Nintendo reportedly delays 64GB Switch cartridges until 2019

[Shawn Knight]

Nintendo is reportedly delaying the launch of 64GB game cartridges for the Switch until sometime in 2019 according to multiple sources as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Japanese gaming giant originally planned to deliver 64GB cartridges to developers by the second half of 2018. Sources say “technical issues” have pushed the delivery date back to 2019.

The delay reportedly disappointed some software makers, especially US-based publishers known for producing data-heavy games. Some publishers may even postpone the launch of their games on the Switch in order to have access to the larger cartridges.

Nintendo currently offers cartridges in capacities of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. The handheld itself only has 32GB of internal storage although some of that space is reserved for system software.

Cartridges are typically viewed as being more durable than optical discs and afford faster load times but they’re also more expensive to manufacture and offer limited capacities (compared to discs).

Nintendo’s Switch got off to a promising start. The handheld console launched in March but was plagued by inventory issues for much of the year. Nevertheless, Nintendo managed to sell more than 10 million units as of early December (that figure is likely a bit higher today given holiday sales).

At this rate, it’s entirely possible that Nintendo will sell more Switch consoles in its first year than it did Wii U systems across its entire five-year run.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/72472-nintendo-reportedly-delays-64gb-switch-cartridges-until-2019.html

 

[Trillionsin]

Already there are publishers who are too cheap to use 32gb cartridges so they use 16gb ones then make you download the second half the game. hope this doesnt become a norm.

Is it really a big deal though. I wouldnt mind that if they didnt delay their games because of the cartridges. I don't see it as a big deal... I have a 256GB micro SD card in mine.... for a whole whopping 3 games. lol Maybe when their game selection has grown, but for now there's only a handful of games that are actually decent. (coming from an adult) I'm sure there's more options for the kids, so I'm not referring to those.

For the time being, it seems that Mario Odyssey and Zelda BOTW are going to keep me pretty occupied in my gaming for awhile. Well, more like Zelda, I've almost already beat Mario Odyssey.

 

[Trillionsin]

for me the biggest issue is that a point of having a physical library - to sort of keep a collection of games that you have access to long after the switch eshop will go offline - is no longer applicable. Multiplayer games offend me less, but things like LA noire will require internet and the nintendo servers to remain up so it wont be archiveable.

Okay I think I see you point, however, an entirely different point.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

How can they be having technical issues when 64GB micro SD cards have been a thing for years, and 256GB cards are commonly available? nintendo, file-systems are not that hard to make in 2017....

 

[ForgottenLegion]

How can they be having technical issues when 64GB micro SD cards have been a thing for years, and 256GB cards are commonly available? nintendo, file-systems are not that hard to make in 2017....

But this is Nintendo. They don't follow industry norms and do things like everyone else.
Just look at their online infrastructure, it's 12-15 years behind the competition and arguably worse than what the 360 had at launch.

 

[Burty117]

How can they be having technical issues when 64GB micro SD cards have been a thing for years, and 256GB cards are commonly available? nintendo, file-systems are not that hard to make in 2017....

I got my girlfriend a Switch for Christmas, very impressed with it. Something I noticed though are the cartridges.

They do seem to be a special spec Nintendo have cooked up (could be UHS-2 as that is nearly 3x the speed of normal UHS-1 MicroSD cards we all use) I wonder though, if it is their own spec, they would need to get a NAND chip manufacturer to produce the chips that perform fast enough, in bulk and for a decent price.

They said it was due to a "Technical Issue" but personally, I bet it's the latter of prices being too high since NAND flash is in such high demand at the moment.