You Won't Be Able To Download L.A. Noire Without A MicroSD Card

Ahh...FFS. it would be one thing if the cards weren't big enough, but choosing to use a smaller one is a piss off.

What bothers me is that they’re already charging more for the switch version than the others. At least put it on the bigger cart for us...

That's cool with me. I have a 200gb that I've barely used

@daveh30 Especially since Rockstar still applies the Switch Tax on the LA Noire cartridges.

Like, Switch Tax + Additional Downloads for a 1P game? No thanks. I was interested in the game but not with that kind of b*******.

'Triple A' games come with 'Triple A' file sizes...

I almost preordered a physical copy of game yesterday. Glad I didn't. I'll wait for another version that doesn't require extra download.

@daveh30 They're already using the more expensive 16gb card, which already means LA Noire has "Switch tax". Imagine if it was a 32gb card, would be even more expensive.

This is gonna keep happening. Nothing will change as technology and gaming marches forward.

I will never buy a Switch game that does this, plus I already have it on PC (i.e, I'm never buying these types of games on my Switch anyway ) anyway.

If games on cards aren't fully playable as is without additional download it's no buy for me. I buy titles physically for determined reasons to be able to play 'em regardless of a eShop accessibility, especially years later when stores taked down. So no DOOM for me and now no LA Noire too.

@AlexOlney I knew you'd get it <3

Boggles my mind that people try to defend this practice.

@oji Doom is on the cartridge

This has the potential to become a real issue and Nintendo has to do something about it. Whether it is placing a restriction that 75% of game data has to be on the physical edition or offer cut prices for 32GB cards if they agree to manufacture a set number of games or agree to develop games for the Switch fornat least 2 years.

Either way, something has to be done. I'm okay with Doom's idea in having just the multiplayer as downloadable because when servers go down online multiplayer is useless anyways.

Seriously, I'm starting to wonder if the publishers are starting to self sabotage themselves to convince shareholders and others that there's no point in supporting the system.

So far Only Bethesda's are the only 3rd Party AAA games on the Switch that really interest me so far as they seem to be doing this the right way (I could be wrong though, need to check my details).

Wow, that sounds like some pretty inefficient data storage. Apparently the DOOM (2016) single player will entirely fit on a 16GB cartridge and this is a 2011 game that's largely about talking to people across a table.

@dystome @carlos82 Don't be so sure yet. From the Nintendo UK store:

"To use this software, a download of 23GB via a wireless internet connection is required. An additional microSD card may also be required."

Skyrim has a similar warning, btw.

The huge file sizes of certain games is a shame. I have considered getting L.A. Noire but if I do, it will take 1/6 of my 128GB SD card. In this case, I'd buy the physical version to save space but it will still take almost as much space as the games I currently have on my Switch combined (and I have games such as Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey and Mario + Rabbids) so what's the point. I hope SD card prices drop soon. I thought my 128GB card would serve me for a year or two but at this rate, I'll need to upgrade earlier. I'm glad Nintendo can keep their file sizes as small as they are.

Here we go again! And then Rockstar will be surprised when the Switch-version flops...

@MarcelRguez Bethesda themselves stated that the single player fits on a card and that only the multiplayer is a separate download

This is a very annoying practice, but for me the most annoying thing is that the retail versions of most games are much cheaper than the eShop versions. Surely not having to buy the physical media and boxes, print the covers, ship to shops etc should make digital games cheaper...

Pre-order Cancelled
even EA managed to to get the whole game one a cart and it plays a good game of football.
Was looking for wad to this, but i will not support this half-physical BS, these games are not cheap anyway. they have lost my sale.

Its like they intend to make something that was once collectable worthless.

Nintendo need to work to get this sorted.

This pissed me off yesterday so bad. But only because they're already charging an extra $10. That covers the full game

@Menchi187
Nah.

If I can buy a super compact, fully rewritable consumer grade 32gb micro SD through a middle man retailer for $10 then theres no way that $10 tax doesn't cover the upcost of jumping to a much larger sized, read only 32gb cartridge bought in bulk a hundred thousand to quarter million at a time

@MarcelRguez Ooh, hadn't seen that. It's definitely contrary to what Bethesda told the press, though. Someone somewhere along the chain has misunderstood.
Also, your link was via tradedoubler and was primarily for a merch t-shirt. Do you make money out of your web discussions?

When you buy 'Physical' it's because you don't want to bother with a multi gigabyte download. Given that internet speed have vastly improved vis-a-vis a few years ago, it still takes a big chunk of most internet plans (not everyone is on unlimited plan).

Why Rockstar and 2k (they are one conglomerate, aren't they?) games require multi gigabyte download is not optimal. Their SDK doesn't seem optimized for the Switch...

It will be interesting to see how third party studios are in a year or so with bringing games to the Switch.

@RickD @BionicDodo

Because of greed my man simple greed.
We are already paying a switch tax, but they are looking to claim some NI as well. I fear for Nintendo..

I'll stick with my Mario for now i guess.
will be interesting to see if Skyrim fits on one cart.

I don't care. I have a micro sd card.

@carlos82 That doesn't mean the download isn't required anyway for the game to work. Although, to be fair, I'm checking the wording and they also said the multiplayer will be included in a later update. Unless they're referring to a day-one update, they'd be putting out a game that doesn't work.

