Topic: Expanded Game cards are coming

The rumors about the 64 Gb cards say it it is hitting towards the end of 2020. So hopefully we will have more physical releases and less digital downloads for bigger games.

I don't see that happen as a higher game cart means more money for game complains to spend on them. We have 32gb cards out and game companies will still use the the lower ones and make players download the rest of the game through downloads.

It depend on the developers.
There are some cheapskate developers choose under capacity card just for saving production cost.
They can choose 4 GB card for a 8 GB game, left the customer download the rest. 😒

The higher capacity will just drive up the price of the game, and therefore doubt many people will bother using them. So it will not make more physicals.

In the short term not many will use it. But when the price comes down in a few years, we will get a lot of physical special edition re-releases and collections. This happened with GBA toward the end of it's life cycle.

I can't see third party publishers being eager to use the 64GB cartridge. The 64GB cartridge will be used primarily by Nintendo themselves for the scant first party retail releases that need the space. Aside from Square-Enix and CDProjektRed, most publishers loathe even 32GB cartridge production costs eating into profits. And it's fair to assume the 64GB cartridge production cost is about twice as much as a 32GB cartridge.

How willing would you be to spend $70 on a third party Switch release you could get for $60 on PS4?

@Magician
Yes most of us definitely would. Not everyone has two or three other consoles.

Nintendo may use them. Capcom and Ubisoft won't care and still put their games on the cheapest/smallest cart and make us download the rest still.

Yeah, since most publishers today don’t even want to pay for the 32GB cards, I really doubt we’ll see many games using 64GB ones.

@Illusion
They also don't warn consumers either. I bought the Assassins Creed Rebel collection thinking both were on the cart since nowhere on the box did it say otherwise. To me if you are going to sell a "physical" game you would put it all on cart and charge a little extra over the digital price. It defeats the entire purpose of buying physical if you have to sacrifice precious storage space and not being able to play out of the box.

@GameOtaku : In cases like that, you ought to take it back to the store and cite false advertising, because that is simply unacceptable.

It's because publishers can get away with it that they don't bother to have the decency to even disclose the fact that the complete package isn't on the cartridge anymore.

If nobody complains, anti-consumer practices will persist, and they will get worse as time goes on to the detriment of all customers.

This sort of practice was unthinkable last generation with the 3DS and Wii U. Why are we allowing them to get away with it now?

@Silly_G
People have complained but they are obviously not listening at all to their consumers.

@Anti-Matter Or maybe these cards are just very expensive and Nintendo should absorb some of the costs. After all, they decided to go with these cards and they are the ones producing them.

@GameOtaku : Few are complaining, but many acquiesce anyway, unfortunately. Worse is when the stupidest of consumers make excuses in defence of their anti-consumer practices which benefits no-one except the publishers.

If people want to download their games, all the power to them, that's what the eShop is for.

@Galenmereth Oh I know the prices will drop on the components. Even if Nintendo does lower the cost also, that doesn't mean companies won't pick the lower cost.

Though I could be mistaken, wasn't it DOOM that had the SP on the cart and the multiplayer part had to be downloaded. If it is the right game I am thinking of then this is the correct way to do it if you were going to have to download portions of the game as if the servers go down you can atleast enjoy the SP part.

@SilentHunter382
Doom has it right. If they had the multiplayer bit as an optional download instead of being part of the patch would've been better. Or companies could have multiple carts in one box (ex mega man legacy 1+2 instead of a cart and a code, 2 carts).

They are not really saving very much by being so cheap. Maybe a savings of what 20 cents or so?

This is the key thing here. I doubt any company is going to rush to put their games on the pricier 64 gb cards yet, but this will drive the price of 32 and 16 gb cards down, which could mean less day one downloading for users. Could even mean we save some money on the smaller games, although honestly companies hardly ever pass their savings on to us.