Ubisoft Collaborating With Virtuos For The Switch Version Of Starlink: Battle For Atlas

If this brings toy arwings and Star Fox figurines, I couldn't be happier to have them in the game.

The game is 15GB or if you buy on cartridge there's an additional 15GB?

I'm trying to decide digital or physical for this one.

@Liam_Doolan
Thanks =)

I automatically assumed there's a digital version but I forgot about the toy part. I don't know if the toys optional or if its like Disney Infinity etc where you need the portal to play.

If the toy wasn't necessary would the digital version be cheaper? Would it have Star Fox without the toy? I want this game but there's lots I need to know.

Extremely disappointing that Nintendo is letting this crap slide with a title that is utilising their own IP.

Star Fox almost made this an instant buy. The mandatory download has made it a "no way in hell".

Does Fox appearing in Starlink mean we'll see Link appearing in the next Starfox? #HotNSpicyRumours

Nice! Now i want starfox even more.

@Heavyarms55 : And that's not even the real issue here. Publishers should be using the 32GB cartridges but are just flat-out refusing to. What's worse is that this is using Nintendo IP, so you would think that Nintendo would dig a little deeper considering.

Whether one opts for the retail or digital version, they're screwed either way as microSD storage substantially adds to the overall cost of the software, and those who idiotically justify this practice (which is also to THEIR detriment) are ignoring the long-term issues that will arise from this practice. If, for example, you used multiple microSD cards with your Switch, you may have to swap out TWO cartridges to play a single game (the retail cartridge as well as the microSD card that contains the mandatory download).

Since there is a special controller needed to clip the joycon into, I'm not sure to understand what are we talking about...

Would have bought it if not for the mandatory download. Skip.

I'd rather hope for some games on today's Ninty Direct

@Silly_G,

Don't buy it then...simple.

@Heavyarms55,

It's that Nintendo uses cartoon type visuals that require much less space.

@Silly_G you clearly don't know how developing games work.

Optimizing file size wise is dependable on which system the core game is made, in this case probably PS4.

That's Nintendo titles are so small, they are made with Switch in mind, to make this game smaller would mean the core version needs to be on the Switch which it isn't, was the same with Vita games for example were games made for it are smaller while ports from PS4 sometimes even need extra download because it doesn't fit on the cartridge.

@Heavyarms55 the fault is both Nintendos en the devs, Nintendo shouldn't ask such a ridiculus price for the 32gb cartridge and developer choose smaller carts because otherwise the physical would be €10 to €15 more because of the extra costs and people would get angry because of the price.

It would be same issue as now, people would complain anyway and publishers are already making a loss because 16gb cart is about 2x to 3x times the price of a blu-ray, 32gb would be even worse.

I don't like this neither but Nintendo MUST make these cartridges cheaper.

I thought they had also confirmed that the toys were not required to play as long as you buy the ingame equivalents....any one know?

@Silly_G This is all on Nintendo!

That is what you get, when you make proprietary cartridges that are so expensive for developers to force these download practices.

The problem is that the 32 GB cartridges are just too expensive and developers would either be forced to take a huge hit on sales profit or increase the price of the physical Switch game and then no one will buy it, since it's cheaper to buy digital or on a different platform.

It's up to Nintendo to fix this mess and bring down the price of the 32GB cartridges so developers can actually use them.

Shame about the download requirement, hopefully closer to release they'll change their tune. Still interested regardless. Glad Virtuos is on board.

15gb!? What a disaster. No buy.

@Jeronan But at the same time, we've already seen time and time again that laser discs are just not a viable option for portable devices. Either way, Nintendo's hands were tied the moment they decided to go the handheld route.

Not fond of this kind of videogames with toys.

All these nonsense about gigabytes that need to be downloaded. So what? You download your music, you download your movies, you even stream them. Download that f@#$%g game too and stop complaining.

From all third party devs, so far, only Ubisoft did a decent job.
Personally, this E3 at the moment is a huge let down.
Can count the games from third party using one hand, I was expecting more from them.
Ubisoft is the only one that is bringing more than one game and even like that they are games that we either new they or that is not a system seller.
I mean where is Assassins Creed? Division? etc. Would love to play those.

@Mathias_Wolfbrok That is not really the core of the issue.

If you currently look at the prices of Micro SD cards, then you see there is only about 3-4 dollar difference between 16 and 32 GB micro SD cards.
That's a 12% price difference for double the memory.
But with the Switch game cartridges this does not seem the case. There is a huge price difference between the 16 and 32 GB versions.

This is Nintendo's fault, because they refuse to order them in large enough numbers to bring the production price down.

Nintendo needs to understand that game sizes have increased over the years and that if they want to secure enough 3rd party support, that they need to support these increased game sizes and thus need to order larger quantities of 32GB cartridges!

@Heavyarms55 you are ignorant.

With your logic Breath of the Wild it too big because I played same graphicaly looking open world games 8 years ago that were under 5gb.

Audio quality, textures and graphics matter a lot, not wanting to accept that proves you don't know anything about the subject.

Nobody forces your choice or opinion to change, but don't state BS like a fact.

