Rumour: Nintendo Switch Game Cards To Boast 16GB "Standard" Capacity

I really do hope that's only a rumor. It will severely hamper a lot of games from coming to the system. You can only compress so much.

That would be a disaster. Hah, if that's the case the switch better have like 5TB internal storage if they want people to have a library of any modern generation games.

I'm taking this rumor with a grain of salt. I personally don't believe the memory size of the Switch's game card will ever be 16GB.

Standard doesn't mean the maximum limit.

@JHDK I love 3rd parties but the one thing I don't like are big day one updates that take up huge amounts of memory. This could be bad.

Nintendo refuses to modernize.

16 is not enough....

I'm not going to buy third rate games just so they are mobile.

16 GB?... With Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's size?...
Yeah... I seriously doubt this...

New Feature: download your Xenoblade Chronicles X textures from eShop!

Lol, pathetic. They should be, minimum, 64gb in size at launch. 3rd party will not have enough space at launch to get their games out and people will not buy the few that do come at launch because they will be stripped down Xbox one games.

The more, albeit, rumours I hear about the Switch over the past week make me not want it. Guess I'll stick with my hacked WiiU and PS4 (pro) and PC for the foreseeable future. Pity.

All those rumours, are very negative! Looks suspicious!

Wait, doesn't that means 16gb is the minimum not the maximum? Like how the standard model for 3ds is 2 gigs.

Standard means minimum.

@Alundra-1998 Until we know the actual storage size of if, it's basically a guess. You can say "GAME IS GONNA BE MASSIVE!!!1!1!ELEVENTYONE11!!" all you want but until we know for sure, your personal opinion means nothing. BOTW is supposedly smaller than GTA5 (based on released numbers) and that fit on 18gb's worth of discs, Skyrim originally fit on a single DVD9 for the 360.

edit: quoted you twice for some reason

Comes in with truckload of salt

Reads rumor

...Yep, taking this with a ton of salt.

I'm not worried. The developers who are making games for NS would have been well aware of such a limitation working on their games and they seem to be showing nothing but praise for the console regardless of if it's a thing or just a rumor, which at this moment I am treating as such.

So... as a standard size, not great but doable. No matter how big the size is, modern gaming trends mean we'll be downloading plenty of patches and updates anyway, so it's not as bad as things were in previous generations. (Let's hope for plenty of portable storage!)

Many, many games will need or at least benefit greatly from more, so I'm hoping this is a short-lived limit, there is an option for a larger card (even if more expensive) from the get-go, or just a false rumor.

Any way you slice it, it's alarming because it's a potential ding against third party support.

Then again, spreading a rumor like might be an effective way to get Nintendo to make an official statement on it. Would be nice to shoot down if they could. Silence means nothing with a company like Nintendo, though, so we may learn nothing until Janurary 12th anyway.

@AshFoxX Good point, but it is a limited number of developers that are vocal about it.

I sincerely hope that Nintendo doesn't take that route, or allows for significant built-in memory that we could just download games and avoid the cards in the first place. I'm hopeful that Nintendo understands the situation better than to limit it to where technology currently is and instead are looking forward to where everything is going.

@kelvin217 This is referring to the capacity of the game card, not the storage capacity of the console. For example, the maximum capacity of a 3DS game card is 8 GB.

@Menchi187 Wait... What?... I was not posting that message nastily, but your reply came off a big harsh...

a lot of what that wall street journal guy says I think is crap. It is possible that it is only 16gb, but why such a limit? would be smarter to have bigger cards than that, especially how big games are getting.

@Alundra-1998 Your original comment came off pretty strong (even if it wasn't intended that way, btw mine wasn't either, I just wasn't sure how to word it). My point is we can't just assume it's automatically gonna be maxing out a WiiU disc, despite looking like a pretty big game.

@hYdeks He's pretty legit. The only problem is he's not the one saying 16 GB is the maximum. NintendoLife is.

@Danrenfroe2016 I came here looking for comments about how this (unconfirmed rumor about a condition that if true may apply only temporarily) means doom for Nintendo. Was not disappointed

What about Nintendo's compression techniques? Aren't those industry leading? I remember reading that they compressed most Wii U games down to around four gigs.

So...why does the tweet say that 16 GB is enough space for a single layer Blu-ray disc when each layer on a Blu-ray disc is 25 GB? Anyways, truckloads of salt on this one. I know Nintendo excels at storage optimization, but if they want a lot of third parties to jump on board, they'll need decently sized media.

Maybe it's just a rumor. But if not... Then here we go with the gimping all over again..

Well... N64 cartridges started at 8-12 MBs, then went up to 64 by the end of the cycle.

A 16GB N64 style ROM cart could be good.

256 x Ocarina of Time on one cart!

I'll take this article with a lot of salt.

Why would they use a medium with even less capacity than the Wii U? Something doesn't add up....

@Menchi187 Lol yes it's understandable.
It has always been harder to interpret text compared to speaking in person after all.

I would never want to start ANY type of conflict whatsoever after all.

I am the sort of laid back person who is at their happiest simply chilling on YouTube after all.

@Yoshi yeah sorry if I wasn't clear but I was talking about the capacity of the game card. To be specific, I was referring to the way 3ds game card's standard model was the capacity of 2 gigs.

I think you need to fix the headline Nintendolife. By standard capacity he likely means the minimum possible size. a 3DS game card can be as small as 128 MB with 8GB being the maximum for example

Standard size, not maximum size. Bad reporting here.

https://twitter.com/ArcadeGirl64/status/792071571384864768

So much for the "game cards can hold so much data nowadays so the console won't be held back by data limits" argument

With XCX almost filling one Wii U disc, I highly doubt Breath of the Wild will fit on a 16 GB card.

@Operative Except that argument is still valid. NintendoLife is being irresponsible in their reporting here.

Yeah.....seems like a mistaken communication. I'd bet standard size will be a 16GB card with 32GB available at launch for a elevated price and probably go up to 64GB or 128GB in the future as long as you are willing to pay x amount for the increase in card size

I'm not sold on this info at all. Only Nintendo themselves can work comfortably with that space. Wasn't Lego city undercover 20gb on the Wii u for starters??

@Operative The technology is still there it's just up to Nintendo to have game carts that support 32, 64, etc gigs of storage. Standard is by no means the only option the Switch has for game carts.

@IceClimbers ah, my mistake then

if this is true then nx is an instant failure, remember, it plays home console games

@EllenJMiller 'this' Honestly, i hate to say it but i think Nintendo Life should alter the article headline.

How does standard=maximum? I read it as that it'll be the regular amount of data for games and there can be more if they need more.

I think what Nintendo meant was the game card has a base standard capacity of 16GB depending on what type or big the game is. And surely it does not imply that it's "limited" to only 16. If the game demands it then a higher capacity card is used. Much like what happened with RE:Revelations on 3DS http://kotaku.com/5855434/epic-resident-evil-3ds-game-deserves-its-unusual-50-price-says-capcom

If it is truly a maximum of 16 Gb Day one then the switch will be DoA by years time and a price cut will be in 6-9 months after release.

