WSJ reporter : Standard capacity of Switch game card is around 16GB
- Thread starter Chobel
- Start date
LordRaptor
Member
AFAIK the WiiU only supported LPCM - ie uncompressed - audio so you're back to filesizes being bigger than they necessarily needed to be.
so for higher capacity cards, is that cost passed onto the consumer?
Not that it matters, most games wont likely even go over 32GB at max, since the games are not being pushed to such a level.
I just hope they use real time cutscenes a lot and skip on the FMV
Not that it matters, most games wont likely even go over 32GB at max, since the games are not being pushed to such a level.
I just hope they use real time cutscenes a lot and skip on the FMV
It wasn't on 3DS, no reason to think it will on Switch.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
I don't understand. How is it possible for any computer to simply not support compressed audio? It's just another computation.
Patrick Young
Member
For the sake of porting, third parties won't be too fond of that.
SinCityAssassin
Member
No. A similar example would probably be amiibo if we're talking a manufacturing standpoint where more simplistic amiibo cost less than detailed human shaped ones despite all of them costing the same.
shouamabane
Member
Where are you getting "two years" from?
i see. I never owned a 3DS so i would not know. I'll be jumping headfirst into the Switch even after being burned with the Wii U so i hope its good
Right. Capcom did try to pass the buck onto customers with RE:R1 when it was originally priced at $50 as a consequence of it being the first game on a 4GB card, but they quickly recanted. 4GB cards are still not common on the 3DS at all, but none of the games on one have been priced past $40.
Dark Cloud
Member
Why is Bethesda doing it then? Out of all the companies Bethesda has like never supported Nintendo in the history of video games and now they're doing it.
Nintendo can cut deals or help third party devs in some way.
perfectchaos007
Member
I don't think they'll be able to fit a graphically enhanced BotW on 16 gigs. Fortunately, it sounds like 16 gig cards will be used for the shovelware/party games. card technology has gotten pretty advanced these days. It blows my mind that you can now buy a 2 terabyte MICRO SD card.
Yet battery tech still remains dormant and can only give the device a 3 hour charge smh
Yet battery tech still remains dormant and can only give the device a 3 hour charge smh
Cow Mengde
Banned
And you assume prices for memory won't go down like it's always been because...?
Akhe
Member
Added to OP.
I will repost for future reference because I KNOW there will be someone who won't read the OP.
Edit: Too late.
tearsintherain
Member
The cynical person would say they found out the timing of the Switch announcement just happened to be a week before the remaster launches for ps4 and xbox one. A ton of free publicity will undoubtedly drive new sales for the remasters.
A 5 year old game wouldn't take much effort to port, especially since Bethesda has said they experimented a lot with Skyrim porting during the Fallout 4 production period to get a feel for ps4/xbox one platform, plus they have spent the past year remastering it.
capitalCORN
Member
Luxe Nintendo is best Nintendo!
OrbitalBeard
Member
Maybe, but based on how it was handled on DS and 3DS, it's doubtful.
perfectchaos007
Member
But they aren't forcing devs to use 16gb cards. They can use whatever size they want BUT 16gb cards would be more cost effective than 32gb cards if they can compress their game on it
-shadow-
Member
It can technically otherwise YouTube wouldn't work, it just doesn't output it with any compression. It outputs 5.1 completely uncompressed at any time. That's also the reason why many can't have surround sound on the WiiU because an optical cable simply can't carry the signal.
LordRaptor
Member
Sure, if somebody wanted to make, I dunno, a WiiU MP3 player or something they could roll their own solution, but AFAIK theres no hardware in the WiiU that would natively handle that or any APIs that support it.
I'll freely admit to not being particularly knowledgeable regarding the WiiUs hardware capabilities.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Nintendo stopped supporting Dolby years ago and won't come back, and you're confused. Audio can be compressed without using proprietary codecs. LPCM is an option for other consoles and is just an output setting, not the degree of compression. Very few Nintendo releases had high quality audio on Wii U.
Also, XCX and Lego City Undercover are just huge games period that are now above the recommended size.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Probably patterns of size increase on previous generations of cart/card machines.
You can't yet, but give it a few years.perfectchaos007 said:
StoppedInTracks
Member
Under 16GB is perfect for PS360 ports. As for PS4/Xbone ports... yeah. No.
This is a great escape clause for all 3rd parties, actually:
"Look, Nintendo, we really wanted to port RDR2/ GTA6/ COD12/ AssCreed26 to your powerful (mindread: underpowered, X1 Tegra-based, RAM-starved) console but GUESS WHAT?!? It just doesn't fit onto your cardridge!"
It paints a bleak picture when average size of PS4/XBone games gets close and closer to 50GB.
