Despite what was reported on Treehouse Live’s stream, the Nintendo Switch can actually support up to two terabyte Micro SDXC cards. Nintendo’s stream accidentally claimed that the system could only support up to 256GB cards, disappointing many fans. Considering 2TB cards don’t actually exist yet, it’s good to see Nintendo is future proofing the Switch in terms of expandable memory. Are you pleased with this change? Tell us below.
Thanks Magmoor.
Well I’m not very pleased with this. But sadly you have to get your own micro SD. Is that right?
What isn’t pleasing about this? If they included a 500GB or 1TB micro SD card in the system, or had that much internal memory before putting in an SD card, you would be paying more, and complaining about that. Good lord. Anybody disappointed in this is ridiculous.
Well some people will be unhappy about this.
As someone who uses mostly physical copies I’m very happy about this, if there was more memory there would be a higher cost. I’ve lasted on my Wii U with 32 GB and a 32 GB USB. I’ll probably get a 128 GB sdxc for $40 and be just dandy. Plus you can always just get more cards if you want more digital games and then switch them out.
They said it won’t have digital games.
Do you have a source on that? Are they not going to do any VC? Why would we even care about big storage then?
Didn’t they also announce the digital copy size of BotW on Switch too??
Yes
No they didn’t. It has access to the eShop, still.
Source?
What exactly is bad about this? I really don’t see a possible downside to this unless you just happen to dislike opportunity as a whole.
It was a joke.
What does please you guys?
?
A hard dick
lol
Well, someone said it.
Go and play your Scalebound on Xboxone. We are happy we shall be getting cheap storage. Games games and games.
I don’t have a XB1 kid
How could you possibly be disappointed by over 1000 GB of storage :/
I was joking
Holy Moly!
I’ve never even heard of an SDXC memory card. How could any memory card hold 2TB? That’s amazing.
The tech isn’t there yet, but it’s futureproofing!
As the post says that kind if cards don’t exist yet, but there are in development… Is nice to see that Nintendo is future proofing.
Yes, VERY nice. : )
it almost makes you wonder why they only included 32GB in the base package
It so they can sell the Switch at a lower cost.
Not down much. Sony & Microsoft have comparable prices, and 500GB drives. Some versions of X1 have 1TB. Nintendo clearly did not keep costs down, unless they wanted to originally sell ti for $750
Hdd used in XB1 and ps4 are much cheaper than flash storage used in switch, as HDD is alot slower and more prone to fail.
Sony and Microsoft do NOT have comparable prices. Don’t forget that the launch price for XBox one was $500/£430, while the PS4’s launch price was $400/£350. Obviously the prices have dropped since then, as they do for all consoles, but the point still stands: the Switch is quite a bit cheaper than all of the current-gen consoles were at launch.
Quite the opposite really. It makes it clear why they did that. Keep the base cost down, and let the customer choose if and how much they want to expand the memory.
If this is base cost down, how much would a 500GB system cost? $750?
Maybe about $600. Flash storage is significantly more expensive per GB than HDDs. The 500GB drives in the XBO PS4 cost about $25-30 at launch or about 5-6 cents per GB. Right now 16GB of eMMC flash memory costs about $4.50 or about 28 cents per GB. If the price went up linearly, which it doesn’t, then 512GB o eMMC flash would cost $144.
I’m waiting to see if the Switch will indeed support external hard drives. A 256GB Micro SDXC is about half the price of a Switch, whereas a 2TB external hard drive’s about £70. Much more affordable and much more storage.
You can get 256gb micro sd for like 60-90usd on amazon.
Instead of making one model with subpar internal storage, they should have made two or three models with varying storage up to 500gb or higher. your competition includes 1tb with their system and yours is only 32gb. That’s head shaking sad.
True but you have to realize that to get home console capabilities on a portable form factor is very costly this is why at first I was against the idea of a handheld/home console hybrid device. Nintendo doesn’t want to lose any money on the Switch and putting 500GB into the system would’ve raised the price. You see how some people are already bitching and complaining about the Switch costing $300 so imagine how much drama would occur if the system cost $400….the Switch would be a hard sell
I really haven’t seen many people complaining about the price, but I pretty much only come here for news. I think most of us here want a solid system that can play all games, and would be willing to pay more for it.