Well that's not bad. Early N64 games used 4MB game carts, while later ones used 64MB. That's a 16x increase - extrapolated to Switch equivalents, that would mean 256GB game carts eventually, lol.

Standard is not maximum size

And I doubt it, since Smash filesize is 15.6GB whereas Xenoblade X is 22.7GB

3DS is capable of 8 GB but the "standard" is usually less. I doubt 16 GB is the limit.

Oo I do hope its more. I feel like Nintendo is wiser now. They've got this. Right?!

Rumour until proven true

I sincerely hope the rumor got it wrong and that's the minimum size most big devs will use at launch, while others will want double that.

They could also start compressing stuff some, which I believe on PS3 some games didn't bother with compressing a lot of content to get it to fit since they had a ton of space anyway.

Point is, this won't be an upperbound.

Let's hope not....

That is ludicrous. I hope that isn't true, it can't be.

Maybe a launch title has a 16 GB card.
Also, if flash drives can have terabytes of storage, flashcards should as well at some point?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE It isn't. The only one reporting it as the maximum size is NintendoLife. The source says "standard size', which is not the same thing.

Even though this article is tagged as a rumor the headline should be changed. The tweet mentions standard size not maximum or limited to.

@CB85 Thank you, I was about to give the examples of past consoles like the SFC and the N64 and do the maths.

Ahhh, back to the click-baity and inaccurate rumor mill. I was worried for a second.

I'll wait for official announcements, then I'll give my opinion.

No! 16G toooo small!! Cmon Nintendo!! And please give us the option to hook up an external drive?!? I for one am not interested in the portable aspect of the console. Will be strictly on the couch! Hmmm....maybe in bed too...but I don't want to screw around with memory management which can be very time consuming!! Should be playing instead!!

@nab1 lol... well I just hope that the next reports are not of Samsung made exploding batteries LOL

16GB? I don't think so. Nintendo would have to be really stupid to do it. It's not like games will need more than that in the future; they already do use more than that. If Nintendo want any 3rd party support, they'll need at least 32GB (not to mention there would be serious limitations for their own games as well). But again, I don't believe this rumour is true; after all, Breath of the Wild could use more than that on Wii U discs and I don't think Nintendo is downgrading the Switch version.

Going by the 3DS standard of 2GB this sounds reasonable, since 3DS carts can go up to 8GB. So I am assuming the NS carts will be between 16GB and 64GB.

That is plenty of space.

I can't see this being true in any capacity. I mean, they showed Skyrim, and if they showed that, then they have to have some intent on having higher capacity carts. Why would they barely improve over the 3DS 8gb?

@Rei You're welcome. :]

People are getting way too worked up over this. To be fair, it really is a bit of an error in NL's reporting on this - it's clearly and obviously a standard size, like the source says, and not a maximum limit at all.

Sorry but is a joke. You're source is wccftech.com, one of the biggest rumor fabricating sites on the Internet.

The 16GB size reference was originally used in discussions for the Tegra chip maximum possible/doable RAM. By modern standards you can cram 1TB in to such a card but I belive that depending on which game we're talking about the size might differ from 16 to 64GB.

Never trust a source that sells iPhone fan concept design as news on daily basis.

Rumour is rumour after all. A big bucket of salt right here.

@19Robb92 I am of the same mind. I was listening to a podcast and a developer made mention that most devs are guilty of bloat and do not do a good job of compressing assets either.

Yet another clickbait article that has inaccurate information based off a rumour. Always aiming to hit a new low in gaming journalism, eh NL? You guys must be really proud that you were able to sucker so many people into believing 16GB was the max.

A) it's a rumour.
B) it says "standard size". GBC cartridges had different sizes for example.
C) i use a micro SD card in my N3DS that has 64Gb storage space.
D) it's still a rumour. A salty, salty rumour in an ocean of saltiness.

And we are back to the rumor mill. Wake me up in January...better yet make that March.

With each new (rumored) spec release, I'm becoming less and less fired up for this thing. If this is true, I MIGHT bail out. I really don't want to though. 16gigs is poo. For realz. Now I'm nervous

@GenOneD Is it because you don't know what standard size means?

Let me give an example. The 3DS had a standard cart size of 2 GB. The range that developers can go for was between 128 mb and 8 GB. Standard is not a sole option.

@Gen0neD 16 GB would be the standard size, NOT the maximum. They can use larger sizes as needed.

That's the second rumour I have heard about the card size, the other being 32GB which though still small is at least more reasonable.

My hope is that the games on Switch won't run worst than those on Wii and Wii U. With 16GB to begin with it's time developers need to start making complete games again.

Skyrim: Special Edition is 12.6GB on the PC and that's with some mods installed too. It must have some crazy compression or something, lol

As a consumer I don't care how much these cartridges hold. So long as it doesn't affect the development of titles for the Switch I don't think I should care about the size for these things.

Besides, this might finally get developers to stop leaving uncompressed audio to take up 30GB of a game's install.

January 12th, 2017 ( or 12th January, 2017 in some regions). Remember the date, folks. We will know everything about the Switch from Nintendo themselves. Until then, take those rumours with a pinch of salt.

@SCAssassin No need to condescend. Simply worried. And yes, I understand what standardized means. You can convey your message without being insulting. Work on that

@19Robb92 Um. Plenty of space for what? Switch is a HOME console. If you've ever played on a XB1 or PS4 those hard drives fill up quick. My XB1 has a 1TB HDD and in a year's time it is 75% full.

Well, least we know this time how long we'll have to put up with these rumors......

More rumours!?!

Really?

Let's act like monkey's and throw faeces at it, throw enough and eventually some will stick, right?

If this is true it would be bad! How would Breath of the Wild even fit on it? it'll most likely take much more space than skyrim, unless the developers have some brilliant idea planned to make a giant game like BOTW take up very little space.

Sounds reasonable enough to me considering that what we're really looking at here, when we get down to it, is portable games on little carts just like the 3DS or even PS Vita but basically for the next/new generation (and, yes, you can also play them on your TV too); I don't expect full size/memory home console games on such a device and format. But, if you can get proper home console games on Vita with its 4GB-8GB carts, which you basically can, then I don't see there being a problem with doing similarly on 16GB upwards Switch carts (and they can apparently go up to 128GB, I read somewhere).

For reference: http://uk.ign.com/wikis/ps-vita/Vita_Games_Sizes

PS. I hate how so many people genuinely believe this is a home console (probably because that's what Nintendo's marketing men said), when, clearly (to me at least) it's basically a new handheld console like the 3DS or Vita but just with a dock so you can play those games through the TV. Expecting proper and full home console games on Switch like the new stuff you'll be getting on Xbox One and PS4 in the next year or two is just setting yourself up for a fall, and really not looking at what you're seeing in all the footage and press. Yes, it will play roughly Wii U level home consoles games (hence Breath of the Wild coming to it), but Wii U was always a generation behind anyway. You'll not be playing the brand new PS4 Skyrim X or GTA X (or whatever they might be called) on Switch at the graphical level you see them on Xbox One and PS4; you'll be playing the equivalent of something like a Vita or Wii U version of what said game would be like but on Switch. I think most people need to start opening their eyes to this simple truth: Switch is basically the most powerful handheld console ever made, which also has TV play, and another underpowered home console, maybe even more underpowered than you'd expect because it looks to me to be roughly Wii U power once again, which is going to make home console games on this thing nearly two generations behind the cutting edge by the time it launches. Again, that's the reality I'm seeing here, and I think it would be great if more people could open their eyes to it too. Most powerful handheld ever; another underpowered "home console" (or, blunt truth, TV out for a handheld via the dock and optional separate controllers that make it appear more like a traditional home console system).

