Macronix, the Taiwanese company that’s been making Nintendo’s game cards for years, just shared some interesting news in its latest financial report. Turns out, Macronix’s ROM chips are being used in both the current Nintendo Switch and the Switch 2 game cards.
But here’s the fun part: they’re cooking up future cartridges using a mix of their own MLC NAND and some outsourced 3D NAND, depending on how much space is needed. But what does that mean for gamers? Different size Switch 2 game cards could be on the way!
Right now, Switch 2 cards only come in one (pricey) size, which has made some third-party developers jump ship to cheaper Game-Key Cards. However, if Macronix’s hint is anything to go by, we might soon see more storage options, and maybe even lower costs.
Maybe for future games of less than 60 GB, but I doubt we will see higher capacity cards because that would cost even more… But I am not sure that this is necessarily good news; publishers will seek the easiest and cheapest solution for themselves.
Right now. No one wants higher capacity, people just want to have physical options and Nintendo should’ve given publishers that choice with lower capacity cartridges.
If publishers want to charge more, fine. I would gladly pay the difference for physical.
You’re making no sense.
Plenty of games are above cartridge capacity.
What do they do?
You can’t have it both ways.
Either you accept larger capacity so that you can have your entire game on a cartridge or you accept key cards if you absolutely have to buy a physical product. It’s one of the other.
Also despite making the option of key card available to publishers, Nintendo never make the choice to do that themselves. That’s entirely down to the publisher.
This is where you find Sega always taking the easy option of just slapping it on a key card every time… Even when the cartridge is perfectly capable of containing the full game.
No one is buying the keys, so publishers will continue to flush money away on stuff no one wants, when they could spend a little more and make something that will actually sell. Just look at NISA and their recent collectors editions that have game cards. They are still stuck at 100% stock.
What about games already being released on Switch 1 carts and not Switch 2? I doubt they will get releases..
Big screw up from Nintendo again.
Sorry, how is that a screw up from Nintendo??
If the developer chooses not to make a switch 2 version that has nothing to do with Nintendo.
Likewise with cartridges.
If the publisher doesn’t want to produce a separate switch to cartridge, that’s down to them.
I refuse to buy game key cards as they’re pointless if you want want physical games to be in on the card. If Cyber punk did it then there’s no excuse for any other company.
there literally is and it’s the fact that nintendo refuse to make affordable game cards. be mad at the right people pls.
The people making these choices are the publishers.
You just want to be mad at Nintendo because “NiNtEnDo BaD” 🤪
Grow up.
Stop acting childish and understand its a little more comolicated than that. If you were a publisher of a game thats the size of 10gb. And the only game card you can is buy is an expensive wastefull 64gb one, would you buy it or use a game key card? But if you could buy a game card the cheaper and is 16gb you would be able to do a wiser choice for youself, something you couldn’t do before. Nintendo practically gives them no option but game key cards. There are some greedy publishers, but nintendo is no better and even worse
Well gee wiz, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the different size options for carts was what resulted in the Switch 1 having so many physical releases. Should have just done this from the start.
Nintendo
Loves them Ls
Folks are kinda missing the point that it’s not only the different sizes of the carts but also the cost of producing them that’s the issue. Games that would be perfect for the already available 64gb card, for example, are still coming out on game key. Yakuza 0 for example is 53.7GB, but the reason it’s a game key card release is because manufacturing a 64gb cart is too expensive for SEGA. I hope the manufacturers focus on making these carts much more affordable along with introducing more sizes because it feels kinda dumb buying third party games physically now since the vast majority of them are game key cards.
Would be nice to see more games fully on a cart
I just hope that the “damage” isn’t already done now with publishers having seen the cheaper alternative (game key cards) and looking to maximise their profit without the cartridge overhead… We just have to keep our fingers crossed that the backlash against the key cards has been big and loud enough.
A lot of people here desperate to be angry with Nintendo about 3rd party publishers decisions.
If you actually want change, and do not just looking for an opportunity to dig at Nintendo as you possibly can, then I would start having a go at the right people.
If you just spend your time having a go at Nintendo publishers and never going to buckle to the pressure because you’re directing it at The wrong people.
I mean.. It took them 8 years to make a new Mario Kart with what’s mostly a giant desert for a free roam mode. Games with better content have been made in less time than that in the past. And Nintendo shouts from the rooftops that it’s worth the high asking price for the game.
So yes, people can blame Nintendo because it shows how lazy and greedy they can be.
You seem to not understand that the publishers are abiding by the restrictions Nintendo made. They have one option for releasing physical games on the Switch 2– a 64gb cartridge that costs them $15 a pop. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to want Nintendo to either ease up on that or offer alternative sizes and pricing– game key cards are currently the only other option, which of course a lot of devs are jumping to, because they have no other choice.
What the hell does Nintendo have to do with it?
Sarah, you’ve given a masterclass in missing the point.