It's no secret that of late some developers opt to order a batch of small capacity Switch cartridges and force mandatory downloads on users for games that are large in file size (such as Doom or L.A. Noire), arguably killing the point of physical media. The reason for this is cost as small capacity cartridges cost less than large ones. The good thing about this is that the prices are not too overpriced compared to the prices of those games when they were released on other platforms. The other route would be when developers chose to fit the entire game in a large capacity cartridge without requiring a mandatory download from the eShop. The downside of this is that it results in what is known as "Switch tax", games sold for more to offset the cost of large cartridges. Currently the maximum capacity for Switch cartridges is 32GB.

In any event, games won't become smaller over time and seeing the trend of large PC/PS4/XBone games ported to the Switch, it has to be expected that mandatory downloads for physical media won't go away anytime soon. Especially not since a recent report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that Nintendo has delayed the Roll-Out of 64GB Switch cartridges to 2019 that were originally scheduled for release during the second half of 2018. Apparently Nintendo had some technical issues that impacted the quality of the final media and needs more time to resolve those issues.

The question now for the average joe is whether or not this will impact third-party releases. Developers whose games are larger than 32GB could either wait til 64GB cartridges are available, delaying their releases in the process (although that's very unlikely in my opinion), or ship their games in small capacity cartridges and require a large mandatory download from the eShop. Another question is whether or not developers care at all about 64GB cartridges since they would presumably and significantly cost more than existing ones, making it not worth it for them from a financial standpoint.

What do you think about it? Do you prefer games being shipped in a single cartridge without requiring a large download, no matter the cost, or do you not care if half of the game from a cartridge has to be downloaded as long as the price is reasonable?

Source

 

[fluffykiwi]

Here in Scotland Switch games are mega expensive. Brand new Xbox1 and PS4 games cost 40 Pounds and Brand new Switch games are 65 to 70 pounds. Second hand switch games are still more expensive than new games on the other two consoles.

I'm in Erskine , Scotland , literally over the river Clyde from you (about a 15 minute bus journey), and the most expensive Switch game I've seen in any Game store is £59.99. and that is available for £42.00 or less online, with free delivery.

The most expensive game Nintendo sell themselves directly is currently Zelda BOTW for £59.99, with every other game being under £50.00. They also do free delivery with any order over £20.00.

You REALLY need to find different shops.

Maybe try going into Glasgow City Centre, Partick, Paisley, or Braehead.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Considering BotW takes up roughly 14GB, this is not a big deal at all. Xenoverse 2 takes up about 9GB, Skyrim 14GB. Seems they are still a ways off from utilizing 64GB anyway.

Edit: A quick search shows DragonQuest Heroes I and II takes up 32GB. Short of that though, is there really a need?

The thing is, publishers aren't using full 32GB cartridges, not because they're not required, but because they're too expensive. DOOM was 13GB, and still requires 9GB for multiplayer that you have to download. LA Noire requires a 14GB download. The NBA game requires a 10+GB download. Resident Evil: Revelations 1 & 2 requires 20+GB download if you buy the cartridge version, because only RE:R 1 was put on the cartridge.

One have to wonder if the secret art of file compression have long since been lost.

The problem with using additional compression is load times/install times/resources. Take PC Repacks as an example, Fitgirl can take a 50GB game and compress it to 15GB, but it might take 3-5 hours to decompress the data and install, and that's if you have a decent PC. Nobody wants to wait hours for a game to install. And you can't just leave it compressed and decompress it on the fly, as that'd make load times much longer than usual and reduce the amount of resources the game itself could use.

 

[depaul]

If only the Switch supported external HDD like the Wii U did. And player could choose what to install to SD Card, internal memory, or the HDD.

I hate the switch for this.

 

[fluffykiwi]

The price difference between Switch and other consoles for physical media is under £10.00 per title, at times it seems more than that, because people are comparing new Switch titles with other console versions that may have been released over a year previously. If you compare the release price of those games their price was usually much higher. There is a premium, but I feel it is well worth it simply for the portability factor alone.

I also personally prefer the Switch physical media because it does not usually require any large download before you can play the game. I want to be able to play directly from the cart. If the cart needs to download half a game before you can play it I'm not buying that game.

