We've had a number of enquiries about how many SD card blocks are required for upcoming release Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which is of little surprise as the daily commitment that the game demands is perfectly suited to a download. Intriguingly, the results vary slightly depending on region.
Our man in North America, Jon Wahlgren, has been playing in order to post his dispatches as Mayor of Trash, and reports a block size bang on 6,000 blocks. Our Editor Damien McFerran has the UK download, and reports a size of 6,336 blocks, with the extra memory perhaps accommodating localisation content such as translated text or region specific items. Either way, that's only just over a third of the beastly block size of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, with the slightly larger UK version equating to roughly 0.77GB; it's a decent chunk out of the bundled 2GB SD card in a standard 3DS, but not too horrific.
So there you go, a hefty download without being too damaging. Let us know whether you plan to download this title when it lands, or whether you're kicking it old-school with the boxed retail version.
Comments 97
I'm downloading! Normally I hate downloading games because I feel like I don't "own" them, but my wife is getting the physical copy so I still have a box and manual to look at. Animal Crossing is something I'll be playing EVERY DAY, and when Pokémon comes out I won't want to swap carts.
I'm going digital, if only due to the "So Many Games" promotion.
I'm downloading. I've got a big enough SD Card.
I just upgraded to a 32GB card with 2.12 GB already taken up - I am very hesitant on downloading these big titles, but Animal Crossing may draw me in with the midnight release and it seems like a game I'd like to always have on me - this is my first Animal Crossing so I hope I don't regret it - as I won't be able to trade it in ...
I usually buy retail versions of games whenever possible, since I love having physical copies to display on my shelves, but yeah, having this one as a download makes sense - so I chose it as my free 'So Many Games' game!
Not a problem! This is the ideal game to download,
@Bisylizzie Likewise. Also I made sure I was prepared last year with a fantastically priced 32GB SD Card.
@SpaceKappa - Do you think Pokemon X/Y will be an eShop release?
@Hunter-D Yeah, I got a 32GB SD card last year too. xD Still got most of it open, even with my overflow of music I can't fit on my (teeny) iPod.
Too cheap to get SD card....guess I'm getting retail.
@tchaten Yes but that's a game I want as a cartridge.
I've put a 16GB card in my 3ds, so it won't be a problem
Gotcha - curious if they'll do any cool things for buying both X/Y a bundle discount on eShop perhaps - not sure - they could even share part of the download file to reduce size of having both ...
What luck that i bought my new 32gig card a few weeks ago
Digital - so many games promotion ..
I was going to download it but then I need it for the Animal Crossing collection that I will hopefully build up with the previous 3 instalments I have right now. Hope I get a Japanese N64 and Animal Forest too...
Is that Majora's Mask I see in the screenshots! How is that integrated into AC?
that's shocking because Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity was like the same amount these games really suck up all of my blocks on my sdcard
or I'll just buy the retail copy....
Going digital thanks to the So Many Games! Promotion.
I actually upgraded to an 8GB SD card for this, and I have well more than enough!
Also: Those of us getting this free, codes will be uploaded to the Club Nintendo account pages at midnight of release.
Got over 120,000 blocks left, I'm good.
I'm still over 130k even AFTER DKCR3D!
not 16 even though i register the three games
I'm buying it in the old-fashioned box. Once I have bought a good amount of games, I'm going to display the boxes in alphabetical order on my shelf with pride and satisfaction. (I'm one of those alphabetical nuts.)
32 GB cards are cheap these days. Anyone who plans to get digital content like this ought to pick one up.
Wasn't FE:A like 8000+ 6000s not too bad!
Fortunately, I swapped out my stock 3DSXL SD card for one that has double the capacity. I think I'm good.
♫ Let's get physical, phy-si-caaaal ♫
I'm getting a 16 GB SDHC Card so I can download MH3U, might get this as well....but I doubt I will ever download games on to the 3DS unless they are download only, getting the physical cartridge tends to be cheaper, often quite significantly so, which I think is good.
It's great than Nintendo are embracing digital downloads, but still price them higher than you can buy in stores or other retailers.
Gonna have to upgrade my 16GB SD Card soon enough, only have 28,000 blocks left (but I do have 4 retail downloads, 30+ VC games, 15 download only games, and dozens of demos/videos.) Still, bring on downloadable Animal Crossing!
@NintendoGirl there's more of us? I thought I was alone! We should start a club! And then alphabetize ourselves!
@ShadJV Woo! Another alphabetizer! (I even put my brother's stuff in alphabetical order because he could care less.)
Love the digital, even if the prices are the same as the physical copies I feel like more of my money is actually going to Nintendo, rather than gamestop or wherever I buy physicals from.