@dystome I just noticed that (adblocker), no idea why that's there. The url I pasted in the comment leads directly to the Nintendo UK store.

Speaking as a Switch owner. Everybody is quick to crucify Rockstar.... Could they have used a 32GB card? Yes they could. It wasn't Rockstar who designed the console with a measly 32GB internal storage. At the quantity Nintendo would have been purchasing flash memory how much more would it have cost to go with 64 or 128? My phone has more storage than the Switch. Again Nintendo could help offset this cost by absorbing part of the cart costs. Yes Nintendo is out to make money, but they are going to need 3rd part support.

Honestly, I blame Nintendo for giving us a system with only 32gb of memory... It's a disgrace nowadays, especially since most of the modern games take way more than that.
Should have put out a system with at least 64/128 options

@ICISAZEL The eShop pricing isn't just a Nintendo issue though. Outside of sales, games on Playstation Store are also always more expensive than the retail equivalent at Amazon etc. I assume the same is true of the Xbox store too.

@cloud36426 @mateq how does nintendo launching with 32GB internal storage have anything to do with publishers not using 32GB carts?

@mateq a 64GB model would still be full very quickly. Please tell me how Nintendo could have launched a 128GB switch for $300.

To the people saying "blame Nintendo": by all means, blame Nintendo for creating the problem in the first place, but realize that publishers are the ones solving the problem by making you pay for it.

There are always other solutions. Not that long ago, the 360 version of FFXIII was released on 3 different discs, and it wasn't more expensive than the one-blu-ray PS3 version. Surely the hit these publishers would take is bigger than the cost of using three discs back in 2009, but make no mistake: this is all about publishers trying to maximize profits per unit sold and a sign of them not taking risks with the system.

Imagine thinking that the money you cheaped out on the game carts would make up for the lost sales from people like me who think this is ridiculous. Storage is cheap so the only real reason I buy physical games is to save myself the download time on my middling internet, so this practice that 2K has struck up here shoots that all to hell.

Ah, well... There goes my intention of buying it, at least for now. I'm still yet to pick up an SD Card, something I must do at some point, but still too busy playing Splatoon 2 to care.

Wait, so even with the physical version you have to download 14GB? What is the point in getting the physical if the whole game is not even on there?
The Game card is obviously just half the game, other half download program.

Can we not have a bloody 'collectors edition' or 'Deluxe' edition that might be more expensive but comes on card big enough to fit the game on? I appreciate this tech is more expensive than disc based storage, but nevertheless it's tech I wanna get behind. Turns on cynical switch When the manufacturing cost of these cards fall, I bet we see these editions coming out in a years time so folk might double dip.

@kobashi100 Nintendo could help offset the price of the carts. I don't know how much they are. What is going to happen when a dev puts a game on the Switch that is 40GB? They could use a 32GB card and still need additional download and SD card. Nintendo made a poor decision on the internal memory of the Switch.

When it is all said and done I have many SD cards (Android user) so I will buy these games anyway.

OH NO! Heaven forbid! I need to buy a microSD card for my electronic device in 2017! Oh the scandal! I am just so outraged! I must take to the forums and the streets to proclaim my FURY!

That's too bad, I won't be buying it in that case.

@MarcelRguez
Well.. Yeah. However, the costs are a lot higher in this case. Considering it's estimated to cost a publisher 60% more to use a 32GB cart compared to the cost of using a 50GB BluRay disc on other systems, this development isn't all that surprising. An additional cost of sixty percent per game is a lot, especially once it's aggreagated.

With that said, this is still a really crappy thing to do and I won't support it.

No problem here. I preordered mine yesterday.

I think the main issue for me is that when we have all moved on from the Switch. When the online servers for Switch services are closed, we have no chance of playing LA Noire and other games that follow these practices anymore. It becomes dead space.

If you want convenience you have to pay for it. I get that. So I will happily pay more to have a cartridge version that is going to last longer than disc. But when the cartridge can not hold the entire game, there is a problem. DOOM did this right by keeping the optional stuff as a download.

But you could argue that this is Nintendo's problem. But yet it is only Take Two/their developers who are having this problem. Bethesda seem to be having an easier time working on these limitations. The problem lies in everyone's courts. Nintendo needs to make it easier for the developers but the developers need to know how to compress their software. The publishers also need to know when to foot the bill.

So far, not a single title in my collection requires a download to play despite all of them being physical. I cancelled my LA Noire pre-order so I can focus on titles that allow me to play them regardless of the online service's status.

For me personally, Nintendo needs to make the cartridges cheaper. Developers need to remember to downsize and compress. Publishers need to foot the bills. Only then can we get the games we want without these sort of issues

@19Robb92 Where are you getting that percentage from? It's the first time I've heard of that estimate. That said, the current cost of a 50GB blu-ray is meaningless, since we're talking about a 2011 game. Keep in mind this version doesn't feature the remastered goodness of the other versions.

And as it has already been said: if the game needs a mandatory download, why not put it on an 8GB cart? It would be cheaper, it still wouldn't use all available storage, and it's not like it makes much of a difference on the user's end.

@techdude I have an Xbox One and had a PS4. Most physical games on those system require a multi gig download too (as big or bigger than the size mentioned above). This isn't just a Switch thing here guys. I had to buy a 4TB external hard drive for my One just months after buying my system. Now, you guys can piss and moan about having to buy a SD card and/or cancel your pre-order for the game, but then don't itch when third parties stop making games for the Switch. My advice would be to buy a larger SD card and get over yourselves.