For basically a handheld (with a cool TV play option and various ways to play with the controller configurations and other bits and bobs) this is some pretty awesome stuff as far as I'm concerned, but, if you go in believing Nintendo's "it's a home console first and foremost" then at least wise up to the fact it's a home console that's almost certainly once again a long ways behind in terms of power (and, to be fair, Nintendo's never once claimed this is a proper current-gen/next-gen graphical power-level home console). Do that and expectation might just start to match reality a bit better, which probably can't hurt.

@gatorboi352 How much of that is comprised by mandatory game installs?

enought is enought!
where is the ethernet port on the dock? you advertise your console with e-sport footage and you want people to compete online via WIFI at home?! DAMN!
where are the headphone jacks on the JoyCon-grip and the joycon Pro?
are the multiplayer voice-chat architectures ready?
all TV are going 4k and HDR since 2 years. By mid 2017, 4k tv prices will drastically drop again and it is going to be the definitive standard.
I hope that Dock does 4K upscalling or a Dock with a 4K GPU for support is in the chart for end of 2017!

Enought is enough! STOP PLAYING NINTENDO!!!

@gatorboi352 He was referring to game card size, not storage capacity. Most games would fit on a 64 GB cartridge.

Can't be too condescending when other people are sharing the unnecessary worry.

Meh. More frivolous speculation. Sounds a bit rubbish to me.

Cartridges have ALWAYS COME IN SEVERAL SIZES.
Seriously people, did you discover gaming 2 weeks ago? They have always made cards with different sizes. 16, 32, probably 64 GB, it does not matter.

Also, remember. Most Wii U games were less than 16 GB in size.

@SCAssassin Seriously? Unnecessary? We are talking about Nintendo here. You know, the company that seems to be Hell bent on making one mistake after another. Despite the cries from their fans. Any concerns people may have are valid. Nintendo has a great deal to prove. Please stop acting like they don't. They DO

Lies, lies, lies.

Nintendo is the one saying the Switch is a home console first. Hard to expect gamers reading that not to wonder about how some of the bigger console games are going to work. Devil is in the detail.

@masterpad your whining that the switch isn't 4k and touting that 4k will be standard when the switch drops. Your then saying stop playing Nintendo.

Yet if we was to get a 4k console say the Xbox Scorpio we have to wait until late 2017. Roughly 6 months after the switch.

Not to mention your guessing the console doesn't have Ethernet support and your stating it as fact

Idiot

I see no reason why they can't have 64Gb cards. 64Gb would hold nearly 30% more than Xbone/PS4 current two layer BluRay media. 1.4Gb Mini discs were the primary reason why Game Cube didn't get better 3rd party support during it's lifespan despite games which looked slightly better graphically compared to equivalent PS2 games.

Even if large games cost $10 more to manufacture to use 64Gb cards, it would be worth it to increase the data cap if AAA developers demanded it.

Nintendo, DO NOT GIMP the Switch. You cannot afford to release another GIMPed system...

Unless they've invented a totally different way to compress data this would be a dick move. Third party developers & publishers need an arm around their shoulders with options - not chained shackles and whips on their ass

@Gen0neD It's an unnecessary worry because it's over misinformation arising from NintendoLife's misleading and inaccurate headline.

Loving all these rumors that are big downers.

Feeling more and more like I'll be buying Switch ver. 2.0.... if it gets that far.

That's definitely not the maximum size.

@IceClimbers Alright, misleading it MAY be. But so far, most (if not all) of the NX rumors (now the switch) turned out to be true. So ya know, grain of salt at the ready but the big N has given all of us reason to doubt. Truth be told

I suspect many first party games will only need that size of cart. But it would be very limiting for the third party sector if this were the case. This is the first really damaging rumour I've heard and I hope it's not true.

I could bet that anything else (video games, movies / animation, toys, etc.) has had many rumors as the NX Nintendo / Nintendo Switch; in 1 week, 2 or more rumours daily of NX/Switch. Yay!!

Fan Most wiiU games are less than 16GB so probably true. Not excluding bigger sizes after launch...relax guys.

@BiasedSony Vita actually played a lot of home console video games too. You could play stuff like Dead or Alive 5 or Final Fantasy X HD or Phantasy Star Online 2 while they were released on ps3/pc. The Switch basically takes to the next (and better) level a lot of embryonal ideas of the Vita and WiiU in terms of "play home console quality games away from your TV/ take your AAA game with you".

Why do people automatically think less memory on cart means inferior games?......

Just spread the game over 2 carts.... Anyone whining obviously hasn't been gaming for long enough.

The GameCube disks was only 4gb meaning games needed 2 disks . The games weren't inferior and anyone who thinks that they are inferior games, I hold my GameCube copy of resident evil 4 and metal gear solid twin snakes in the air proudly (both on dual disks)

@BiasedSonyFan just out of curiosity you know the switch is a less powerful console how? I'm not having a go but if you know something I don't then I need that info lol

@BiasedSonyFan It's going to play basically Wii U-level games on a device that's for all intents and purposes a handheld that also outputs to the TV. That's the truth/reality of what Switch is as I see it based on everything I've read and seen thus far. This is great if people go in thinking of this thing as basically the most powerful handheld ever with TV out, but if they go in actually thinking it's a proper mid-next-gen home console with something like PS4 level of graphical power they're really just setting themselves up for disappointment from everything I can see (but maybe that's a lot of Nintendo's fault by constantly touting the whole "home console first and foremost" marketing line without actually revealing any proper specs or apparently actual game footage). I think anyone expecting a home console that's going to directly compete with the likes of Xbox One or PS4, either in terms of graphics or current-mid-next-gen full-home-console-level games, is setting themselves up for some major hurt in a few months time. It will hopefully get quite a few ports of the various third party games you see now and will see in the near future on Xbox One and PS4 but I'm thinking of how they would appear if they came to Wii U right now too, and that's basically what I expect from the Switch equivalents.

@impurekind I'm taking it as a handheld. And I'm yet to hear Nintendo say home console. They've said console but not home console. They've also said it's not replacing the wiiu

@gamermole The problem with that idea of spreading games over multiple game cards is that it is much more expensive to produce these things than it is to produce discs, so developers would likely rather walk away or downgrade the game to such an extent it would be far inferior.