Get a 32GB SDHC card, u can get a rilly nice one for $20 or less, so worth it, I have over 200,000 blocks on my card!!
How big a card can the 3DS take? I have a 32 in there now, but downloading retail scale games still eat space. On that note, Nintendo really needs to become more digital owner friendly. This tied to the system thing is outdated as hell.
@SuperSah what do you mean ? They'll send the codes at midnight ?
@nathatruc No, the email they send usually comes a day after.
However, at midnight, the codes are automatically posted on a banner on your Club Nintendo account. Looks like this:
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3213/screenshot20130605at255.png
This is my friends page, mind you. This is true because NeoGAF got their DKCR3D codes at midnight too.
I have an 8GB card so no problem with downloading this but with other games I have on there it'll be pretty full afterwards so I'll be picking up a 32GB card soon.
( I only wish I could do the same for my Vita,CURSE YOU EXPENSIVE SONY MEMORY!!!)
@SuperSah This is great news thank you very much for letting me know I was worried it would take a while for the code to appear.. but i'm glad it appears on launch night!
I am downloading it, I got my son to buy the Pop Tart since I just got the Pikachu, and my other son is buying the hard copy so eventually I will own the Pop Tart, he knows I will be stealing it!! LOL I cannot wait!! 3 more days!!
@manic221 That's okay. :3 Just expect a massive server crash! xD
@SuperSah Haha yeah hopefully not if not everyone knows about this way of collecting the code... Also i'm not sure how many people chose Animal Crossing for their game but i imagine quite a lot...
Personally i find it crazy they're offering animal crossing as part of this deal... Considering how big it's been in japan but hey i ain't complaining
Had to swap from the 2gb to a 4gb when I downloaded Donkey Kong, but now I've got a 16gb coming in the mail. Even if nearly every game from now on was as big as DK I'd still be good for a good long while. It was only like $13 on Amazon, too!
@DerpSandwich Yeah i promoted my spare camera SD card to my 3DS SD card Only 16gb but it should last a fair while before it needs upgrading again... Lucky changing SD cards on 3DS is really simple which is nice
@manic221 Yeah, knowing Nintendo I'm kind of surprised moving data between SD cards doesn't require two 3DS systems, a connection to the internet, and an ordained minister. XD
@DerpSandwich haha yeah
@manic221 too many people on NeoGaf knows about the AC code.
It's gonna be hell a lot of people..
@SuperSah Well i never go on Neogaf.. Again still don't know how many people are actually getting it free. But we'll see Nintendo's servers should be able to handle it. They're pretty beefy they handle NDirects with ease... Never once had their site lock up on me when watching NDirect and a lot of people watch those.
That amount of blocks seems reasonable to me. I plan to buy a physical copy of this game regardless though.
I will get the physical game, as always.
The digital release is tempting, since it's Animal Crossing & all... But I just can't bring myself to download a retail game unless I can get it for free.
32GB SD card with 179,158 blocks remaining, I think I'm more then prepared
@manic221 how is the code collected from NeoGaf?
@tchaten It's not from NeoGaf you can get it from your Account page from Nintendo on the 14th... he was just saying that a lot of people from Neogaf already know about it and here reckons Nintendo's servers will probably crash when people go to collect their code for Animal Crossing.
@manic221 Oh okay - the code for people in UK as a part of the so many games promotion?
@tchaten Yeah I'm getting it free
Nice I got Super Mario 3D Land for free with the USA promotion for buying a new 3DS XL - really wish we had the UK promotion here too.
I have 227000 blocks left. No problem downloading it for me. I wonder if I can camp at McDonald and use their NintendoZone to do it.
@SuperSah thanks for the info, you made my day
@nathatruc You're very welcome!
I'd hate for people to be waiting for the email when I know the easier route.
Definitely downloading. That's why I got a 32 GB SDHC card
It's just one of those games that suited perfectly for downloading to have 24/7
Boxed! I always prefer physical copies when reasonably priced.
6000 blocks my god
oh i will! I have to:/ as this is going to be the free game from nintendo promotion
No sweat off my back.
As with many above me, the 'So many games' promotion has made this an easy digital download. I was very, very tempted to pay full price for a download, but Nintendo made it super easy to choose!!
My 32GB SD STILL hungers
This will no prob for me and will likely be the biggest thing I download to it, if I do.
I'm definitely getting the download. While I usually prefer to have a physical copy that I can lend and resell if I dislike it, Animal Crossing is just the sort of game that I want to be able to check up on without explicitly bringing it along, and- WAIT, IS THAT A MAJORA'S MASK HAT IN THAT IMAGE? YOU CAN WEAR MAJORA'S MASK? Okay that is just plain awesome.