Bethesda is the only one doing it right. Skyrim- full game on a cart and DOOM, while it does have a download, it's only the multiplayer- the single player is all on the cart. Plus the download is sub-10gb.

I'm totally ok paying more. Not a problem. But that tax better get me the full game.

You know what? I'm still getting this game because it's no different than if it were digital only (and at least it still gets box and cartridge for collectors, and saves 15gb download space). But I don't care if this game tanks. Go out and buy Skyrim and DOOM people. Show them we want games and will buy AAA, but only when done right

@Amsterdamsters you are correct. Uncharted 4 took I think it was another 14 GB download on my PS4. I still think Nintendo should have gone with 64 or 128 internal storage.

@Amsterdamsters

The PS4 has 1000gb of storage and the switch 32gb - PS4 games are on disc and need to be installed as the disc doesn't spin fast enough to read the data - the point of cartridges is so that you don't need to install data, it is all readable from the cartridge and so no install required - we don't need to "get over ourselves" - we just expect better

...yeah...sorry but... I would buy this game, but 14 gb to be able to play a physical copy...nope!

@JaxonH You're forgetting this is Nintendo we're talking about. It's what Nintendo charge them for the card.

As always, I have no problem with the Switch's memory or the size of the game.

But if you're going physical put the whole game on the card. Big Day 1 patches are also a bad sign.

It doesn’t really bother me.

They can go an s**te with their mandatory 14GB download. Preorder cancelled.

I want physical so I can play the full game in 20 years instead of worrying about having a massive download to play the game a WAS going to pay full price for.

This, does not look good for other Rock* games coming to the switch. Of course AAA games are big, but these companies should explain in full detail how big the game is and why it's on a big card. Not take up space on my handheld/home console system which is for download only indie games, which can be big too.

No doubt, prices will come down in the future, but right now, it's a nasty nail.

I'm half expecting Xenoblade 2 to be the same. Remember how X was on Wii U,the full game was on disc but if you wanted it to run optimally you had to download several patches. So it's not as if 1st party games or this actual series doesn't have history of this. Any game that takes this route now, 1st or 3rd party won't be getting a purchase from me.

Here, it doesn't make any sense to buy the retail version...

@Amsterdamsters

I agree with you. Most games have a physical install requirement and this is really no big deal. Sure I agree with those who are unhappy that the physical cartridge is a waste of time, but in my opinion, based on shorter lifespan of these systems and how affordable SD cards are, Physical games on the whole are a waste of time, unless you plan to sell them. Even when i had a xbox one all of my games were digital. Hell, all of my PC games are digital (steam). When you lose the ability to play, then that's just life, lol, nothing lasts for ever, enjoy the game while it is relevant/available and move on. Let the value be in the experience you get from the game, not the physical copy, or being able to play it for years to come. Either way, if you are that concerned either go with a service like steam, which has been around for years and is here to stay, or hope that nintendo will make all of there digital games downloadable on their future systems (will probably never happen, even other consoles don't allow you to play ALL of the older games, only some).

@MarcelRguez it's definitely confusing but I still expect the single player to be on the card as I seem to remember reading that from several sources. We'll found out soon enough I guess, I tried to look on the eshop for some help and the file size isn't even on there, yet it is for Skyrim which incidently is around 14gb

@OorWullie: XCX is not a good comparison. The game was fully playable from the disc. The download packages were just for smoothing the experience in loading times, which is exactly the advantage of switch card over discs..

@Light: By the way: I found my first GameBoy in the attic last weekend. I put Metroid II into it and played the whole day this game. All this worked fine after 25 years. That is also life. Too sad that the Switch doesn't offer you this...

Never fear, I got a MicroSD card for this very purpose - to store my $#!t.

@Chandlero

Understood. To each his own, but I can download the game for free off of the internet and use an emulator. Digital FTW.

It's not as if it can't be made smaller (examples Zelda:BotW 13.4Gb, MK8 7.0Gb, Super Mario Odyssey 5.7Gb), the problem is that these games are designed for disc/HDD consoles, you can't just "compress" them. They need to be designed from the ground up to get small download sizes.

Digital music, digital movies, etc.. Physical media is dying, that's why the industry is moving in this direction, they expect you to just buy digital one time. lol, how many of you still use music CD's? LOL, I enjoy using my mp3's on my phone and a bluetooth connection to a sound system.

Im not liking this trend....
NBA
WWE
Doom
And now this, L.A Noire....

So not only are all these games expensive and in some cases more expensive on switch, but the developers also expect the consumer to buy an add on in the form of an SD card to play their games.
I don't tolerate the "my god SD cards are so cheap these days" argument.

First of all when i buy physical i expect 90% of the game to be on the cart ( I know updates are a thing) and for it to be playable out of the packaging.

Secondly if this trend continues it won't be long before people have to buy 2/3 SD cards to fit all their 3rd party games on even when they buy physical iterations.

Finally there's no compensation or gesture in the price point of the software to entice the consumer into being a little bit more understanding. Nope.....they'll charge 60 euros and also tell us to buy an SD card so we can BEGIN their game.....crazy

No thanks rockstar if your gonna be sting flint...i can be one to and not pick up your game..