People should be happy that we get the game AT ALL considering how many AAA western devs just ignored the Switch.

(and people seem to forget that breath of the wild is made with switch in mind, graphics are less than on other systems such game would be, and again when building a game from ground you can optimize it for the device, with porting it's a completely different story)

@Jeronan preciesly the issue, nintendo must lower the prices.

The 32gb is already stupidly expensive, imagine how expensive the 64gb cartridge will become.

Ubisoft is the new Capcom

@Jeronan Yes, except Nintendo is also coming from a period where games on their platform undersold, including 1st party games, which can explain the conservative production of cartridges. Add to that the reports of shortages in flash memory, and you get a situation where a 32 GB cartridge is just not viable financially.

Now, I have no doubt that the prices for these cartridges will go down as we move forward, but so will the prices for 16 GB and 8 GB cartridges. The harm is already done, and 3rd parties will continue this shady tactic going forward. Should Nintendo block that at some point, they lose the support, which really isn't what they need right now. In other words, this situation was inevitable. It sucks for everyone, but it was inevitable.

Meh, I'm slowly getting used to these mandatory downloads.😒 Since all these publishers refuse to pay one or two bucks more for bigger cartridges (to absolutely maximize profits), there isn't much I can do about it.

@Rayquaza2510
No one really knows how much more these cartridges cost, but I can assure you, it's not 10 or 15 or even 30 bucks.
Publishers like to maximize profits and therefore, even a cost of 3 to 4 bucks more is to much in must cases.

The last game that needed a hefty download for me was Nba 2k18... it was deleted last week and will never be reinstalled.

Starlink is a no buy for me. They can use a bigger flash rom on their game card, cheapskates!

So if the cartridge is empty, we get a physical medium offering a DLC ?

To be fair, this is a game that is being developed for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo platforms at the same time - while it must be easy to keep the file size down when building with only the Switch in mind from the ground up, I imagine this would be a lot trickier if you had to severely compress a game that has also been built for more graphically capable home consoles that do not have this kind of storage limitations. And since the main aim of developers is to make profit, I doubt they would opt to buy bigger cartridges (cutting into their profits) or increase the price of the game (potentially reducing the number of sales).

No, I’m not too keen on the mandatory 15gb download, but I might buy this regardless (if it reviews well), as I really like what I’ve seen so far. I got a 200 GB micro SD for my Switch on sale before release, so I still have plenty of room to spare.

Yet again people are whining about storage. Amazon are selling a 200GB Sandisk card for £54.99, which for even the largest games makes it less than a fiver per game. Hardly breaking the bank is it?
?
Publishers are bound to prefer that you buy download games - more profit as no physical overheads, plus they don't make money on traded games. Additionally games are sold at 'rrp' which is usually £10 more than physical - this has been the case for years, and for Sony/Microshaft too. Nice extra profit there too.

That's fine, it's just 15gb. Not even half of my SD cards capacity. I don't know what world people live in where they think storage capacity isn't going to be needed on Switch. It plays games, not demonic incantations that perfectly stream games to your Switch.

And then come the armchair developers pretending like they know anything about....well, anything.

@BraveBiT mine sometimes plays incantations. Something about chaturga and mantorok.

But I agree completely. I guess no one remembers the original 360 that ran out of space very fast

People forget companies can ignore the Switch totally if they want to and focus on the other 2 consoles.

15gb extra download sucks, but be happy that Ubisoft as 1 of the few big western devs even decided to bring this to the Switch while most others ignored the system or came with FIFA using last gen engine or a mobile fallout game.

Make the best out of it and let's hope Nintendo lowers the damn cartridge prices, especially considering they want to bring a 64gb model out too.

@EasyDaRon you could always get the digital only game, I love physical games but sometimes it's better to have the game at all than nothing.

@Jeronan They cannot do that though. Nintendo mentioned this last year actually. They were having trouble getting a big supply of cards from any one supplier and had to source from multiple companies.

That will definitely jack up the prices. Also, coming off of a rather terrible console generation that probably would have made them more than a little hesitant to eat the cost of the media for developers.

We probably won't see prices return to normality until sometime next year since shortages are forecasted well into this year. Part of the reason why it's taking so long is the manufacturers are concerned about "oversaturating" the market (which would cause a crash in prices).

If by some miracle Rockstar brings any GTA game to Switch and they require a mandatory download, that would not bother me in the slightest. Yes, I would rather it not happen but if it means I have to miss out on a game I want to play, then that is not worth the trade off.

oh ummmmm.... im alittle bummed but i have a 64 gb card, so idk. god d*mmit better not become a trend...

i don't care! i'm still getting it! you can't tell me what i need to do!

@EasyDaRon Not sure how anyone can possibly think the game is missing on the cart😕, its just the other half OF the game, or perhaps extra content? 🤔 They said this in the begining, there is no game missing from the cart. This is the other half that they couldnt fit, an 'additonal 15 gb. Doom had the same deal, and there wasnt anything missing on it, doom was really big , the size of doom on the cart was 16 gb.

@Cosats
Well said.