Nintendo Switch Game Save Data Tied to One System, Nintendo Confirms

S

Steiner

Banned
Game saves are tied to the system memory, not your micro SD card, so you can't transfer game saves from one Nintendo Switch to another. A Nintendo rep confirmed this to Polygon.

Unfortunately for me, Nintendo's PR was unresponsive and didn't get my website a Switch to cover in-studio and for my Breath of the Wild review. This meant that one of our remote writers had to send in his Switch (that he got after requesting a Wii U version of BotW), and I spent 30 hours reviewing the game on his unit.

Well I took out my SD card which I knew had some Zelda data on it, and shipped his Switch back. Today I bought my own Switch and a copy of the game (thanks Nintendo), and now I'll have to start all over again. You've been warned.

Let my rage consume me if old.
 
I swear it's stupid small things that Nintendo does that pisses people off. Like it has to bw super simple to tie the saves to a SD card, why do it so ass backwards.
 
Nintendo not letting you switch game saves from one console to another?

Why not have space for game saves to be put on the cartridge itself? Possibly files too large to do this?
 
This was known already. Not great or anything, but is not like it was a huge secret. Sucks and whenever cloud saving comes, hopefully will make things better.
 
EDarkness said:
Personally, i don't see anything wrong with this.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't have a problem with the inability of being able to transfer your saves to a new unit or to the, more than lilely, major hardware revision? Or even if personally, you won't ever will need such a feature, how much it would suck for other people or how much of a silly decision this is?
 
This really doesn't make sense, considering the ability to back up saves off system storage exists already in other Nintendo OSes.
 
I assume they upload to the cloud though? Can't you then just download them again over the network on another Switch when you sign in? Otherwise what happens if your Switch breaks or you lose it?
 
just look at other threads where people are 10 -20 hours into zelda and other games but are just discovering problems with their switch

if they get a replacement all those saves will be useless
 
EDarkness said:
Personally, i don't see anything wrong with this.
Click to expand...

For the most part I rarely ever switch saves over. Even in the Gamecube days I kept pretty much the same two memory cards in the system. Even PS1 and PS2. But not being able to is stupid. If my Switch breaks I can't play my save while it's being fixed? Or bring whatever save to a friends? Just kind of annoying.
 
This leads to believe cloud saves for their paid service will be a thing. It just sucks ass that Nintendo gives a typical PR response, instead of stating that it will be changed later on, if soon.
 
timberger said:
What's the point of doing something like this? How do Nintendo benefit in any way from locking saves to one system?
Click to expand...
It makes homebrew harder. But it does so by fucking over all of their other customers and as far as I'm concerned it's completely indefensible.
 
Could you backup the data you put on an external Wii U hard drive on a PC?

So let's say something happens to console or you hard drive could you then take that data you put on PC and put it back on a hard drive and use it on Wii U?
 
Yeah, if cloud saves are a thing it's going to be a godsend.
Still better shape than WiiU at launch...
 
They should at least allow it to save it on your account online, its stupid if your console breaks, you just lose all of your save data. And it being portable raises the chance of people making accidents too, so one more reason for them to allow save transfer to another console.
 
Nintendo's so ass-backwards with the quality of life features, it's just insane at this point in time
 
No cloud saves? Nintendo are stuck in the GameCube generation.

Every time I start feeling like I want this thing I find another reason not to.
 
EDarkness said:
Personally, i don't see anything wrong with this.
Click to expand...

lol.

That means you can't transfer your saves a another Switch if you, say, upgrades to the newer model, get your Switch damaged/broken and must replace it, or if you just wants to have a back up (in case you lose it) or use your save on another Switch.
 
SatoAilDarko said:
Could you backup the data you put on an external Wii U hard drive on a PC?

So let's say something happens to console or you hard drive could you then take that data you put on PC and put it back on a hard drive and use it on Wii U?
Click to expand...
No, the Wii U uses a custom HDD format so you can only ever use them on the one Wii U without reformatting them and they can't be read by a PC

ColdPizza said:
How is this different from a PS4? They should offer it in their paid online service.
Click to expand...
Sony don't have a history of refusing to fix this sort of problem. There's still no way to get saves off of a Wii U.
 
This is a weird decision but it sounds like something that will get patched in later on. Just like browser, netflix, themes, blah blah etc.
 
Yeah, I covered a lot of this here.

Essentially, where a game is saved, the saved data will also go. Physical games save to internal memory. MicroSD card downloaded games put their saves on the microSD as far as I can tell.

There's no way to move data between the two. There's no way to move data off of the Switch itself.

ColdPizza said:
How is this different from a PS4? They should offer it in their paid online service.
Click to expand...
Copy-to-USB-Confirm.png
Click to expand...
You can back up PS4, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS data to a seperate drive.
 
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