To behonest hear same about doom trying find out about this 23gb download but no answering! :/

@Amsterdamsters So say I spend 50 quid on an extra 128gb card for my 3rd party physical games. I could only fit the equivalent of 4x RE Revelations 2 on that.It's not exactly cheap or convenient so it cant really be compared to what Xbox or PS4 users have to do. Once their already large storage is full they can buy say a 2tb external for a whole lot cheaper than a 400gb Micro SD costs and it will last them for ages and doesn't need to be constantly swapped out. On Switch you can only fit 12 x RE Revelations 2 on one of those 400gb card and it costs £230. Quite why they never went with standard SD which are cheaper and have larger capacity I'll never know.

what people don't realise is that this is also being done on the disc consoles. For example when I picked up Gran Turismo Sport which installed about 50 GB it also had a day one patch of about 20 GB so that a full install of it is 70 GB!
But day one patches that are gigabytes in size really are the norm nowadays sadly anyways.

It could be worse. We could own XBox X's that were eating away our broadband caps with ludicrously sized 4K updates!

@manu0 Even disregarding the massive difference in built-in storage, unless GTS doesn't work without that patch at all the situation is completely different.

I have a switch and am 100% digital (obviously) because I prefer not having to constantly switch gaming cartridges in order to play a different game, and I live in a third world country which loves to put heavy taxes on imported games. Sure, I may have to get multiple SD cards at some point, but that's still a lot less swapping around then using physical cartridges. Even the 32GB of internal storage is of no concern for me as i would only use it for the OS anyway. The biggest concern for me and nintendo's products has always been the lack of cloud storage saves. If the system dies/is stolen/becomes in accessible etc, then that would be irritating. LOL and please do not compare to attaching an external drive to other systems, since they are NOT portable. Nintendo may indeed support that in the future for the switch, but of course, you can kiss portability for those particular games goodbye!

The worst part is when people don't buy this game because of this BS, publishers will blame it on "third parties just don't sell on Nintendo consoles."

@Chandlero I did actually know that and should have worded my comment better. It was more to show even 1st party games could take the same route 3rd party's are having to. I do think Nintendo will swallow the extra cost for Xenoblade 2 and put it on a 32gb card if need be but you never know. Maybe it will turn out it that it's under 16gb anyway.

@OorWullie when you remove a SD card from the Switch and then put it back in you gave to download everything again?

@OorWullie @cloud36426

what do you mean download the games again?? Certain games would be on certain SD cards, put in the SD card with the game that you want to play. The major advantage is that I can have multiple games per SD card, while the physical retail cartridge can only have a single game.

@cloud36426 As far as I'm aware you do. I haven't tested it myself yet but I've read of others complaining about having to do this. If this isn't the case then I apologise for the misinformation.

Yeah, this is a little crazy, those saying Nintendo needs to have more internal storage need to realize that flash based storage costs a bit more due to still being new-ish. The choice of carts over discs also is a better choice in the long run as disc drives have a high rate of breaking, sadly.

@Light See my comment above. I hope I am wrong because if so I'm fine with this. I've read from other users here or elsewhere more than once that when you put in another SD card you're required to re-download the games to it. If you know otherwise let me know and I'll delete my comments. I don't want to be responsible for spreading false information

@OorWullie

Thanks, I honestly am not 100% sure as I have only one SD card at the moment, although I came to this conclusion based on my own research with the switch. Perhaps I will test and report back on this thread.

@OorWullie Here is a snippet from a nintendo life article:

As far as the process goes, you're basically done. The only thing to bear in mind is that of course none of the games from your other micro SD card will be present, but their icons will be accompanied by a little cloud icon. Of course, this can also be applied to new games you purchase from the eShop, allowing you to flip between SD cards depending on what games you want to play and when. This process becomes especially helpful when downloading larger games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/guide_how_to_use_two_or_more_micro_sd_cards_in_your_switch_for_limitless_storage

You know what’s really annoying? I would gladly pay an extra fiver to have it all on a bigger cart!

So whilst I know it won’t happen it would be nice if we were given a choice at retail

It's interesting how people have double standards sometimes. I seem to recall that when Resident Evil Revelations was getting ready for release that the game didn't fit on a standard 3DS card, and that they had to opt for a higher capacity card. People (including some on this site) nearly burned Capcom to the ground cause of the extra fee they needed to charge to get higher capacity cards.

So here we see a similar circumstance. The only difference is that there's a download instead of an extra charge for a bigger card. Some say that they'd be happy to pay the extra fee, and that may be true for some, but I guarantee that there would be people who would complain no matter what way they picked. The comments would read something along the lines of, "Why should I pay XX amount for a game that's 6 years old!"

Just saying.

@MarcelRguez i'm constantly low on storage space on my ps4. so the "massive difference" doesn't really give me anything when EVERY game (physical or digital) needs 30 - 80 GB to install.
and yes, GTS in practice only works with the 20 GB patch installed. you can technically start it without the patch but you can't do anything because the game is online only.

as nintendo ramps up production on the carts we won't be talking about this in a year anymore. and the switch tax will be gone by then as well.

@MoonKnight7 well that's the thing with LA Noire: they went for the smaller cart but still the switch version is $10 more than the other versions.

You want triple A on the go? Well there are going to be compromises. But we are getting there. Hopefully New Nintendo Switch releases with better harddrive and by that time proprietary cartridges don't cost so much.

