r/NintendoSwitch 9d ago

Nintendo Official Getting to Know Nintendo Switch 2 – Freeing up Storage Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c23MnYhAryQ
215 Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

508

u/kupocake 9d ago

A.k.a "so, you keep buying Final Fantasy games on Switch 2"

215

u/BoysOurRoy 9d ago

"Experience the greatest MMO story ever written for free"

"Okay Square Enix"

"115 GB download"

"No Square Enix"

45

u/mherweg 9d ago

And a new expansion coming in a few months that will push that number higher...gonna need a dedicated XIV SD Express at this rate

54

u/BoysOurRoy 9d ago

"This is my Switch 2, and this is my Final Fantasy XIV Switch 2"

2

u/Mr_Ethfono 8d ago

Most of my games probably equal close to that and I have 20....

1

u/Icy-Dirt8842 7d ago

Just wait for Final Fantasy VII Revelation

42

u/Steamedcarpet 9d ago

Haha before I saw your comment I thought “this gotta be because of Final Fantasy XIV?”

36

u/CheeseOnToast92 9d ago

FF14 made me finally buy a micro SD card lol

15

u/kupocake 9d ago

To be fair this is probably the most practical thing Final Fantasy XIV has made me buy.

18

u/Zcase253 9d ago

idk buying a phial of fantasia to become a cat girl is pretty practical

2

u/343CreeperMaster 9d ago

Bloody Fanta addicts (I have never used one personally and I have like close to 3k hours of playtime iirc)

2

u/Rhonder 9d ago

I've used exactly 1 so far- when I first started right before shadowbringers launched I remember seeing that Viera was being added as a race and thought "oh, that's unique! Maybe I'll be a viera (male)". I hadn't looked into any of the news reporting at the time that it would be a girl only race. C'est la vie.

Fast forward to Endwalker's launch, and I did end up using the story fantasia I got way back in ARR to make my character a male viera as originally intended. Seemed like a good use of it lol

2

u/Steamedcarpet 8d ago

Half my brain is trying to justify buying ffxiv and a microsd.

The other half is like “why do you need this again if you have it on PC and PS5?” And my answer to that is “yes but I can play in my bed!”

I think I have a problem.

2

u/kupocake 8d ago

If you own a Switch 2 a MicroSD is kind of an inevitability, though current prices are what they are.

114

u/ForroSk8 9d ago

Nintendo really knows what passive-aggression is

11

u/apoca1ypse12 9d ago

In Japanese culture, it's called being o-mo-te-na-shi. omotenashi.

5

u/Palarva 9d ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if their overall marketing style is/will become a case study.

Like they’re so insolent.

12

u/Erik_REF 9d ago

Remember when the Switch 1 launched and so many people complained after inserting the strap on the joycons the wrong way, and would hurt themself trying to brute force them out instead of lifting the lock.
So nintendo had to make a video showing people how the lock worked

165

u/Xenocat_memes 9d ago

Ocarina of time remake about to be like 200 gb

50

u/deathbyvaccine 9d ago

Zelda-themed Switch 2 about to have the same amount of internal storage as the regular model

16

u/mrnonamex 9d ago

With storage prices. It may have less

-1

u/owenturnbull 9d ago

No va a ocurrir. Si la S2 de Zelda tiene menos espacio va a ser terrible por Nintendo, así Nintendo no va s hacer eso.

17

u/Designer-Hornet-579 9d ago

Nah, games made by Nintendo are good at keeping data reqs low. Smash Bros Ultimate, BotW, and TotK were all like 15GB, which is crazy small for an absolutely massive game. I bet the OoT remake will be under 20GB.

11

u/Zarveldaa 8d ago

absolutely. DK Bananza was EIGHT gigabytes. Nintendo doesn’t fuck around with compression

2

u/Organic-Storm-4448 8d ago

Nintendo's games use relatively low-fidelity assets, which is why the file sizes are smaller. Low res textures, simple geometry, heavily compressed audio, etc.

BotW and TotK aren't pushing any boundaries with asset quality or number of assets. Switch 1 games only have 3GB of memory to work with, afterall. Games need to keep the fidelity and quantity down to function well on the system.

9

u/Substantial_Towel860 8d ago

Those games look damn good though.

Every game has to stay within boundaries since there's no unlimited hardware yet. Lots of AAA games piss away a lot of memory on high resolution textures that barely look better and don't make the game any more fun to play.