@gamermole Well, Nintendo did officially say this is its next home console (as I recall) and it definitely said that it's "a home console first and foremost", around the same time it revealed the Switch properly, but I don't just believe everything the marketing men say. I see a really powerful handheld with TV out (and a few control configurations)—which means it's also clearly another underpowered home console at the same time—and I think that will serve me well in the next few months, at least in terms of graphical expectations and the like.

Jesus Christ Damien, "standard" doesn't mean "limited to". Will you stop stirring up unecessary controversy for once?

A fun little interview to anyone ho hadn't read it already

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-28/nintendo-s-big-switch-q-a-with-president-tatsumi-kimishima

"At launch" sounds like a sound remark - AFAIK Vita game cards started at around 4 Gb. Nowadays they can reportedly hold up to 64 Gb, although I've yet to see a game bigger than 4 Gb on PS Store (probably to encourage digital distribution while still keeping 4 Gb memory cards bundled with consoles XD).

Also worth noting that PS4 uses disks - Blu-rays to boot. Compression has been quite a thing in the last two generations, but when did Sony last need it on their home consoles? And when would they last want it in the face of the potentially awkward mix that real time data decompression and disk-characteristic load times can produce? Yeah.

Interesting if true. Given how much data can be stuffed into a card's volume it does seem oddly low. I'm in the camp that that will be the starting point and quietly beef up to heftier cards as needed without drawing attention to it.

Can everybody calm down, please?
Super Mario 3D World was 1.6 gigabytes. If file size equated the gameplay, people wouldn't still be playing the original Donkey Kong

Here's the thing; since it's cartridge-based they can increase and decrease the storage at will depending on the game.

3DS standard cart capacity was 2gb.

Yet, some games received double capacity cartridges like Fire Emblem Fates.

So any game surpassing 16gb will default to a 32gb cart.

Relax people. They do double cartridge sizes for games when they need it.

This sucks...anything that makes it harder for third party ports to happen is very bad news.

@impurekind

As far as I'm concerned, the Switch working as a home console and the Switch directly competing in terms of graphical horsepower aren't synonymous concepts. If you were to think of it as exclusively a home console, then of course one may wish it had more juice, but a hybrid is always going to have to compromise.

You can look at is as either home or handheld in my eyes, with the acknowledgement that any potential limitation to the graphical horsepower is of course going to be due mostly to the nature of the latter. If you keep the Switch in the dock and use the Joycons attached to the grip or use the pro pad all the time, then it doesn't differ from a home console other than that you have the potential to take the guts of it with you; the power differential between it and the likes of the new PS4 doesn't really change that definition as I see it (thinking of it as primarily a handheld can be a good mindset though, because it's the main factor behind technical and design choices). You could certainly argue that the main selling point is the handheld aspect, sure and I know you can feasibly stream to TV with other, handheld devices but this does it out of the box, with a dedicated scaler and control peripheral. It becomes a home console in two parts, if you like.

You are quite right though, if people expect this to be a megalith like the PS4 then they are not appreciating the limiting aspects of it including the handheld aspect. Like, AT ALL. How was this EVER going to be on par with the new PS4 at this size and in this format?

@Gen0neD And one of those insiders, Emily Rogers, CLARIFIES that just because the standard is 16 GB (mostly because of Nintendo's concern for its internal storage capabilities and slighter cost), does not mean larger cart sizes do not exist. It's the same as the 3DS. It's still worrying about your own doubts despite what common sense wold tell you based on what the article is telling you. Mochizuki NEVER said it was limited to 16 GB. Nintendo Life did. It's that simple.

I am not going to believe this one. The Wii U had discs that were 25gb. And if these games are closer to PS4 and x1 the cartridges are going to have to have more space than that. If not third party support would not be here at all. So I will just wait.

this better not be true or we're going to be screwed and nintendo is going to piss many people off.

@BiasedSonyFan Sure, sure (though some games were "cross buy" or whatever they called it tbh), I am not saying they are the same exact idea but I can see people seeing some similarities in the concept of playing home console quality game on the go, especially when the Switch does kinda look like a bigger Vita more than a 3DS ...

Doubt it. They made it appear as if the device will be able to play Skyrim, which the non-special edition is 31GB big.

I'm doubting there is truth to this rumor, unless its more about Nintendo's 1st party titles at launch wont need card bigger than 16GB, I could see how that might be true.

FAAAAAAAAALSE.

@SethNintendo The journalist of this article intentionally made the title misleading to earn more money. I'm also not returning to this website again because of this.

"Standard". It propably means that there is no smaller size cartridges available but it's not a maximum that developers can use if necessary.

Sorry but I'm calling bs on this one, Xenoblade was 25 gb as it was.

I swear to god if they mess up the bloody thing like the Wii u I'm not going to bother with their products anymore. I liked the Wii u but they didn't support it enough and left us with a console that was half decent

@duffmmann I have no idea where you got 31GB for the Original version from as the Original version (with the dlc) is 14gb on PC.

The tweet does not mention anywhere the word "limited". Do you think your readers are stupid Mr. NintendoLife?

I just downloaded Skyrim SE last night off Steam 9.8gb. I'm not sure why the console size is so much bigger.

This rumor sounds like the type of news that would come from someone hoping Nintendo fails, or from someone who doesn't have very high expectations.

I believe it just a rumour. Btw, let's sing I Heard a Rumour from Bananarama.
"I heard a Rumour, they said if Switch cart just 16 Gigabyte". XD

this can"t be true, nintendo can make xenoblade chronicle x make 20 GB so they know better

64 GB will be the max, with 16 GB being standard.

A bit of a poorly chosen subtitle for the article, eh, @Damo?

Mr. Mochizuki didn't say that 16 GB would be the limit. It's just the standard size cartridge that will be produced in the largest bulks, thus making them the cheapest and most used.

I'm 100% sure that bigger cards can and will be produced for games that require them. It's just that making them will be a tad more expensive (which might not be reflected in retail prices at all).

If 16 GB is the max cartridge capacity (down from the previously rumored/leaked 32 GB) the Switch is dead before it leaves the gate.

By this logic, the maximum capacity for a Blu-Ray disc is 25 GB.

The "reporting" on this site has gone downhill, fast. Such a shame.

So an 8, 10 or 12gb game will have to be on a 16gb cart. Meaning a 29gb game will have to be on a 32gb cart.

I see no problems here.

Instead of taking all these rumors to heart, maybe just wait till January till you get concerned.

Ok, seriously. If this purposefully taken the wrong way to get hits? To me, it looks like it, because look at how many of us are commenting on how this sounds like flawed reporting.

Anyways, to me, it sounds like this "standard" is more of a minimum than a maximum. You can only go so far down before it's not worth going down any further. Like, per chip, it might be a few pennies less to go down to the next 2s complement (like from 16GB to 8 GB), but that doesn't take into account the entire process that's done to create these chips. It might actually cost more in the long run to have separate 8GB and 16GB runs than it would just doubling up on 16GB runs.

I honestly feel that there will be 16GB, 32GB, and even 64GB cards.

"Standard size" is not the same as "minimum size." They are very, very different.