@manu0

Right, so imagine if they needed to charge more on top of that for high capacity cartridges. No one would buy it at all.

Unfortunately I cancelled my preorder for this game as well due to this. If the possibility for putting your game on one card is there then you might as well do it for the consumer. That’s good for the customer and good businesses want to help bring in more customers, not cut them off. Maybe someday if there’s a bigger card with this game on it I will buy it. Hope Skyrim does not do this or I will cancel that, too.

@manu0 Of course it does. You can erase the install data of games you're not playing, since you can restore it at any time using the disc. No internet required at all, and you can even play the game while it's installing.

And about GTS in particular, that's a crappy situation. It's also far from the norm.

I don’t get why everyone is so upset. If you want the game... buy the game. If you’re worried about storage, remedy the situation and get yourself a larger micro SD card. As for me, I have a 128gb card so I’m not worried about it. And just think; in the next few years there will probably be 500+gb storage cards and all this talk of storage will be nonsense.

@MarcelRguez well duh..if I delete stuff I can obviously install other games. that's not the point at all lol. (also i don't delete games.)

People often wondered why only first party games are successful on Nintendo consoles: Nintendo makes 3rd parties look like amateurs with their constant need for patching. They are wasting the precious space on SD card.

Doom also needs 9gb if you bought a retail cartridge. Looks like this is going to be the trend for 3rd parties.

@MarcelRguez
Here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/09/08/the-unfortunate-reason-multiplatform-nintendo-switch-games-cost-more-than-on-other-consoles/#294c7e2e5fae

And yeah, I agree with all of your points.

@Menchi187
Nintendo profits from licensing fees like every other company, not the storage medium. But even if they were making a profit, those carts are likely $1, $2 and $4 for 8gb, 16gb and 32gb. Even if they charged a 25% increase that's still only 25 cents more for 8gb and $1 more for 32gb.

Their number one priority is to get 3rd party support, so they're not going to go triple the cost of carts. Nobody would support a system where the storage medium costs that much.

@Heavyarms55 Imagine my rage when I bought a camera earlier this year and it didn't come with an SD card or a large amount of internal memory. Hidden costs. All Nintendo's fault obviously.

@OorWullie

No, no no. When you put in another SD, you download whatever you want once, just like with any SD (obviously, games won't magically appear there) but once it's on there it's on there. You can swap cards to your heart's content. It works exactly how you would think it would work. Download games to card 1, download different games to card 2, swap cards whenever you want

@Tate24

Bethesda specifically stated the entire single player campaign of DOOM was on cart. And said the MP was a 9gb download. So that's what I'm going on.

Plus, it's a little coincidental that if you add up the 14-15gb on cart of the single player campaign and the 9gb multiplayer, you get 23gb, same as Nintendo UK store says. I find that a little coincidental.

@MrGawain Oh man imagine the size of the downloads for the X. Scary. Anyone with a broadband cap is screwed.

@JaxonH thanks for the clarification

So, in the future when the Nintendo Switch online is dust in the wind, LA Noir game carts will be useless?

Is Skyrim the same way?

@Light: The dispute here is not "retail" vs. "download" but that the retail version is just a download code...

Of course, the industry is shifting to downloads, e.g., for music. But if I buy, nevertheless, a CD, I would expect that I can listen to the music without downloading it..

Sort of defeats a big reason to go digital. FU, Rockstar. How about not putting a game on the cartridge until you've actually finished it?

I buy cartridges to relieve the need for internal storage. Not because I want some sort of physical DRM key while still having to download the full game.

As much as it hurts at least I still have 2 weeks to cancel my preorder. I might still get it later for a tenner used.

Pre-order sadly cancelled.

I don't need to add my 2 cents here, I've been over it in the L.A. Noire forum thread. I'm glad to see though that the vast majority of people are calling this out for what it is, shameful. The thing is, this game isn't the only offender.

Heck this might send me back to Playstation if all the games require massive downloads. A few gig I can tolerate. FOURTEEN?! This was a must-have game that may be relegated to "won't buy" at this point

No surprise given NBA 2K and WWE 2K.

@Chandlero

I agree with you completely, these type of physical retail cartridges which require a download component are a waste of money. Better to go digital for these particular types of games.

FYI, I am absolutely getting this game, just the digital version as I do all of my games.

@oji to be fair, DOOM is all on the cart. Only the MP is missing. So in 20 years it will still work unlike LA Noir.

I would play more of the game when Nintendo fix their stupid storage problem. I'm still going to buy the game day one though. I want to see more Switch goodness from Rockstar going forward and I hope this helps them afford those bigger game cards in the future, heck they can even do a re-release later down the road too. A new GTA and Bully depends on it.

@AlexOlney

I dunno if you thought about it more, but any game that releases these days that relied on a day one update (almost exactly all of them) will become unplayable when the "servers go down." So this isn't just a problem on Switch

@oji Doom is a full game on the cart, only multiplayer is a download and if the servers are down that wouldn't work in first place.

Taken from resetera

This honestly sucks. I wanted to play this game so much, and in doing so, show Rockstar that Nintendo fans want their games. But I can't stomach a 14GB required file even when physical. I guess I'll just have to play it in my 360, as I originally meant to.