Here in the uk I get a free copy from the buy 3 games and get a free download offer. If I replace my 2 GB card with a bigger one, how do I transfer the games from the 2gb one? Any suggestions please.
I'm getting the download as my free game with the 3 for 4 offer in the UK, according to the free Animal Crossing insert in this months official Nintendo Mag UK the download version is 8,192 blocks for the UK version of AC, can this please be confirmed for Nintendo Life staff to update this news article 😃
All this talk of So Many Games got me excited. Then I found out it was europe only...
@zool all your info you need is here: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/3ds/en_na/ht_settings.jsp?menu=data%20management&submenu=ctr-ht-settings-transfer-data-between-sd
hope it helps?
Fire Emblem (in the US) on a 32 gb card is 8577 and another 577 for DLC. So I guess AC is less than fire Emblem, hopefully it downloads faster too. My cable slow modem took 4 hours for Fire Emblem...
@Triforce83 thank you
Digital for me in the So Many Games promotion. I don't normally download games as I like to own physical games for my collection, and you have more control over your purchase; you can trade it on, sell it or play it in other 3DS consoles than your own. I can see myself buying a physical copy at some point down the line for the collection....
I don't know anyone who has a 3DS. I've never played this series before, and I'm planning on jumping in with this game. Thing is though, I hear people saying that the game is great when you have friends who play this.
Cutting to the chase, is this game equally entertaining when playing by yourself?
Digital for me. I only have a 4GB SD card but I don't really download much.
Most people have large amounts of space on their SD Cards because they ditched the ones that Nintendo packaged with the 3DS Console and bought new ones like me. I can't wait for the release of ACNL!
Physical for me, just in case I need a new 3ds and don't want to start over again.
Physical for me as well but I really need to upgrade from the puny 2GB SD.
Still not as much as Style Savvy! I'm getting this digitally. Thank you, 32GB SD Card!
@bezerker99 music note*No Iii'm gonna go digital.*music note
I never buy digital if there's a retail version available. With that in mind, I pre-ordered from Tesco months ago.
After reading the comments, I feel I have made a huge mistake.
Ah, 6000 blocks is peanuts for me. I still have 144,059 blocks. I'm really surprised this is so much smaller than DKCR3D though (also a fantastic game that I'm enjoying immensely).
@Funny_Moblin Very much so. I've played Wild World and City Folk by myself a lot and have had a blast with both. It's very relaxing by yourself, and there's always plenty to do.
Download! Download! Download! Download! Download! Download! Download!
...wait, why am I downloading it seven times? I only need to download it once.
I will be downloading it when I get my code next Friday. I am ok for space and will be for many years.
Downloading this thanks to the EU games promo. It is perfect for digital since I will play it daily. The 14th can't come any sooner.
@Collision_Cat I bought the digital version of Fire Emblem Awakening. It works out pretty well since I play it quite often. I would still prefer the physical copy of most games because of the large amount of memory it takes up, so I guess it's worth it to download it. Actually, the only reason I downloaded it was because they sold out of physical copies at Game Stop.
I have a problem. When I got my 3DS, I downloaded a ton of things. Unfortunately, I did this all on the crappy 2GB card bundled with it. I downladed Fire Emblem Awakening, & now I have only about 100 blocks left. Is it possible to transfer the data on to a new SD card that has more room? I've already had to delete tons of games I spent money on in order to free up space for Fire Emblem, & I don't want to delete any of the other games I have. Please Help Me!
@Nightstar1623 Copy your SD Card folders to your computer, copy them back onto a new SD Card, insert it in the 3DS, and done. Make sure the card is unlocked at all times or it won't work on either system. Also remember that your files are locked to your 3DS and won't be useable on another 3DS unless you use the File Transfer tool.
@ThetaRobo Thank you!
Without a doubt I'm getting the physical copy, not the download, because I really want to physically own my favourite game.
In my opinion downloading a game is only useful when the game would otherwise be unavailable. But as there are no exclusive Japanese games that are only available in the West by downloading I see no benefit in just licensing a game download as opposed to actually owning the material copy.
Physical as usual here.
oh my
Im just imagining the face's of the people that tried getting it,
Im sure they still did,
I don't mind
I already also got pokemon mystery dungeon, monster hunter tri ultimate, minigold and all available demo's on my 32gb sdcard, and it only takes 6gb So plenty of space to actually fill everything on eshop onto the sdcard and even have room for plenty
I bought it at gamestop. Its a great game!
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