16 GB is the standard but not the limit so I am OK with that. I'm more concerned about the dock being a useless piece of plastic. If the switch uses usb-c and hdmi connections then why even make a dock and force the screen to be covered? Makes no sense when we could theoretically just use cords and not cover the screen at all. I am really hoping the dock does more than just hold the switch in place otherwise I may rethink purchasing this system. I am not a portable gamer, I am a couch or bed gamer so gaming mobile is not important to me but capabilities are very important to me. Nintendo better hope they aren't giving 3rd parties reasons to skip the Switch.

I know this is just a rumour, but this is exactly the sort of thing Nintendo does. Creates a pretty awesome looking system, then cripples it with a ridiculously small media size for 2017+. Time will tell, but please don't let this be true.

We'll see in a few years.
DS cards were claimed to have a 128MB limit, but there were definitely some 512MB games in its lifetime. I don't know if any reached 1GB.

@Spoony_Tech Apart from a few newer games A LOT of titles are under 16GB by a good portion. Also, nobody actually said cards would be "limited" to 16GB at launch... this is just terrible reporting. The wording "standard capacity of Switch game card at least when console launched would be around 16" means there could be NUMEROUS carts at launch OVER 16GB, just most of them will be 16GB.

I will point out though that several games including the latest Tekken, South Park and CoD are all UNDER 16GB on other consoles.

@biscuitsandtea 'As a consumer I don't care how much these cartridges hold. So long as it doesn't affect the development of titles for the Switch I don't think I should care about the size for these things.'

I understand what you're say but... if you want any type of game that is made after 2008 on a cart for the NX for launch then you defo what more than 16gb. And developers definitely want WAY more than 16gb to work with.

You as a consumer at launch are not going to spend €$£60 on a port of a game (without DLC probably), even 'better looking' graphics on a brand new system? When that very same game (by March 2017) is a port of a PS360/ early launch xbone ps4 game? I certainly wouldn't. That's the way I see it. That's what happened with the WiiU.

Look, we all know Nintendo will kill it with their own games, no doubt about it, but 3rd party? Nah, they will stick with ps4 (pro) xbox1 Scorpio and PC for the best of the best.

Sadly, I, along with a lot of others on here can most likely see the Snitch being Nintys last attempt at a system. I don't want that to happen of course. But if it did..... one less €400 odd I have to drop. Their money is not going to last forever(next four years).

@DarkKirby Yeah that's NintendoLife reporting it as a "maximum". The source said 16 GB was the standard size, not the maximum size.

The previously rumored 32 GB was the "recommended" size.

Let's put it this way:

The Switch will have different size cartridges for different games. The standard size (and likely the minimum size) is 16 GB. 32 GB, 64 GB, and possibly even 128 GB cards are an option.

@Clownshoes 'clickbait pokemon go+, mario runner+, and sun+ and moon+ articles.'

Fixed that for ya

Also, I do think NL, are aware it's a 16GB standard from launch. The article clear states "at launch", do people not read?

But I still stand by my posts above.

@DarkJamD That's exactly what it means, but thanks to Nintendo Life's click bait title, everyone is freaking out unnecessarily.

@SCAssassin ahh ok, I read it wrong. As small as 16gb at first isn't really that bad, and considering it's not really hard to make a card bigger, they could make a bigger one for bigger game of needed.

@IceClimbers yea, would have been nicer if they said it that way, Nintendolife made it sound like 16gb only. Only makes sense they would do it like that.

Believe it or not, the PC release of Skyrim Special Edition is only 12 GB. It should be able to fit on a launch cartridge easy.

Seems doubtful, I'm sure Skyrym was more then that. Speaking of Skyrim, I see Bethesda have advertised Skyrym Special Edition here. Do you think they are hinting at something?

Okay seriously this article is annoying with the clickbait/misleading title. Standard ≠ Limited, that's it really.

"Limited" was never mentioned.

Edit: It's been fixed. Thanks!

"For example, advances in flash media mean that it's now possible to fit 32GB of storage on such cards."

Uh. There are flash cards that hold 512GB right now, and they're launching a 1TB SD format next year.

@Nomad The original Xbox 360 version of Skyrim was only 3.2 GB~ Honestly I don't know why the Special Edition takes up so much space, it doesn't look like they did much texture improving (from what I've seen so far, I've only put a few hours in).

The Nintendo Switch can't get this kind and of negative PR right now. People need to be patient and wait for the facts from Nintendo.

I really expected better from Nintendo Life. This is such shoddy reporting that's just misleading people and encouraging trolls.

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3D (exclusive to New 3ds) is 3.6 GB and damn is it impressive.

If this is true, you can kiss the majority of AAA 3rd party support bye, bye.

@ikki5 It's not. Standard != Maximum

Also, only 100 out of 460 PS4 games are bigger than 16GB. Majority my ass.

@readyletsgo ps4 pro isn't even out yet....

@readyletsgo It's not even "16GB only" at launch as far as we know. It's more likely there will be 32GB and maybe even 64GB carts available as well to Third Parties who want/ need them.

Are we to believe that Breath of the Wild is only 16GB? There is no way this can be true.

@GravyThief Standard size != maximum size. Nintendolife is running down the hill. Don't take the rubbish they wrote for granted without checking more professional sites as well.

Dukes of Hazzard Narrator (Waylon Jennings): "Them NintendoLife boys can't jump outta THIS controversy!"

@readyletsgo Guess Nintendo can do without a customer that is stealing their games instead of paying for them. Also, Standard != maximum. Their will be more storage options available to the 20% who need them. Even on PS4 80% of the games aren't bigger than 16GB in size. The rest of them are just badly optimised.
So why should 64GB be the minimum, when barely any game need it. Do you like to throw money down the drain? No, why do you expect Nintendo or Third Parties to do it? Or would you like to pay more for your games, so that most of the them include 50GB+ unused space. Oh, forgot, you don't buy them.

Lol, third party was limited in power all the time, now in addition they limited in space. Pathetic.

128GIG cards are readily available and Nintendo is from what i gather forming their own evolution of the card for this format. I would say this is ninsense.

I reserve all judgement until January, it is at that point that Nintendo will either soar or crash, they must decide that.

@scamander lol I like the way you assume I just 'steal' games. Nah. I buy every Nintendo or 3rd party game at launch, full price, because I can. But the WiiU is now dead to me, last game is paper Mario. (Zelda BotW, I may get on the switch if I decide to buy the system.) So yeah, I'll copy my games now, hack my WiiU, sell some of them, make some money back, or store them away. I've spent thousands on Nintendo hardware and software this gen, I think I, as 1 unimportant consumer, can do what I like with what I've paid for.

Never assume @scamander

Ok, say goodbuy too a lot of modern game ports. Yes, there is texture compression, but it's not ideal.

Latest rumor is saying that there will be no support from Western developers which means no AAA games. The support is seemingly coming from Japan and the indie developers also ports of old 360 and ps 3 games. So no point in hoping for titanfall 2

Didn't anybody read the tagline.

@Lucina It's the fact that people read it as gospel and react accordingly, which funnily enough is considered normal behaviour in these parts. I'd imagine these same people would be very easy to rip off due to their gullibility.