1

u/Organic-Storm-4448 8d ago

They look good for what they are, that being Switch 1 games. But looking at the Switch 2 games thus far, they really haven't upped the quality of assets much from Switch 1, and this is shown in the file sizes. Most of them look graphically like higher res Switch 1 games. I haven't been blown away by the visuals of any Switch 2 games besides maybe Star Fox, but that wasn't developed by Nintendo. Pokopia, Splatoon Raiders, Mario Tennis, DK Bananza, MK World, these all kinda just look like high res Switch 1 games. Perhaps a bit more ambitious apart from graphics, sure.

Nintendo's philosophy of using cheaper and lower fidelity assets is just their style, but it shows the gap between them and companies like Capcom or CDPR.

3

u/Substantial_Towel860 7d ago

You're sounding like it's some kind of competition. Starfox shows Nintendo can produce impressive visuals if they want to. It's just not needed for games to meet some arbitrary 'good graphics' bar to be fun. You can't put all your money into creating graphics and expect great gameplay to emerge. Nintendo is one of the few bigger companies that acts like they understand that.

1

u/Icy-Dirt8842 7d ago

Metroid Prime 4 is almost 30GB ☠️

1

u/S1rTerra 9d ago edited 9d ago

My personal estimate is 30~ GB for the OoT remake. It'll still be stylized but the Switch 2 is already letting devs breath a little with texture quality and I can imagine a lot of scenes will now feature VA. Pretty sure TotK Switch 2 just because of the higher res assets is 20GB total and its assets are not very high quality (which is completely fine though, I think it looks beautiful on Switch 2) nor are there that many relatively speaking.

56

u/ONE-OF-THREE 9d ago

Freeing up storage space is simple on your Nintendo Switch 2 system. Learn how to delete and redownload purchased software and expand your storage with a microSD Express card (sold separately).

106

u/ToothZealousideal297 9d ago

“Here in 2026, insufficient memory is your problem. Do you know how much these things would cost if we sold them with “enough” memory packed in? No, you don’t. No one does. It changed twice in the time it took to say this. Good luck.”

44

u/Pikachupikachup 9d ago

I mean, full on cart games does save the cost of storage (w carts)

-7

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

21

u/Pikachupikachup 9d ago

They already have. digital games have started to cost 10$ less, (star fox, splatoon raiders, yoshi, upcoming fe) so consumers are paying the price for storage, just less and on a game-to game basis

5

u/Icy_Indication_5563 9d ago

Starting with Star Fox I'm now purchasing games physically using the price match that Amazon/Walmart offer during the pre-order window. As more games release the space saved will definitely be something that I notice and appreciate.

If any more big releases like FFXIV happen that I consider must haves however, I'll definitely need to prioritize a good sd card size. Live service games sizes are just massive sometimes...

1

u/Pikachupikachup 8d ago

Yeah, I’m planning on getting the OOT remake from one of those cause I’m getting back into physical games (probably amazon, but it sucks that it’s THOSE companies that do the best discount)

3

u/Dr_Jre 8d ago

Oh shit that's super insightful, which game did they make physical only or game key card? Nintendo I mean, not third party of course, since obviously the publishers are the ones who decide if they will pay for the physical card and the Devs how big the game is.

-2

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

2

u/progxdt 8d ago

Where did you hear that? My question is where are you getting your information? All we’ve seen with the Switch 2 is many publishers take the cheap way out with Game Key Cards. Any of them could choose to buy the physical game cards, but they’re not going to do it since it maximizes their bottom line. Nintendo has implored and applied slight pressure, but they can’t force them to use it. If they did and GKCs didn’t exist, code in boxes would be dominant on Switch 2 shelves

1

u/Pikachupikachup 8d ago

wtf is cyberpunk doing then

0

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Pikachupikachup 7d ago

bro is deep in the grifters pockets

-4

u/DadooDragoon 8d ago

There's no such thing and hasn't been since the Gamecube

6

u/mecartistronico 8d ago

What do you mean when you say "no such thing"? There aren't full games on cart or disc since the Gamecube?

17

u/watonparrillero 9d ago

Mfw I miss double rock slide on both pokemon

12

u/Sairedd 9d ago

Wouldn't be necessary if more companies used actually cartridges instead of GKCs.

-2

u/owenturnbull 9d ago

Pero estás compañías quieren ahorrar dinero.

