Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Cool. Another indie teased for Switch.

SD cards and USB drives have dropped in price by a lot, so Switch's cartridges can too.

Also, from what I hear/read, Blu Ray is very slow.

@TheLZdragon What kind of differences are we talking about in storage between blu-ray and cartridge? I mean, blu-ray can far easily store a lot more, right?

Blu-ray is slow, but their production costs are negligible. Great for distributing data, the only downside is that for games you (probably) need to install the files on an internal flash or HDD. But that's fine for home consoles where storage is pretty cheap. Cards work best for handhelds where the price of storage is more expensive, with cards you don't have to install the game. On top of that, a card slot is way smaller than a disc drive. The downside of cards is that they're more expensive to manufacture, and the bigger the size of the internal storage, the more expensive they are.

@Octane I'm guessing that is what constitutes the Switch "tax" we see at times?

@UmniKnight The different Switch cartridge sizes are: 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB.

There's been a few games that have been announced with the Switch tax. Rime is the one that immediately springs to mind. The game is €5 more expensive than other platforms and it's not a big game either. On PS4 it was 4.2GB. Now you'd think on Switch with optimisation they could get it to fit on a 4GB cart. They have 6 months more to work on it than other platforms. There's so much we don't know. What's the cost of each respective cartridge size? Big 3rd party studios can probably absorb the cost of bigger cartridges, plus they may have bigger orders, further reducing the price. Whereas small indie developers can't take the hit and pass it onto the consumer.

@UmniKnight Yes and no. The ''Switch tax'' as you call it mainly applies to smaller games. A €20 on PC/PS4/Xbox One vs the same game on Switch for €30 for example. That's mainly due to smaller print runs. A smaller (often indie) game won't have the same reach as a first party Nintendo game or a big multiplat, so they can't expect to sell millions. They need to order the cards through Nintendo, and the more you buy, the cheaper they are. So let's say an indie company wants to print their game for Switch, they're looking at a small print run, but the price per card will be more expensive then what a company like EA would be paying per card, since they would order those cards in bulk (assuming they have multiple games lined up for the Switch).

The other issue is that the bigger the cards are, the more expensive they are. I don't think this is an issue for the aforementioned indie games. This is something the bigger companies have to deal with (since they are more likely to make bigger games). I'm not exactly sure how NBA2K18 handles it, but a workaround could be to ship the games on a smaller card and require the customer to download a huge patch. Effectively moving the costs of storage onto the customer. I hope that won't happen too often, because it means we're spending more on storage space. That kinda defeats the purpose of going all physical. On top of that, I've also heard the biggest cards are 32GB, plenty of games these days are bigger than that.

Of course, another option is to optimise your games and reduce the file size. Nintendo is probably the only company in the industry that does this for all their games. Their games (read: file size) are incredibly small as a result. But that takes time and resources... So yeah, don't expect every company to do this.

Even their most massive games are tiny in comparison. I wonder if developers go overboard with the size.

OXENFREE UNWITTINGLY OPENS A GHOSTLY RIFT ON NINTENDO SWITCH

http://www.nintendo-insider.com/oxenfree-unwittingly-opens-a-...

OXENFREE: LAUNCH TRAILER

Due for release in October.

@Octane

That's what I was figuring. It just seems amazing to me. I.mean, that's a Pro Patched version so you'd think the Switch version would be smaller but even then 41gb (16 card+25 internal memory) seems crazy to me.

Playing Mario + Rabbids (just beat World 1), Splatoon 2 (made it all the way to King in the Splatfest), and Monster Hunter XX (high rank hub quests online) and it's insane trying to juggle these 3 games at once. Going to get even worse with Metroid Samus Returns and Monster Hunter Stories in a couple weeks.