This rumor, if true…well, it’s a step in the right direction. Granted, an SD card that’s 500gb costs as much as the switch… but I guess it’s an option. I’m crossing my fingers, that by the time the switch has a year or two under its belt, I can buy a 1terabyte SD card for $150 (that’s being ~very~ optimistic) but again, if this is true, it’s really nice to know it’s at least possible.
Sony & Microsoft are selling their systems at comparable prices. Many bundles out too for comparable price. Nintendo would only be shooting themselves in the foot to off the same for more.
I 100% agree PaidE, but they DID target Home console with portability… so as you said, that’s expensive and they should have just did it all the way instead of cutting corners again, in this instance on storage… plus to make it portable, we still don’t know for sure if they put enough horsepower to compete with just the base, current gen models. The always have this great, innovative idea, then start halfassing and cutting corners causing them to fall short except for running their own games. Nintendo fans, deserve a system that can play EVERYTHING. Especially those who stuck it out during the Wii and WiiU. They have been gaming on underpowered machines since after the Gamecube, have been missing out on a lot of great 3rd party games, and I think they deserve better.
If developers stop support of Switch after Launch, then I guarantee any Exclusive Nintendo gamers left will go the path I did, and jump into another console or PC… and I said “IF.” I hope Switch is powerful like many of you say it is, and I hope the storage issue is the only hurdle that needs jumped.
And if that all turns out to be true, I will be excited to get one LATER when it has games I want.
But how bout that ZELDA!! JESUZZZ it looks soooo amazing… and with Voice acting!!! :D
Yeah, what paidenthusiast said! Shut up!
Cost saving for you, and you are out here still nit picking at straws. NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is back and we have a home console portable. Gaming lives on.
Giving Nintendo excuses is one reason why they will never learn.
I actually heard this during the Treehouse Stream. They even mentioned that 2TB doesn’t exist on a consumer level but that Switch will support them. Who said otherwise?
Nintendo is a bit ahead so you think you it will be built data
@paidenthusiast
We’ll here in Canada….. this switch IS 400 dollars my friend.
That is because your Canadian dollar is weaker than the US currency.
OK, so this … sorta solves the space issue.
So for a decked out switch, and a pro controller, and 2 games…
$300 switch
$300 500gb SD
$120 two games
$70 Pro controller (I would skip this, I can game with Joycons)
So…$800 with two games. Half that with no memory card, using 32gig onboard storage and no pro controller.
Seems like an expensive investment. But it really comes down to games. If someone is dying to play Mario Kart8.5, Splatoon2 and Mario. And they really don’t care about current 3rd party games, then I would tell them to go for it. If they trade their WiiU tho… they won’t have much to play for a while.
It would have been GREAT… and probably would have made me excited if it could play 3DS games, allowing me to play them on my TV. Yeah, that would have been good enough to sway me. Right now, we’re not getting games from their handheld division, and barely getting games from their console division…
We need games. Pure and simple, and right now I can play all the games with my WiiU, X1 and 3DS trifecta. And I can get all the games cheap.
I need more to sink my teeth into Nintendo!
now lets face it you don’t need 500 GB because Nintendo games don’t use the much memory so lower that to 128gb which should be good for now and that’s brings your 300$ to 40$ which is way better. Don’t get a 500gb micro sd, it will get cheaper in the future, 128gb should be fine for quite a while. So that will overall be 500$ if you don’t get a pro controller
Yep. If you have another gaming platform, and will only use it for Nintendo games, 128 gig’s should last a while.
You could also get 3 200gb class 10 san disk micro sd cards for 198$. Its stupid that you can get a 200gb class 10 for 66$ but from the same company a 256$ one costs 177$ just buy multiple smaller sizes and save a crap ton of money.
200GB is an odd capacity for flash memory, it’s usually a power of two. My assumption is that it was made on older process that was sort of being pushed in an effort to reach that capacity. The 256GB one is likely made on a newer process so I’m guessing the difference is probably performance.
The only difference is a 95 mbs transfer rather than 90mbs on the 200. Really not worth the extra money unless you’re just that impatient. Its also 10mbs faster than the 128’s 80mbs transfer, and its barely more expensive. 60-70$ vs 40-50 and you get faster read and write speeds and more storage. The 256 is 177$ vs 66$ and its only 56 more gigs and 5mbs faster. Really not worth it. I could buy 2 200gb micro sds and have way more storage for way less money and almost the exact same transfer speeds.