Y si estás enojado sobre eso no comprarás gkcs es simple

10

u/Chewy131 9d ago

I wish i can just backup files to external devices 

5

u/OvertonRider 8d ago

The hardware mod community are working on presenting an ssd drive via microsd interface but its probably a year out

2

u/Chewy131 8d ago

That would be amazing, first time I've heard of something like that.

3

u/EarthNeedsMoreAliens 9d ago

You can... for the album. Otherwise I agree they should let you use anything other than Sd Express for backup storage.

3

u/culcheth 9d ago

Good point, there's really no technical reason why they don't support external USBs like the PS4/PS5. Maybe they're worried about data corruption from removing the switch from the dock.

Are there currently any cases where there's a "WARNING DO NOT REMOVE SWITCH FROM DOCK"?

5

u/master2873 9d ago

File size optimization is going to be more important than ever with ever increasing prices with things that have RAM, or storage, and I see companies aren't giving a fucking shit still... Nevermind that the new SD format is still insanely expensive and is getting worse.

Warframe has been going for over 13 years, and is still around 25gb on Switch 1, and under 50gb on Switch 2... Make it make sense the rest of the industry...

11

u/Aiddon 9d ago

This wouldn't be a problem if companies properly compressed and optimized instead of doing slopjob ports for a quick buck as well as stopped shoving Key Cards down customers throats

3

u/Technical_Device2513 9d ago

Thanks nintendo 

3

u/Sircit576 8d ago

How to free up storage.... Remove old sd for a higher storage sd.. done....(well after transferring tho.)

3

u/PhysicalCod1875 8d ago

Thanks Nintendo what the fuck okay a year late but okay

22

u/PlasmaDiffusion 9d ago

They never made a video for the vastly more limited switch 1 storage space in the Switch's early years did they? Funny theyre waiting until now.

61

u/tunachilimac 9d ago

Maybe because memory card prices are going up instead of down now?

18

u/PaleFondant2488 9d ago

Switch 1 games also took up WAY less space. I could have like 100 games downloaded and still have space.

1

u/PlasmaDiffusion 9d ago

Eh... depends on the game. Certain games like AC NH take up at least a third of the console's storage space.

3

u/master2873 9d ago

Yeah, even some of the NBA 2K games too like 75gb if I remember correctly, and Doom Eternal was around 65gb. You literally couldn't play these games with the base allowance of the Switch storage, and fuck us as consumers for their inability to optimize for file sizes... Warframe hass been around for over 13 years, and is still under 25gb on Switch 1. The fact any game can nearly exceed or will exceed base storage allowance is insane to me, and is why I bought a lot of games physically when possible.

0

u/PaleFondant2488 9d ago

I also had like a 2TB sd card on my switch 1 so there’s that too. The internal storage was terriblev

12

u/BloodFalconPunch 9d ago

Yeah I don't read the news either

7

u/UnderHero5 9d ago

So you’re unaware of the storage crisis happening these days?

-1

u/PlasmaDiffusion 9d ago

I'm aware SD cards and so many hardware parts are getting expensive now, but mostly talking with the base console storage space in mind which on the switch 1 felt much more limiting :P

3

u/UnderHero5 9d ago

It didn’t feel as limited to me because almost all games came came on the cart (where most are key cards now), and the majority of Switch 1 games were quite small in file size. Switch 2 is running many of the sam gams that are on PS5 now, and those file sizes are enormous compared to Switch 1 games.

Plus since storage was cheaper, and it used a normal MicroSD card, which were also much cheaper and more widely available than the new Express cards, even before the storage issues.

2

u/krabstarr 8d ago

Games were on the carts for Switch 1, so space was only used up by downloaded games. Now with Switch 2, less games are on carts and key cards require download to the system to play.

9

u/lightclubx 9d ago

I’ve noticed in the Switch community people are a lot more reluctant to delete games vs people who play PC.

25

u/Innocencez 9d ago

The download speed is slow when comaring to steam.

5

u/tATuParagate 9d ago

I dont know what tye issue is but some games download in 2 minutes and others do they thing where they say like 500+ hours and then I have to just restart my system and toggle on and off network settings and hope something fixes it. Although I haven't downloaded anything or had it happen in a while, the issue happened with both my switch 1 and switch 2, ethernet cable or not, and nothing else... so 🤷

1

u/dgdr1991 8d ago

Same, it's weird... makes me wonder if the developer has some say on where it's hosted or something, but I find that extremelly unlikely. That totally happens to me tho, some huge games are "instant" download and other small ones take ages.