@JaxonH I should have thought to ask you as I knew you had changed cards already. That's the way it should logically work but I've been under the impression it didn't due to reading complaints elsewhere. I had already deleted and edited some earlier comments as I don't want to be responsible for false info. Thanks for the clarification though. Now I can buy LA Noire, RE Revelations 2 etc physically and just download the extra data to a spare SD.Not ideal still but far better than what I thought.

@AlexOlney actually a really interesting article could be interviewing a developer to find out what they have to pay to Nintendo for the different file sizes and other expenses per physically published unit. At least I’ve always been curious about this kind of thing. And it might give a bit more insight to the choices they make 🤷‍♂️

This sucks, I prefer physical media all day every day and to know that I still have to download basically half of the game even if I purchase the cart is kind of a deal breaker to me.

I would have preferred rockstar charge $59.99 and put the whole game on a 32gb card instead of this bs, I get a discount with best buy GCU so the price is $39.99 but I'm honestly debating on canceling my pre order 😑

@MoonKnight7 How is that the same, man?

Capcom didn't force me to spent hours downloading 14gb worth of data to play Revelations.

@kobashi100: The calculation is more or less unfunded but it really doesn't matter here. As in the old days, the publisher has three choices:

(1) Release the game on the needed cartridge.

(2) Cut and compress the game such that it fits on the wanted cartridge.

(3) Just release a download code in a retail package.

These are discrete options and superimposing or interpolating them is just pure nonsense.

As of today, not an issue for me with my 128GB micro SD card. Now, hopefully as more Switch's get out there, and the cost of memory continues to drop, hopefully the bigger game cards will be cheaper for devs soon so they don't have to pay such an extra cost "today". By that time, I'll revisit if I need the 256GB card at that time. But for now, I'm not worried.

@GC-161

True, ultimately they ended up eating the cost of the higher capacity cartridge, cause the backlash was so bad. That was a new, high profile release, so they probably thought it was worth it — though Capcom ended up being unimpressed with the sales numbers and it got ported to nearly every other platform as a result. Do you really think it's worth it for L.A. Noire to do the same for a re-release of a 6 year old game? Frankly, it's a no-win situation.

@MoonKnight7 If I remember correctly, Capcom lowered the price of Revelations BEFORE the game went for sale. Only the demo was available. So how the game did in term of sales was not a factor.

Capcom lowered the price because gamers & the media were angry that a handheld game could cost $50 & they reacted by finding a way to bring the price down.

In regards to LA Noire, I don't think its right regardless of how old the game is.

Already preordered the 200gb card. No matter what happens these are the games I want. I am not going to cancel orders simply because of memory cards or companies misunderstanding of physical cards. Not everybody has so many systems you can play other games. It is not that much better with other systems since you need a super hard drive to install all your game on memory. If you really want these games, keep supporting the switch so you can get more third party games.

I really wish they would offer a more expensive physical version with a bigger game card in addition to the cheaper one which requires huge downloads

I still plan to get the game again. Never finished it on Xbox. The extra cost of these bigger carts needs addressed soon though. I wasn’t totally against the extra downloads at first. But down the road after the download is t available what do you do?

I’m ok as I have a large SD card, but this is ridiculous. It’s one thing if a game doesn’t fit on a cart, but when it does this shouldn’t be happening.

@Mortenb Having more options like that would lead to even higher manufacturing costs.

@MoonKnight7 LA Noire actually does cost more. $10 more than the other versions which have been remastered. So Switch owners will pay extra for the privilege of having half their game on a 16gb card. It's a bit of a mess.

And the wheels start coming off. Another example of Nintendo's basic views when it comes to tech and 3rd party relations.

@OorWullie exactly - if they using the smaller size cards what is the extra $10 for?

@Hughesy i can’t see why. The cards are the same, you just put more data on them. Software wise it’s really easy, and most likely the game is already written to handle varying amount of the data being there. It would only require two paper prints, telling you how big the card for each. That should cost next to nothing.

@Agramonte Going by what I've read others say, 8gb cards cost about the same as a Blu-ray disk while 16gb obviously cost slightly more. This is where the "Switch Tax" comes in. I find it hard to believe 8gb extra storage costs the publishers as much as $10 more though, especially when they'll be buying these cards in bulk so they're probably just rounding it up and passing the cost on to the consumer.Both sides are responsible really. Hopefully as the months go by the cost of these cards will come down.

@AlexOlney i have read that 8GB cards are $8/unit, smaller cards cheaper, 32GB over twice as much

Daniel Ahmed says 8GB cards are around $10/unit, comparable to full price PS4/XB1 discs, 32GB is over $20/unit

Other source saying 32GB not available yet to western developers.

Can you do some digging??

@OorWullie Oh, I see... I always thought it was the largest card that cost more. That also helps me understand Why Battle Chasers was more. Yeah, time will lower the cost .

@GC-161

"If I remember correctly, Capcom lowered the price of Revelations BEFORE the game went for sale. Only the demo was available.
Capcom lowered the price because gamers & the media were angry that a handheld game could cost $50 & they reacted by finding a way to bring the price down."

That's literally what I just said, lol. They swallowed the extra cost/cut costs elsewhere, to keep the price lower. Their official statement was cryptic, as you'd expect. It was all done before the game released, yes. They still needed the 4GB cards, as far as I'm aware. (I just looked at the file size and it's 2.5 - 3 GB)

"In regards to LA Noire, I don't think its right regardless of how old the game is."