I have to say Nintendolife know how to work up the easily worked up. It also gives the trolls new material too. Good work.

No... no... don't fail again, Nintendo! PLEASE!!

Here we go. We had all the "OMG that's amazing" reactions from the industry initially and now we're getting the usual "but here are it's limits which are dwarfed by rival consoles" that we always get around Nintendo launches.

Anyone could make this prediction. This reminds me of when the N64 was being released. The carts were 8mb at the beginning, how on earth were they going to compete with the PlayStations massive 700mb? GameCube hade 1.5gb compared to ps2 4gb.

There's nothing to worry about people.

@BiasedSonyFan I'm not sure if you're asking me a question or trying to tell me something you think I don't know, but that sounds about right to me.

This is the worst clickbait I've seen on Nintendolife. Really embarrassing fro what is normally a pretty good site.

Worse, its been called out by multiple users in the comments, yet the normally active staff are nowhere to be seen.

Even though I've been a stickler for info coming sooner, I'll wait for January on this sort of thing as there were so many rumours flying around about the Switch. Mochizuki has had some potentially interesting things to share but it'd be better if he wrote a full article on this sort of thing as there will be other issues surrounding this alongside data capacity. Twitter isn't a great platform for going into details!

Also, it's a rumour!

@electrolite77
What's not good about my comparison? What consoles had the best games N64 or ps1 / GameCube or ps2? I couldn't give a rats about 3rd party support. I have a PS4 for that. 3rd party publishers know it's hard to make money on Nintendo consoles. Nothing has changed.

Welcome back to 1996. Not again. Nintendo 64 used 4 to 64 MB. ROM cartridges. .The format ruined N64. Final Fantasy needed 2GB of rom space. So it moved to (32 bit) Playstation. Really Nintendo? Same mistake?

@dimi check the updated headline

Can't remember having this argument since the N64 came out...

It only means most games, and likely chiefly those proposed by Nintendo itself at launch, will use 16GB capacity, but that doesn't mean it will only support that size. Look at the 3DS. At launch the "standard" size was 1GB, yet a lot of the great games for the system used 4GB carts like Resident Evil Revelations. That's almost enough to fill a single layer DVD for crying out loud, and perhaps there are even some 8GB games out there on 3DS that I just haven't heard of, that wouldn't surprise me, since RER was like... 4 years ago if memory serves right. It won't suffer from the same problems that the N64 did. It'll do fine. There aren't many games out there that fill up 50GB bluray discs, and if the system is underpowered compared to the other system and games have to be scaled back a bit to run smoothly, that means you don't have to have textures quite as detailed and so on, so it's likely that if it does get ports of other current gen titles, that they won't take as much space on Switch as on the other platforms, simply because it would be pointless. Cartridges, or rather I should say solid state memory, can hold enough data these days, so it shouldn't be a bottleneck for Nintendo. The fact that it uses a mobile chipset will sooner pose a bigger problem than the cartridges themselves.

there are micro sd cards available which can hold 128gb and even new ones out which can hold 256gb so I guess larger games will use whatever size of card they need. I just hope if I'm using cards that any updates/save games are also stored on the card and any eShop games are stored in internal memory or SD cards (but not proprietary cards as that'll be a disaster like on the vita)

Its also worth noting about skyrim, that's IF the rumour is true and IF Skyrim dose come to switch and IF is an launch game would it need trimming

This is a rumor, and it's probably going by the fact that the Wii and Wii U never competed against the other company rivals...that's probably where this is coming from. Compared to it's size of the cartridge, it could be 2-3 SD cards combined into one, which means it could be massive. In all honesty, you can fit more than just one blu ray disc onto an SD card, so I wouldn't give into this much information. If they showed Skyrim, it's apparently coming to the system (whether it's the PS3 or PS4 version of the game), or nintendo just showed people a big lie. Other than that, the sports games alone (NBA) use a lot of power for all of the specs involved (characters, seasons...etc) so they'd have to be pretty good in size to hold all of that. Once again, we're going to get all of these rumors until January, so don't read too much into them unless they come from nintendo themselves.

@gspro15198 I'm hoping too, that they use SD cards and not the micro ones. That was the main reason I got rid of the VITA, was the cost and prices of the Micro SD Cards...way too expensive, especially when a large one cost as much as the VITA. I already hate buying a second controller for systems, because with that price of the controller, you could go out and get a game instead (or quite a few instead).

@SanderEvers you don't need to install every XB1 game to the hard drive.

@JLPick vita does not support sd or micro sd. It uses proprietary cards.

@gspro15198 A blank 128GB micro SDXC fetches easily $40 though. Even if Nintendo managed to get them as low as 50% the price, that still weighs heavily in the balance. I don't think we're going to see 128GB games on Switch anyway. 64GB cards are likely to be the max we ever see on Switch if ever and considering they have a pretty juicy deal with Macronix and I believe I heard Toshiba too, they could get those as low as $5 apiece, so you'd likely pay a bit of an extra on games that would "theoratically" use those larger capacities, just like the larger DS and 3DS games were about $5/€5 more expensive, but those should remain very marginal I trust. The single worry I'd have is access time. Capacity is fine, but access time is going to be key. They could get dirt cheap 16GB cards if they wanted, but with crappy access specs. In this day and age, if they go for anything lower than the old standard class10, which is already very much obsolete anyway in the days of HD recordings, then I shudder to think how slow games would load. Load times off SD cards on smartphones, in more demanding games, are atrocious :/.

I dont believe that rumor.
Some wiiU games are even bigger, and skyrim even more, so that rumor is one that i dont believe.

@electrolite77
Who do you think you're talking to? Go and bore someone else.

@electrolite77
It probably is for a 39 year old man like yourself. For me there are more important things in life than speculating and "worrying" like you, what size carts Nintendo will use in their next generation console. Get a life loser.

@Damo "Apologies for any confusion caused by the original title."
Apology accepted, thanks for correcting it.
People just panic so easily over the silliest things.

This isn't very big. I know of some modern games who's patches alone are bigger than 16 gigabytes.

That being said though, there are plenty of games I like on the PS4 that are all under 16. So we'll just have to see how companies treat their games.

@electrolite77
1) I criticised no one. You commented on my post.
2) Your age is in your profile name 77!
3) I don't like your aggressive attitude towards my opinion.

Well since it is the standard then that is a good thing as it can be cost effective for making the carts. There is no point in making say a 64gb cart if your game is only 10gb.

My main concern is what is the maximum flashcard storage the SWITCH can read. At minimum I am hoping for 128gb.

"For example, advances in flash media mean that it's now possible to fit 32GB of storage on such cards."

... in cards that size you can easily fit 256GB of flash memory, that density will only increase over the course of the systems life. The real question is what is the maximum addressable size of flash memory and i'm guessing that it's probably north of a Terrabyte.

@Kafei2006 The problem with your argument is that you're talking about the retail price of memory, the manufacturing & wholesale cost of memory has been dirt cheap for years. For example, a 16GB SD card that you could buy from a local store for £10 would cost the original manufacturer pennies... there just happens to be a huge markup.