Actually they have high quality 512 gb micro sd cards on amazon for 199usd, and you have to consider the fact that Nintendo is WAY better at conpressing files while keeping the same quality. For example zelda:BotW 13.4 gigs, halo 5 (a much smaller, around the same graphics honestly) around 80gb. So you don’t need as much space even if your a download focused gamer.
Right! But again, only if you plan on playing Nintendo games and Indies exclusively.
I’m starting to think the people defending the shitty data storage are just gonna be using the console for Nintendo games or plan on doing physical & not bothering with DLC, so unlike us, they don’t see a problem. In fact, they are just being selfish people looking at the entire thing subjectively & not objectively, caring very little, if at all, for those of us that do plan on doing digital games, 3rd party games, and DLC.
Pretty much. I don’t know if I’d use the word “selfish,” more looking at things a bit too narrowly. And there are a LOT of commenters I really like here, that I know I’m being overly negative and making it hard to be excited for Switch hardware… I think I’ve about got it out of my system though.
And Switch may get some 3rd party games, and it will be really good to know how big the standard game carts are, and how much the larger ones (assuming they do that) will cost.
Also, I didn’t know this until recently, but the Spirit they have been showing is an old game, not the new Elder Scrolls… so again, you can already get it cheap. (But not portable!!)
I know this is supposed to be a console first, handheld second… but I’m trying to see it as a handheld first at this point… it’s going to be the strongest, portable gaming device on the market, easily. So as long as Nintendo doesn’t siphon it’s mobile games off to another handheld, and this IS the 3DS and WiiU successor, and we get Pokemon, Fire Emblem, -portable AND console software… then It could be REALLY fun to own. Just not as a primary console, and worth holding off buying until games, bundles and retailer discounts kick in.
And personally, I have a life and expenses, and I can’t afford to blow $4-500 on a machine that doesn’t offer me personally the games or entertainment I don’t get already from my current systems.
I completely agree with you, Omega.
– Someone who buys physical copies of games –
They never said on the Treehouse stream that the system “only supports up to 256GB SD cards”. That keeps setting misreported.
They simply had a 256GB card there when they were talking about the hardware, which makes sense, since it’s the largest commonly available card on the market. There was NOTHING said about limits.
ALSO, there doesn’t seem to be a reliable source for the claim that the system will support up to 2TB. Some site claimed that Nintendo said so, but there was no evidence of it whatsoever.
the sdxc spec supports up to 2tb cards. So unless NIntendo has done something to block a higher card it should support cards of that size when they become available.
The 3DS officially supported cards only up to a certain amount despite spec. Assuming that the Switch will support cards up to a certain size just because it’s within the card family’s spec isn’t a reliable gauge to go by, as history has shown.
gotta remember that technically there is no limit on the space for the 3ds, the limit of 32 GB they set is not true. I’m using a 64 GB micro in it right now, it just requires a different formatting.
This! Everything you guys have mentioned is on point. I’m not sure where this article got its information but this is what I got and understand from what Nintendo has said in the Treehouse Live segment and what I know about current SD card technology and the 3DS storage as well.
I am not trying to be rude but are most of you that technically illiterate. I have been fighting the same thing at IGN. The 500gb or 1tb hard drives that xbox and ps4 have are platter based mechanical hard drives. There is not room for that in a portable system. The next option would be a solid state drive. While prices are coming down you would still be paying between 50 and 100 dollars extra for 120 to 500 gb of SSD. Not to mention that SSD is still pretty big itself and we are talking about a PORTABLE system here. So that leaves us with flash memory. I do believe it would have been a little more sensible to try include 64 or 128 gb of flash memory but it would have driven the price up. Look at a phone with that kind of storage. It will cost you anywhere between 500-1000 dollars( no your iphone did not cost 199. that is the subsidized price).
Nintendo has also stated during the event that the dock can read external hard drives but they are not sure whether they are going to enable that feature because it kind of defeats the purpose of the portable system.
In my opinion they need to create a function where you select a game or games you want to take with you and “switch” from the external hard drive to the Switch system.
one word: nice.
Give me external hard drive usage for Switch as I can get a 2tb one for under 100 bucks. Oh wait! I still have the one I bought for my Wii U years back but never used it for it because the Wii U ended up being a total shit failure that I’ll be glad to get rid of on the 3rd of March! Those high performance PNY Micro SD Cards that hold up to 256gb go for 89 bucks where as the 2tb I got went for 89 bucks. Yeah. I’m gonna pay a lot more for micro SD cards than I will for the Switch. This is still unacceptable, Nintendo.