I only bring up the age of the game to reference that it's not a new game and that a lot of people have played it in one way or another. So my point is there is only so much of an audience they can get doing a re-release. Therefore, I don't see how it's worthwhile for them to swallow extra costs, on something with only so much reach. That's all I was trying to say.

@GC-161

Did you edit your comment?? You must have, cause I copy and pasted. I saw this later:

"So how the game did in term of sales was not a factor."

I think you misunderstood my comment, so sorry if I confused you. My sales comment was just me sort of droning on. I was saying that they thought it would be worth the extra costs, yet they weren't happy with the end results, etc. Yes, the cost of the game was always $40, so the cost had nothing to do with the lackluster sales, it was that not enough people were interested.

I seem to be in the minority on this one. I don't buy games with the mindset of playing them 20 years from now. In fact, I can't think of a game that I owned 20 years ago that I still own in the original form that I still play today.

If I play a game through from beginning to end, it usually carries more entertainment value than watching a movie. I've come to the conclusion (good or bad) that I'm buying the experience of playing a game and not necessarily the physical ownership of the game. I'm okay with this but I also understand why others are fired up.

I want this game, but I'm too busy with Mario and Splatoon 2 at the moment.....and I haven't even got to Zelda yet!

Why even bother releasing a physical cart if it's not enough to actually use the game? What's the point of the cart then? Whom are they trying to satisfy?

@MoonKnight7 Oh, yes I edited my post. But you had yet to reply to it when I did that. No biggie.

@MoonKnight7 Yes Capcom USA was cryptic about how they did that. They somehow were able to bring cost of the game down to what a regular 3DS game should go for at retail.

However, the game sold over 700,000 units in its first fiscal year. Their expectations were higher. But c'mon, it's not like Resident Evil was a huge presence on handhelds. Especially on a handheld that at that point, had a relatively small user base.

And being ported to every platform is not necessarily indicative of a game selling poorly. Practically every big selling RE game has been ported to every platform possible. See RE4.

@GC-161

Haha, I thought so. It's cool, just glad I'm not going crazy. After seeing that sentence, then your comment and context made more sense.

Oh it sold alright as far as I'm concerned, but like we agree to, Capcom didn't see it that way. It wasn't a failure by any means, but the development costs were high, so they wanted better results. They've always held their games to unrealistic expectations, I think anyway. Look at how everything on the Switch is a "test" lol.

I can't really prove that the ports came cause of lackluster sales (in their eyes), but the port announcement was in close proximity to when the comment was made. I just don't find it to be a coincidence.

@MoonKnight7 I believe that the main reason Capcom ported Revelations to consoles, was because they wanted the sequel to be as popular as the episodic Telltale Games were at the time.

The producer mentioned that they wanted gamers to discuss the game (Revelations 2) and be passionate about it as they were with the Walking Dead series of games. That is why Rev2 came out in parts on consoles.

But it didn't work out as they hoped it would. Mostly because the majority of console gamers waited to get the retail version of REV2. They weren't interested in getting the game in small chunks.

Anyway, talking about sales... we're getting REV1/REV2 on Switch. And it's suppose to be another "test" from Capcom. If the games perform poorly, I guess we won't get RE7.

Oh no!
Oh wait, I wasn't going to buy this boring game a second time anyway.

@GC-161

Some good points, it could very well be that too. Perhaps it's a bit of both? See this is the catch 22 we always find ourselves in owning Nintendo consoles. I too, want RE 7, and I know it all hinges on how well RE: Revelations does at the end of the month. But again, you have the cartridge debate since all of RE2 is a download. It's off-putting I know, but if we want more new games, we gotta clear that bar first. Well until Capcom says something else is a test, that is.

@MoonKnight7 But Ultra Street Fighter II was suppose to be the test and we passed it. Capcom was very pleased with the sales said game got.

It's annoying that we're still on a dang test phase. And more annoying that their testing us with games that aren't exactly new (the street fighter game was ancient, for crying out loud). It's like they want us to fail these tests.

I expect Capcom to release the REmake and RE Zero (Gamecube versions, not even remastered editions) on Switch as yet another test. Before we ever get RE7.

Hopefully I'm wrong about that. RE7 is a great game.

@GC-161

Yeah, I know. Street Fighter passed with flying colors, and really, it was a low risk port too (and old, like you said). What really boggles my mind is the utter lack of Monster Hunter. Unless it's still a secret, there's been no movement at all except for the port they brought to Japan. The 3DS treated them so well with that franchise, and still no dice in that area at all.

I'm still really looking forward to playing this game. It makes sense that a publisher would want to cut costs where possible. I remember reading somewhere that the carts get far more expensive as they get larger. I dunno, the extra download doesn't seem like a big deal. I'd much rather have 3rd party support than not, so I'll take what I can get!

@BionicDodo

I completely agree, but just because other do this, does not mean they have to.
You would like to think that as humans we strive to improve on what has come before.
Its a shame because i love my console, but ill be passing on Doom and LA Noir because i don't agree and this is the only way we may vote in this case.
I was looking forward to getting this, maybe ill see if they ever go on sale for a reasonable price down the line a download version.

@nin10doom
and this is how democracy dies.

@GC-161

Maybe they will try their luck with marvel vs capcom of some sort, or a devil may cry. id get behind that.