This is a great escape clause for all 3rd parties, actually:
"Look, Nintendo, we really wanted to port RDR2/ GTA6/ COD12/ AssCreed26 to your powerful (mindread: underpowered, X1 Tegra-based, RAM-starved) console but GUESS WHAT?!? It just doesn't fit onto your cardridge!"
It paints a bleak picture when average size of PS4/XBone games gets close and closer to 50GB.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
No. I def know they'll go down and as prcies fall and in a few years 32GB will be the average. The economics will keep pressure to stay around those standards. This could all happen quicker as well.
LordRaptor
Member
You're confusing quality with compression.
You can't compress audio without a codec (or compression algorithm) but you can reduce its quality and resultant filesize.
This is the smallest size. They can go bigger.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Not the smallest size most likely. That would make no financial sense.
And they can go higher but it will cost more.
CarbonFire
Member
And then give it a few more years after that for the cards to be anything other than obscenely expensive. Right around the time for Switch 2.
Rushersauce
Banned
It's like you don't even read the thread
Visualante2
Member
£65 games are coming back. It's N64 all over again.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Game media size is the one technical aspect with which Switch will have the least problem matching and surpassing the other consoles.
EDIT: Well, I guess based on what others have said the CPU might be higher on the list.
Insane Metal
Member
Another bad news for the Switch. Meh.
Pretty much every switch thread has lots of people on the defensive side, no matter how bad the news is. I'm not surprised in the least. 3h battery life is ok, 720p screen is ok, 16GB is ok... it's all good.
Gamezone
Gold Member
What am I missing? A traditional 50 GB disc is hardly enough for XBO and PS4 games.
Dev cycles, business plans, rough guess.
Rushersauce
Banned
You are one of those who are shitting on every single Switch thread. And worst of all, you Haven't even read the thread.
Just stop shitposting.
SinCityAssassin
Member
They gave him his tag for a reason.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Someone linked earlier in the thread to this list of PS4 install space requirements. Definitely there are some big games there, but the majority are still under 16 GB, and there are more in the 16-32 range than in 32+.
Insane Metal
Member
...
Are you a mod?
...
So not liking the Switch = shitposting?
Ok.
Hm. That actually makes sense.
I swear, it's like some of you are trolling. There's zero bad news here :
- It's not the maximum size. Multiple cartridges will exist, from at least 16gb to whatever they want (I doubt someone would need more than a 128gb cart tho). It's something Nintendo has ALWAYS done in the past, you don't even need to look that far in the past since even the 3DS had multiple cartridges size.
- It is not a factor that could impact third party at all. If their games can fit in a 16gb, fine, if they cannot, they just would have to put it in a bigger card. There's no black magic or complicated stuff, and it's nothing stranger from the past. Again, a lot of third party did that on DS/3DS.
- It likely won't change anything to cost. The vast majority of games will be under 64gb (I would even say under 32gb), I don't think Nintendo will ever have to order 128g cards. Flash memory is extremely cheap (do not look at price online, they don't reflect the actual price Nintendo has to pay).
DS and 3DS had multiple cartridges with different size, 3DS games can go up to 8GB, but there's no actual difference between the price of a 256MB 3DS game and a 8GB one.
- It's not the maximum size. Multiple cartridges will exist, from at least 16gb to whatever they want (I doubt someone would need more than a 128gb cart tho). It's something Nintendo has ALWAYS done in the past, you don't even need to look that far in the past since even the 3DS had multiple cartridges size.
- It is not a factor that could impact third party at all. If their games can fit in a 16gb, fine, if they cannot, they just would have to put it in a bigger card. There's no black magic or complicated stuff, and it's nothing stranger from the past. Again, a lot of third party did that on DS/3DS.
- It likely won't change anything to cost. The vast majority of games will be under 64gb (I would even say under 32gb), I don't think Nintendo will ever have to order 128g cards. Flash memory is extremely cheap (do not look at price online, they don't reflect the actual price Nintendo has to pay).
DS and 3DS had multiple cartridges with different size, 3DS games can go up to 8GB, but there's no actual difference between the price of a 256MB 3DS game and a 8GB one.
OrbitalBeard
Member
How is it bad news?
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
Actually I might have jumped the gun on that correction lol, that was the file download size, the full install size looks to be closer to 20 gigs
Rushersauce
Banned
Instead of "Hur Hur bad news 16gb", you should fact check by reading the thread. Or just not posting at all.
Skittzo0413
Member
Not bothering to read the many, many posts in this thread pointing out that your initial assumption is wrong = shitposting
Actually I might have jumped the gun on that correction lol, that was the file download size, the full install size looks to be closer to 20 gigs
Yeah I thought that was weird Bethesda would actually put care in optimizing one of their games
Gamezone
Gold Member
Isn't almost every open world game these days close to 50 GB? Return to Arkham and Bioshock Collection had to use two 50 GB discs.