If Nintendo has setup their relationship with the cart manufacturer right, then a 128GB cart shouldn't cost any more than a 16GB card and neither Nintendo or the manufacturer lose out due to the sheer volume sold.

-BTW, finally glad to see that negative & wholly misleading title changed.

@impurekind In regards to the Switch's power... I don't know and it's easy to get carried away but using either the Tegra X1 and then scaling it up against the Tega K1 etc, etc, but to be honest... none of us actually know right now. All I would say is that the Switch will easily be more powerful than the WiiU & I i find the comparisons a little negative (especially with a lot of home console fans still feeling burned by their WiiU experience). Even if the Switch isn't as powerful as an XboxOne or PS4, the Tegra X1 was VASTLY outperforming the WiiU last year using the same battery life as the Nvidia shield. If we were JUST seeing a WiiU level handheld, the "3hr" battery rumours would make no sense at all.

@DanteSolablood We really don't know that. All we have seen is that the Switch is capable of doing things you would be able to do with the Wii U. How does that make it more powerful?

@gatorboi352
All XB1 (and PS4) games have to be installed to the harddrive. Our 500GB systems were full within 6 months. It's not so bad on XB1 as you can use an external drive but on PS4 we have to delete games before we can install any new ones.

It won't be a problem on the NS for physical games with it using cards. We'll have to see how digital games work though, hopefully it'll use 'hot swappable' SD cards for storage.

Bologna sandwiches, anyone?

A better choice of words would have called it the base size. Not all games need more than 16GB (in most cases less), but for AAA titles, I'm sure 32GB and even 64GB will be available. Though, expect added cost of purchase in those cases ($5-10).

Here's my problem: if it costs as much as a PS4 but is less powerful than a PS4, do I really want to put those dollars toward portability rather than graphical power? I am a one-platform-a-generation kind of guy for reasons of time and money.

I love my 3DS, and I play it on the go everywhere, but I think I love it most for the great gimmick (glasses-free stereoscopic 3D), the duel screens, and the unique suite of games it has attracted. All these excellent JRPG's and stellar first party titles that make use of the display. The techniques employed in Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (those gorgeous and detailed dioramas) really deserve further iterations. During the last generation, those were the games that further cemented my view of Nintendo as the Pixar/Disney of gaming. The originality on display made up for the lack of graphical power.

I was very disappointed when the new 3DS was released; it was a confusing iteration but it actually may turn out that a new 3DS would be my preference as Nintendo sits on further information about the promising but possibly fatally flawed Switch concept. I should say that just because it may be fatally flawed as relates to my gaming preferences doesn't mean it won't explode in a broader demographic - and I would be glad of that. Pokémon Go is that kind of phenomenon for me.

The Wii U also had fantastic titles but the lack of 3rd Party support kept me focusing on my 3DS and the only Wii U I purchased was during year-one but for my brother. I assumed I'd get one too, but then with no Zelda, few strong one-player experiences, and most of all, a total drop off in 3rd party games, occasionally playing excellent multiplayer-focused titles like Smash, Super Mario 3D World, and Hyrule Warriors, etc. at his house was enough. Still, if I had known that titles like Gotham City and additional Assassin's Creeds would either not be practical on the system or would have to be dumbed down to make the cut I probably would have waited and gotten him a PS4 to begin with. I was ignorant of specs and fooled by early 3rd party releases.

I don't want to be fooled again and I hope the storage rumors are false but I'm beginning to think that this might actually turn out NOT to be the best of both worlds, but the worst. An underpowered home console that can't score AAA releases that is simultaneously an overpowered portable with low battery life, no 3D, no duel screen, and what I think may turn out to be an underused gimmick in the West (multiplayer on the go).

I hope I'm wrong, but unless they really pull some new information out I'll be waiting for the game catalogue to flesh out before I purchase this one...if I don't purchase a PS4 first. I don't want to be stuck with this kind of scenario again:

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/04/ghostbusters_delta.jpg

@Alshain01 Because we know that the CPU is based on either the nVidia Tegra X1 or X2 & these are both vastly more powerful than the WiiU & use handheld amounts of battery power. Saying you've only seen it doing "WiiU things" means it's ONLY as powerful as the WiiU is like saying the PS4 is less powerful than the WiiU because you've only played South Park the Fractured But Whole at a friends house. All rumours, leaks & confirmed information point to the Switch being significantly more powerful than the WiiU... as for PS4 or XboxOne, I don't know but am optimistic based on knowing a lot about nVidia Tegra technology.

@TechJunkie69,

A modest added cost will be no problem for me if I can indeed play Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Red Dead Redemtion 2 on a Nintendo console.

@DanteSolablood Well, actually Nvidia said it was a custom Tegra chip and we have no idea what that means. As far as we know, it is as powerful as the Wii U, we know nothing more. We know they both can play Breath of the Wild which means they are at least equals.

I would certainly hope it would be more powerful, but knowing Nintendo's history, you can't say that it is.

I hope this just means the cards start at 16GB but they have larger cards for larger games...... If not and devs have to slim down games this will be a HUGE negative and something that will make me hold of buying the console until I can see how its does.

People need to realize that "standard" and "maximum" are very different.

People also need to realize that "standards" change over time. The "standard" size of a 3DS cartridge was 1 GB back when the 3DS launched in 2011. Now nearly 5 years later, the biggest 3DS game of the year (and potentially the biggest 3DS game ever), Pokémon Sun/Moon, clocks in at around 3.2 GB in size, which means the game is likely being produced on a 4 GB 3DS cartridge.

If standard Switch cartridges sizes are indeed 16 GB at launch, expect those standards to rise to 64 GB within the next 4-5 years, depending on what type of 3rd party support the Switch receives down the line.

@Alshain01 Actually, the same leaks that told us about the Switch's form factor, screen functionality, joycons etc stated it was using one of the X chips, plus the custom chip was confirmed to be using both Geforce & Pascal architecture which place it with GPUs like the GTX1080 & 1070. Also, we saw Skyrim running with higher graphical fidelity than the Special Edition.. so again based on what we SAW it can do more than the WiiU.

Oh, and the WiiU could not run the Unreal 4 Engine, something he Switch is confirmed to do, this also helps substantiate the X1/X2 rumour.

@DanteSolablood Any of the games in the trailer don't count as they are pasted on in post processing, and rumors are rumors but Nvidia said it was a custom Tegra chip. So, there is nothing confirmed leading us to know it's power.

Also, the Wii U has the technical capability of running Unreal 4, it just doesn't have it.

@westman98 Good point. A standard capacity of 16 GB is a lot of space considering that most games are smaller. There will probably be games that are larger than standard and maybe there will budget budget-sized cartridges for budget games too.

@electrolite77 Glad you see things the way I do on this matter. The people behind this site know full well if they post something which rubs people up the wrong way they'll get more clicks. A lot of people don't really read these articles properly, see the headline and go into meltdown. Nintendolife wins because the traffic on the site goes up.