@daveh30

one million percent agree.

@AG_Awesome

They are out to [removed] wallets everywhere, massive companies crying poverty, at this stage go digital only and be done with , stop the i have a physical version available lies please.

@Mortenb if you have two different carts made and only one sells, then you have a huge problem.

Preorder cancelled. FU Rockstar.

Lol lol lol lol

@ICISAZEL MvC? I don't think that'll happen. They want the PS4 to be the console of choice for fighting tournaments. DMC? Maybe.

Anyway, Capcom was asked very recently about the lack of strong support for Switch. They replied that it was hard to support a new system during its first year.

And yet BETHESDA was able to do it... Bethesda.

Too bad. I may not buy this one. I won't tolerate what I hate on my Xbox on my Switch. They should have put it in a bigger card. They're already charging more for the Switch version than for the X1/PS4. Dammit, Rockstar.

Pre-order cancelled. I loved this game on 360, and was looking forward to enjoying on switch, but it’ll have to wait now until I’ve upgraded my sd card and it goes on sale digital (may as well download the whole thing than spend time switching cartridges if only half the game is going to be on there anyway).

1- no internet at home, so this will be a pass
2- nintendo needs to eat the card costs so that us loyalists aren't being screwed on each and every game.

@kobashi100 : That's nonsense. As a consumer (and not a company with millions of dollars at my disposal) I can purchase blank 25GB Blu-ray discs for about AU$1.10 and 50GB Blu-ray discs (which is used by the majority of home video releases and large scale games) for about AU$3.50. This is the cost I'm paying after possibly two middle men have taken their cut, so I imagine that Blu-rays are considerably cheaper for publishers getting discs printed in bulk. Cartridges will be more expensive, yes, but no way as substantially as some are suggesting.

This pretty much blows. I assumed the extra $10 more than other versions ( which are the remastered versions, not X360 port ) was because of the bigger game cart being used. Dam shame, too, I was looking forward to this.

The extra download space required doesn't bother me ..., its the extra $10 tacked on that STILL requires 50% of the game to be downloaded. This is unacceptable.

Ok so Nintendo should really draw the line somewhere on thi scary download issue, I think it's mostly fine as long as something fully playable is delivered on the cart. So what NBA did is ok, you can play the game as delivered on cart, what Doom is doing Is OK in that th single player in on the cart, even RE Rev is going to have 1 on the cart and 2 for DL. That's less OK but you get something on the cart. This LA noire move is crap. The game can not be at all played without the DL. All the cart becomes is a DRM dongle.

I am fine with the Switch cart tax but only if it gives us something playable on the cart. Also if we get a cart tax then is LA going to be $30 on eShop like the other versions are priced at? That would be Ok and then would go digital.

Also to those whining about having to pay for expanded storage. The argument holds no water. Every device for more than a decade has required expanded storage. N did the right thing going with wildly popular SD. It's always getting cheaper so keeping up I s gonna be cheap, I got 128mb at Xmas last year for $40. That will last me a while and by that time 256 will be $40. When I upgraded my PS4 to hybrid 1tb drive in year two it cost me over $100.

Likely going to hold on LA unless digital is $30 even then might wait for an eShop sale or until the cart gets cheap because no one would buy it.

Download size on eshop size is 14.3GB. the game will obviously have a day 1 patch update. They have used a 16GB cart so it looks like Rockstar haven't cheapened out on the cartridge size. What is coming on the cart is the same as the initial download size listed on the eShop.

Sooo... The message is wait until AT LEAST the second print run?

@Hughesy Well, true, but is it really better to not sell the game at all to people like me?

I'm fine with how doom did it, after all when the servers are gone you won't need the multiplayer anymore and all the single player is on the cart. L.A.Noire not so much. Was not going to pick up this one anyway. Never did much for me the first time round

Its a jerk move, but I bought an SD card for a reason. Amazon's 20% off also covers the Switch tax. I do think Nintendo needs to get a gripe on this, but its not the end of the world.

When they offer the deluxe edition with the Day 1 patch and a 32 Gig Switch cartridge so I don't have to download anything upon purchase I'll buy it. Until then, no thanks.

These practices are very worrying from a collectors point of view as years down the line if you want to collect Switch games this one won’t be playable just a useless piece of plastic.

It's like that weird scenario of having to buy a memory card to save your games on the Playstation 1. Now the same thing is happening with games, you need to buy a micro sd to actually load up the game. I wonder how many returns this game gets because people try to play it then realise they need to pay an extra £8 for a micro sd card to play it? Most wil be stuck in that mindset of cart = not digital.

It's very ugly.

Take 2 Interactive has some of the best developers (like the different Rockstar Games studios and 2K Sports) but is unfortunately one of the worst publishers.

@mateq agreed this is not Rockstars fault as it's Nintendo's problem. Nintendo Switch should of had 64gb of internal storage from the start.

I frown upon the idea of a physical game that is not complete, but I want L.A Noir to sell well for third party support.

The switch is a hit Nintendo needs to start shipping with bigger internal storage or with a free sd card like they do with the 3ds, is adults are fine we might bitch about it but we will buy the storage or avoid the games but imagine a clueless parent buying a switch for a kid they could potentially be out of storage on day one if this kid is used to a 500gb Xbox or PS4 that has never said more storage required it could really put some people off