includes a list of compatible games).

[TheTony316]

Not a joke at all.The PS2 had an optional 40gb HDD.

[Protagonist]

I'm surprised this thing even comes with a charger.

[Featuring_Dante]

inb4 they pull a New 3DS

[silvacrest]

This is un-excusable for a number of reasons, its 2017..., all you competitors including mobile phones and tablets have higher capacities, for $300 i would have to go out of my way to find any competing device with the same or lower storage, yes it has a SD card slot but this is a console, i would want a hard drive or at least 256 flash storage.

[Braveheart_NZ]

Just like the Wii U because this feels just like a rebranded and remarketed Wii U and renamed The Switch.

[DillyDilly]

How the hell are game updates gonna work ?

[Fishy Fingers]

Connect to the internet. Download update. Install update.

[DillyDilly]

What happens if

A) A Game update is larger than 32 gig

B) There is no room on the Switch because of game updating

[Fishy Fingers]

A 32gb update? Firstly that's incredibly unlikely and secondly, obviously devs will have to take the minimum storage capability into account when issuing an update.

No room? Same as any other device. Delete something or upgrade your storage.

[Dasteru]

@TheRandomOne:

Why would an update be 32GB when the largest full game is only 32GB? The largest update will likely only be 8GB of raw data and that will be compressed to <4GB. They can also have those updates installed to the game carts if they choose to have a secondary reserve memory on them. 32GB cart with a 4GB patch bank and 16MB Save file bank. The carts would cost ~$5 each to mass produce (which is cheaper than the ~$10 per cart they payed for the SNES/N64) and would be covered by the $60 price tag for games that Nintendo has already confirmed (vs $50 for the WiiU)

The 32GB internal system storage would be for apps. If people choose to buy games digitally, they can get an SD card or external HDD cheap enough.

[cyclindk]

Does it take some kind of expandable flash memory?

[RosweeSon]

If your update for the game is bigger than 32GB then what was on the disc in the first place. Nintendo rarely do patches and get it all on disc day one. Wind Walker Wii U is barely 2gb!

[InKnight7s]

Why this console is the only one revealing the disadvantages of exisiting?
It will cancel Zelda on Wii U.
Nothing is far better than Wii U.
40% less power when handheld.
Wont be atleast as X1 power when it docked (GPU 720mb)
Wont support real 3rd party games.
No sign of upgrading their network for real online experince.
And now 32gb.

Really Nintendo? 500gb now is a joke for gaming. Oh right there wont alot of games of any kind of real updates for ur console.

[CrimsonWing69]

man Nintendo, you just can't help it can you? Did you do research? have you seen how people are complaining 500GB wasn't enough storage space on PS4 and Bone? Did you see that the Pro is a 1tb and Bone even has 2Tb consoles!?

So what do you do, you give us 32 GBs!? I mean really!? Really!? What did you take away from the Wii U, exactly how to make another failing console!?

[KimikoGaming]

32gb with upgradeable storage via microSD is perfectly fine. Higher storage would have added to the system cost and it would have forced those who purchase physical games and don't use much storage to pay more. This is good because:

- Those who play physical games only and don't use much storage won't have to pay extra
- Those who do stick to digital games will be able to upgrade the storage as they see fit. MicroSD cards go up to 512 gb now.

I can see how this is bad for people who play digital games. But as someone who prefers physical games, I am happy this is the route they took.

[Dragonscale]

Sorry but 32 gigs is pitiful.

[TheTony316]

I know you can upgrade it, but 32gb in 2017 is a joke. My PC HDD from 2001 had twice as much storage.

[PGRfox]

32 Gbs means the games will lack the detail and graphical fidelity of PS4 and Xbox Games. Lower textures means less memory. Also, many upcoming third party AAA games may not be able to be ported over - we shall see.

[Ashunderfire86]

If I really were to buy this thing I would get it in the fall when Mario comes out. I don't understand why Nintendo didn't wait til the fall to release the Switch? All the better games, online multiplayer would be ready by fall so why release in March?

[NextGenCeo]

What is wrong with you guys? Storage last thing I'm worries about Nintendo Switch. Do you guys any familiar with SD cards? Like 10$ to 50-60$ 64gb to 256gb? So what's the problem here? By the way game size Nintendo Switch not like PS4 or Xbox One. So I don't see any problem here.
And I'm pretty sure Switch will have Usb flash drive or usb hdd support.
(ESL guy here)