I look through this comment section now and lo and behold, people are fighting over a rumour. Basically a bit of gossip. I think people should read the article, and maybe read it one more time before even thinking about commenting.

@BiasedSonyFan Again rumor is rumor and has no bearing on reality until it announced.

@BiasedSonyFan @Alshain01 Well apparantly reliable insider rumours aren't allowed in this discussion & the Zelda footage could have been post-processed up from Gamecube footage. The Negs are just being so vehemently blind when it comes to anything positive that no fact can penetrate their 10" thick armoured anti-Nintendo hide. Even if Nintendo actually put the thing in their hands they'd cry fowl. :/

Just a couple of re-iterations:
1> Pascal architecture, the latest most powerful chip architecture is confirmed by Tegra. CONFIRMED (likely why you ignored it, as anything positive is simply ignored).
2> All the rumours from the same people that were correct about everything else we've learned have confirmed it will be more powerful than the WiiU and is running at least X1.
3> The WiiU is ancient technology, for £200 you could build a more powerful portable PC yourself.

Oh & Sony fan, it is possible I'm being TOO optimistic but I'm a handheld & PC gamer. 3x more powerful than a WiiU is still more powerful than a £700 PC or 3DS.

@DanteSolablood ROFL. So I say "we don't know how powerful it is" and you hear/read "It's less powerful than a commodore 64" and you call me a "Neg", I'm guessing that means negative, but I haven't been negative, at all! Saying we don't know is not the same as saying it's terrible. I just keep my expectations curbed until we know more rather than assuming this thing is going to be made of pure gold and spit fresh baked sugar cookies out of the slot every time I click a button.

@Alshain01 Lol, I apologise if you were insulted... but people saying it will be about as powerful as the WiU are being pretty negative & it's not far off from saying they're releasing a Gamecube. With the advances in tech over the last 4 years Nintendo could release an updated WiiU for under £100 & in the form factor of a Gameboy Advance Micro.

Imagine someone stating the iPhone 8 will be the same power as the iPhone 4, we've only seen apps the iPhone 4 could do... people would laugh them off of the internet.

Plus again, just using released fact, it is more powerful than the WiiU. How much more is not possible to confirm right now, but to even consider it being the same power as a WiiU is akin to saying Microsoft is going to release a new Surface tablet with the same specs as the last one but £200 more.

@DanteSolablood Well I don't know if it's going to be as weak as the Wii U, nobody does, but remember the Wii was basically a repackaged GameCube, so it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for Nintendo to release a repackaged Wii U. You seem to think it is absurd except for the fact they have done it before. Even more so, the GameCube and Wii U were both a flop, while the Wii was a success. So, I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if it did end up similar to the Wii U in specs in the slightest. We just don't know.

@readyletsgo Whoa, whoa! Slow down! It's a rumor. It's open for discussion. But are you seriously making a decision, based on this? Sheesh, don't be so gullible. No offense, but it's like some of you guys are looking for a reason to hate the Switch.

@impurekind You're seeing what you want to see. And you're making assumptions based on what you think you know. It's okay, a lot of people do it. But, it's best to wait until concrete details are revealed before discussing concrete theories. In the meantime, if Nintendo says it will be a console first then that's what it will be. Oh, and in the Switch's press release info, Nintendo DID describe the device as having "the power of a home console". What that power level could be, we don't yet know.

Low capacity memory for games killed the N64 and the GCN because 3rd party companies couldn't fit their games on the carts and discs. RE2 was a true miracle of a game.

@BiasedSonyFan He meant Nvidia Tegra X1, not XBox One.

And no, it is not a fact that it is more powerful than the Wii U until they announce it's specs, it is speculation. The 3X power of the Wii U is an unsubstantiated rumor.

What is a fact is that we don't know how powerful it is. Period. We do know that Nvidia has said it is a custom Tegra, but that could mean more powerful version of the Tegra, but it could also mean Nintendo told Nvidia it had to be cheaper and therefore ended up weaker. We just do not know.

@BiasedSonyFan It's been addressed that I meant the nVidia Tegra X1, not the XboxOne. Anytime I've meantioned the XboxOne I've used the full name for this reason... plus it's a hope. Make do with enough but hope for more.

As for the "more than a 3DS", that comment just addresses that the Switch at "x3 the power of the WiiU" would likely still be more capable for games than the i5 R7 gaming PC that I built myself & obviously more than the 3DS. As a PC gamer with a small budget & handheld gamer it makes the Switch pretty attractive to me.

@Alshain01 "the Wii was basically a repackaged GameCube" Ugh, this is the kind of rubbish that gets spouted all the time by people who can't tell a d-pad from a digital stick. Think I've had enough of talking to you for now.

@BiasedSonyFan But they aren't Nintendo, or even Nvidia, so it's still rumor. I don't have to open the thing, I just need a reliable source, which doesn't exist at the moment.

@DanteSolablood Ok then. You've been spouting rubbish all night, I'd just as soon not talk to you either.

facepalm Standard is not equal to maximum, nor minimum. I don't see why people are pissed about this and making assumptions that this size will be enforced on 3rd parties. Nintendo doesn't even use the entirety of the 25GB that Wii U disks have, so it's obvious that in order to cut costs, Nintendo made the switch's cartridge variable in size, so they can adjust as needed.

Consudering 3DS game cards come in several sizes I wouldn't worry here. I'd expect 16GB & 32GB at least and perhaps even 64GB or 8GB cards for the largest and smallest titles.

Considering this is 'standard' size and not the max size (no where in the tweet does it say it's the max) then fine.

However, the smaller the better tbh.

Imagine the carts were 32-64 gig in size, means we can get great frames right? Sure - then look at the common sd card size - 128gb.

So if you bought the games digitally then you could get about 2-4 games per sd card.... That's the good thing about the 3ds, I have a 64gb in mine and I have about 50 games on it with tonnes of room left. So unless the device has a built in 1tb hd then wanting bigger sized games may not be the best thing in the long run

This is exciting news, if true; however, based on the Macronix link, I unfortunately have to doubt that if Nintendo are indeed using ROM chips.

The link states that Macronix manufactures Mask ROM chips with a maximum of 128Mb — that's megaBITS, not megaBYTES. 128 megabits actually equals 16 megabytes, which is half the maximum size of a GBA cart!

Their "Gaming Machine XtraROM" can support a density of "up to 32Gb" — gigaBITS again, which equates to 4 gigabytes.

Of course, Nintendo could use multiple of these chips, and there's always the possibility that the person writing that page didn't know the difference between MB and Mb, but ROM chip capacities are almost invariably stated in bits (or multiples thereof) rather than bytes.

Indeed, the 'block' measurement Nintendo uses equals 1 megabit. \ o /

"16GB is the standard capacity of a Switch game card - lower than the space available on a Wii U disc, which can hold around 25GB"

Doesn't sound good! But then there is the new Zelda, wich will be a enormous game. We'll see.

Nintendolife, can you stop posting those rumors everyday and just wait untill 12 January?!

"Nintendo's decision to eskew optical media..."

Think you meant "eschew"...