I'm not buying digital only games, even if they disguise it with a physical disk which basically acts like a copy protection dongle and simply enables you to install the game to your hard drive, often downloading the full game and ignoring the actual disc contents. I want a game I can play, not a licence that can be revoked whenever the publisher stops making money, loses interest or enforce their terms and conditions.

I'd therefore prefer a 64GB cart that is a bit more expensive, than either digital downloads or a smaller cart that requires half the game to be downloaded.

btw I also love having all my games installed on a single hard drive and playable without any physical media, which I know is in direct contradiction to what I buy. I like a pile of retail bought games and a console with versions playable from a large dedicated hard drive, preferable with a drive capable of holding almost all the games released for that console.

If, and possibly when, all games require huge downloads to play them I'll either move to exclusively pirating games, and just avoid consoles which have not been hacked, or maybe pick a single console and buy a lot less games.

 

[330]

Too expensive? Is Nintendo using eMMC cards for their physical Switch games? Honest question.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Yeah.. Nintendo of JAPAN never learned anything from Sony. A standard 50GB Blu-ray disc is much cheaper! Oh boy. I am getting tired of Nintendo every minutes and now this! Sighing.

Because the Switch has room for a Blu-ray drive

 

[330]

Yeah.. Nintendo of JAPAN never learned anything from Sony. A standard 50GB Blu-ray disc is much cheaper! Oh boy. I am getting tired of Nintendo every minutes and now this! Sighing.

Of course they did learn from Sony. Remember the UMD discs? PSP's battery life was awful because of it. Imagine mini discs on the Switch.

 

[netovsk]

I plan to buy 1st party games only on my switch so as long as at least Nintendo is using the bigger cards it's ok for me.

 

[Subtle Demise]

Lol it's Super Mario Bros. 3 all over again.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

One have to wonder if the secret art of file compression have long since been lost.

But what about "performance"!? Even though much much weaker machines could handle on-the fly decompression.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Here in Scotland Switch games are mega expensive. Brand new Xbox1 and PS4 games cost 40 Pounds and Brand new Switch games are 65 to 70 pounds. Second hand switch games are still more expensive than new games on the other two consoles.

That's around the same price as GameStop here. A local online store has games about 20% cheaper than GameStop (about 40-50 gbp I guess).
I'm sure you can find them cheaper if you look around.

 

[spotanjo3]

Because the Switch has room for a Blu-ray drive

Really ?

 

[the_randomizer]

Oh my, the saltiness in the thread over Nintendo this, and Nintendo that, it's very cathartic, thanks for the good laughs.

 

[MarkDarkness]

SWITCHable cartridges. Literally in the middle of Mario Odyssey it would go "Please insert Cart 2 to continue". And when you need to backtrack to a previous world you have to swap with Cart 1 again.

That would be awesome.

 

[Xzi]

SWITCHable cartridges. Literally in the middle of Mario Odyssey it would go "Please insert Cart 2 to continue". And when you need to backtrack to a previous world you have to swap with Cart 1 again.

That would be awesome.

Woah there Satan, this isn't PSX.

 

[Sakitoshi]

Of course they did learn from Sony. Remember the UMD discs? PSP's battery life was awful because of it. Imagine mini discs on the Switch.

Funny that you mention battery life when the switch isn't much better.

 

[330]

Funny that you mention battery life when the switch isn't much better.

Imagine how awful would it be with an optical disc reader

 

[the_randomizer]

SWITCHable cartridges. Literally in the middle of Mario Odyssey it would go "Please insert Cart 2 to continue". And when you need to backtrack to a previous world you have to swap with Cart 1 again.

That would be awesome.

As if being required to download part of a game, and buying an SD card for a game that's already on a Switch cart wasn't asinine enough

 

[laudern]

Can anyone show a list of game file sizes on Switch?

 

[Deleted User]

The real problem is devs being lazy and not compressing literally anything in their games.

 

[330]

Can anyone show a list of game file sizes on Switch?

Here you go. Biggest game is currently L.A. Noire (almost 28GB).