The Nintendo Switch has been one of Nintendo’s biggest success stories, but it’s not perfect. In particular, Nintendo returning to cartridges, in this case flash memory sticks, has been an annoyance because there’s only so much room you can fit on one. That Nintendo sticks to 16GB and 32GB sticks, on a console with only 24GB of memory, makes it particularly annoying. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for the lack of space issue. Unfortunately, it’ll have to wait.
The problem is acute with third-party games, mostly coded to exist on roomier Blu-Ray discs and have to buy their media from Nintendo. Currently, gamers are getting around this problem with a mix of microSD cards to dump game updates on and developers are using internet updates to get their full game on the console. But with a 64GB game cartridge, that problem would be solved. According to the Verge, however, Nintendo isn’t making it happen until 2019:
…Nintendo planned to make the 64GB cartridges available in the second half of 2018, but pushed the date back due to technical issues. The sources said the move has brought “slight disappointment” to some developers, especially US publishers who often need the larger capacity for their data-heavy games.
Some publishers, as a result, may be delaying their games until Nintendo gets with the program. It’s still going to be rough on developers even then, though. As we noted, Nintendo uses a proprietary cart design, meaning they have to buy blank carts from Nintendo. These 64GB carts will cost more and inevitably the cost will be passed on to the user. Granted we’re not talking too much in the scheme of things: Roughly $10 extra a game, at current yen valuations. Still, that may be enough to keep some games off the console or leave some Nintendo fans wishing the company would put some more room on the Switch.
(via The Verge)