Think I may schedule time off for Super Mario Odyssey. And, if I knew the release date, Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Those are the last two games that I'm really excited for this year. I mean, of course there's others (Fire Emblem Warriors, Skyrim, Rocket League, DB Xenoverse, FIFA 18, NBA 2k18, Nights of Azure 2) but I don't think I would want to burn vacation for any of those. But these are the games I'll for sure be taking time off to play

Oct Mario Odyssey
Dec Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Mar '18 MH World
Aug '18 (I hope) Fire Emblem
2019 Metroid Prime 4

@Octane
That's the most logical explanation I've heard yet. I've chalked it up to the price of doing business on the platform. Nobody likes to see a premium but, honestly I'd rather pay the extra bit of money for games I want on the platform, if that's what it takes. Kinda like VR- small userbase and high expectations for production values among Sony fans means 1 hr games sold for $20, or multiplayer only games sold for $60. It kinda sucks but, I'm OK paying that money if that's what it takes to get games for the platform. For others... I guess you can always wait for a price drop (saw a ton of PSVR games for $7.99 on sale, for the people who can handle waiting).

@MegaTen Agreed on Danganronpa. A collection similar to the Japanese release would be nice (1 and 2 were together). I'm not sure if I'd double dip though. I have 1 and 2 on PC as well as vita (for vita tv and portability) but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the games released. Although if they want to talk vanillaware into porting their back catalog (plus the vita version of muramasa) I wouldn't be upset about that.

@TheLZdragon

I think it's just, I wouldn't say laziness, it's just not expected of some Devs. Or if they're under time pressure from their publishers a it's the last thing on the priority list and if it falls off the end well so what? To use the example of NBA 2K17 on the PS4, it's bigger than a Blu-ray disc can hold. Likewise DOOM 2016 with all its updates on XB1 is over 70 gig. Its as if when portions of the game are updated it just all gets left in.

They may have to reconsider that with Switch games though. There's no way Nintendo could have used optical media anyway but if not optimising means getting hit with higher cartridge costs it may become a more pressing concern for Devs and pubs alike.

@Octane So basically, they'll only go for a 32 MB cartridge if they have a good estimate of selling enough to warrant it? I wonder if we'll see some big games in time then, when confidence in the Switch mounts and more games appear.

@Ryu_Niiyama It would be fantastic if the next DR launched on PS4/Switch instead of PS4/Vita. HD visuals without sacrificing portability. I was hoping V3 would be a Switch game, but for now that doesn't seem to be the case.

Oh well. I guess it's okay for V3 to be the Vita's swansong (for me, anyway).

@JaxonH Well, indeed, I guess it is what it is. I'm not that loyal to any platform, so I can always buy an indie game on Steam or PS4 if it's cheaper over there. That's what I've been doing for the past few years anyway.

@UmniKnight No, no, those are two separate things. The print run and the storage space. The issue for games with a smaller print run (let's say between 10,000 and 100,000 for example) is that the cards are more expensive in smaller quantities, therefore we see a lot of indie games with the so-called ''Switch tax''.

The issue for bigger games is that the bigger game cards are more expensive (just like how a 64GB SD card is more expensive than a 32GB SD card), and companies don't like the extra costs. Nintendo circumvents this problem by reducing the file size of their games, but note that takes time and resources, and therefore money.

I don't think any publisher has purposely gone for a smaller card and offered the rest as a patch. The issue with NBA 2K18 is that 32GB is the biggest Switch card currently available. They can't put their game on a bigger card, because it doesn't exist (yet).

Can ANY micro sd card work with switch or specific ones? I'm looking to get the Samsung EVO 256gb. That should work right? Have to make this happen big purchases coming up. Pretty excited!

@Qwertyninty Yes. Any Micro SD card will work. Doesn't matter which. Hope that helps.

@Octane
For me loyalty has zilch to do with it. In the Wii U gen I bought all games on PS4.

But now, I want them on Switch. I want them on the hybrid console. I want them on a platform where I have all the benefits of any other console + handheld + portable console with no save transfers needed among them.

It's just worth it

@Yasaal all I needed to know... thanks.