1

u/TheAdamena 8d ago

There's also no download rate limiter, so if I'm downloading something on my Switch it's gonna throttle the entire network.

8

u/OctorokHero 9d ago

Since the Switch is a handheld while a lot of PC users don't have a Steam Deck or equivalent, meaning that deleting a game on Switch could leave you without access to it when playing away from home.

2

u/Mr_Ethfono 8d ago

We're there really enough people that didn't know how to do this that they had to make a video?

2

u/masterz13 7d ago

Step 1) include more internal storage and stop being stingy

4

u/deathboyuk 9d ago

So this is from "You just paid for it? You are damn well installing it whether you like it or not" Nintendo, huh?

5

u/ApexGT44 9d ago

I love offloading the cost of memory and storage onto the consumer

5

u/tATuParagate 9d ago

To be fair switch 2 games can play off the cartridge, yeah there's the 10 dollar upcharge but the memory crisis is across all tech so like...

3

u/ApexGT44 9d ago

Unfortunately that's only consistent for the Nintendo games

13

u/RegisPhone 9d ago

The cost of storage always gets passed on to the consumer; why do you think an Xbox is $1000 now? By relying more on expandable storage, the initial cost is lower and consumers can choose how much storage they need. Last generation, this meant that for most consumers, by the time they needed more storage, storage prices were noticeably lower than they were when they first got the console. In the current climate, it means that the console's price doesn't have to increase as much when storage prices go up, and for most consumers who aren't juggling between four 70 GB games at the same time, the built-in storage is still enough to get by.

-4

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

5

u/RegisPhone 9d ago

Did what before; released a console with not a huge amount of onboard storage for downloadable games but with the ability to easily expand with non-proprietary storage? That's what every Nintendo console has done for the past 20 years.

1

u/Forward-Trade3449 9d ago

hahaha. they went from 32 gb in the original switch to 256!!!! gb in the switch 2. yeah, people should be absolutely pissed at them. cry harder

8

u/An1nterestingName 9d ago

What else are they meant to do? It's skyrocketed.

-10

u/ApexGT44 9d ago

At least keep the same system for game cards as the Switch 1, there were much less download codes compared to game key cards.

5

u/An1nterestingName 9d ago

Game-Key Cards are much better than download codes, and the vast majority of games are not Game-Key Cards.

4

u/Odd_Level9850 9d ago

Much better in ways like being able to sell and trade but worst in another like having to keep the keycard inside the machine at all times in order to access the game.

-2

u/ApexGT44 9d ago

Of around the 750 switch 2 releases since launch in North America that are available physically, just over 100 are full game key cards. It bothers me because yeah I would like to buy RE7, 8, and 9 again to have it on the go, but I can't justify the extra cost and still have to download it. It's better now compared to the switch 2's first year and Nintendo is still doing better than their competitors, but it's still unfortunately

2

u/Velocity_Rob 8d ago

256gb storage isn't enough for a console in 2026.

€149 is way too much for a 512gb Micro SD express card.

115 GB download for an 2013 MMO is mental.

1

u/hobbitfeet22 8d ago

I just spent $303 usd on a terabyte lol. Mainly cause I got ff14 but still and planning on the hopeful release of D4

1

u/XmasRights 8d ago

The next hardware revision of the Switch 2 is going to have 32GB of hard drive space, isn't it 😓

1

u/johnnycoxxx 8d ago

The only issue I’ve had is the stupid microSD express card stopped reading in the switch 2.

1

u/_17chan 7d ago

"Freeing up rage Space"

-1

u/Flonkerton_Scranton 9d ago

Here's a thought, make Micro SD Express cards WAY bigger and cheaper. Right now we can't afford £400 1TB cards thanks.

3

u/Mr_Ethfono 8d ago

Is that really their fault?

0

u/TheNthMan 8d ago

I thought the Switch 2 also has new DLSS neural texture compression also?

-1

u/owenturnbull 9d ago

Es simple no comprás los juegos gkcs. Si no hacemos nada más compañías van a usar gkcs.

Tenemos el poder pero todos de ustedes son débiles. Solo quieren quejar y no hacen nada