A Digital Copy Of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Will Use Up Over Half Of Your Switch's Memory

It's a big game, so yeah it makes sense that it would use so much space. There's so many characters, stages, assist trophies, collectibles, etc. Going physical, like I usually do.

I'm still so conflicted whether if I should get Ultimate physical because of cheaper prices with Amazon Prime and for the beautiful box art, or if I should get it digital because I'd want to have it on me at all times (which I love a ton). Storage isn't an issue for me.

And this is why I still buy physical.

Look at all these people with no micro sd card.
My 400 GB sd card is ready.

I have 200 gigs but I will get physical in this case, why waste my space?

I figured this would be the case, and that I’d need to invest in an SD card when this game came around. I’m likely going digital for this, and will install it to the system and move other items to a card.
I don’t need physical because I’m keeping this title as long as I own my Switch, I keep my cases in a drawer, and if I want to play it at my friends’ for our monthly game night, I’d be taking my Switch so we’d have more controllers added to hers (like I already do). No true reason for me to go physical anymore

Physical. Always. (Except Sonic Mania - But double dipped so kinda moot )

There's something that has caught my attention in that illustration of the Smash characters for the second time-- Why is Mr. Saturn in there? I get that he's relatively under Lucas there, representing Earthbound of course, but he's been an item up to now, and every other character I can glean from that illustration is a playable character. Am I reading to deep...?

Hold up, a game over 16 gb that doesn't require a download even for physical copies? This is crazy stuff considering some companies cheap out on 4 gb carts for like 7 cb games, Nintendo is actually providing 16 (or even 32, unlikely but possible) gb carts, which is great customer service! Take notes everyone else!

Already pre-ordered the physical version just in case I don't like it and decide to sell it... Just kidding! I'm never selling this game, I just like physical versions

@Dash000
As much as I want to agree, the game might be exactly 16 gig + patches.
But you are perfectly right to say that all games should fit on a cartridge without requiring a massive download.

For someone with a SD card of 128 or more this is no problem, but yeah, it quite sucks.

My 128 GB is up to the task. Still got a good 36.7 space and I can always archive the games I don't play anymore. Easier to manage my digital hoarding than it is to manage my physical one.

I preordered a physical copy as soon as it became available. 20% off with amazon prime. 😁

Nintendo's always good about keeping file sizes low. Their biggest game in terms of sheer size was Xenoblade Chronicles X at ~23 GB, which was compressed down to a more manageable 13 GB for Xenoblade 2.

BotW is also less than 16 GB and that's yet another huge as hell game.

DKC Tropical Freeze went from 11.4 GB to 6.6 GB AND sports faster load times on the Switch.

ARMS and Mario Tennis Aces are also like 2 GB each, which is hilarious if you think about it.

Nintendo and small file sizes go hand-and-hand even more than Nintendo and "gimmicks".

Never buy digital when I can get 20% off physical. More expensive and more space - The math never makes much sense regardkess

A lot of data for WiiU games were duplicated in order to provide faster loading times. Using different compression techniques as well as faster media allows for better loading in general.

I'm not suprised - all characters, more stages, tons of trophies and music all in HD quality? Yeah that will take up lots of space, 16GB is quite impressive for that amount of content.

Smash Bros. taking up 16+ gigs? Surprising.

What’s not surprising is how much money you’ll save when you switch to Geico.

(I already preordered my physical edition. I need a new micro SD!)

Or just get the physical version like a person.

Reason why I bought a 256gb card the day I got my switch. It’s a must for consoles just like buying s graphics card and ram sticks for your pc too.

I hope it fits in a cart, since Nintendo shouldn't argue big size carts are too expensive and thus half the game has to be downloaded. They produce them and don't have third party developers' excuse.

The only logical solution is to buy a new Switch just for this game.

My 128GB is pretty much filled.
But I'm usually buying the bigger games physically, and the smaller games digitally anyways.

Will still be getting this digital, no question. Good to know how big it is I guess though!

Do we really need an entire article describing the wholly expected and reasonable size of a game?

I think the author of this story would loose his mind if he seen the size of some Xbox and PS4 games

Buying physical to save space on switch — and cuz it was cheaper physically

Well its a good thing I'm getting a physical copy.

@Balchad my 400GB card is only 40GB away from being full.

Fabulous news since this has high chances of meaning more content

Over 16GB eh? I wonder Nintendo will use a 32GB cart or have a mandatory update to play the game.

@EvilLucario go physical especially since they usually come with pre order goodies.

Physical all day everyday, I'll get 20% off with Best Buy GCU plus an additional $10 back from rewards for pre ordering. So basically the game will cost me $37.99. 😁

Is that title supposed to scare us? I haven't even used up a quarter of my SD cards size yet. Smash added into the mix will hardly even be noticed.

@Dash000 We don't know what the size on cartridge is going to be yet, that hasn't been revealed.

@link3710 Of course, but given that the game is 16 gb and Nintendo put the full game on the cart for, say, BoTW, we can assume the cart will be at least a 16 gb one, thus my point that its pathetic when other devs give like a 4 gb card and stuff.

Is this going to be the first 32GB cartridge in the west?
Even if it's only 15,9GB, a 16GB cart can hold only around 14GB, so Ultimate seems to need the next bigger one, which is 32GB.

@MeloMan Mr. Saturn seems like an item carried by the Pikmin. He's part of the Olimar art. I've seen another official picture where characters are shuffled around, but Mr. Saturn is exactly the same pinned with Olimar and the Pikmin.

Sure there will be more amazon deals on sd cards before xmas, for those not getting physical

OF COURSE it's bigger, cause EVERYBODY's here!!!

I figured it will take a lot of space, usually I prefer physical but for something like Smash Bros that I play so often thorough the year the convenience of always having it in the system makes digital the better choice in my eyes.

'A Digital Copy Of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Will Use Up Over Half Of Your Switch's Memory'

What, it will use up 150GB?!

FYI: My Switch has a total memory of 288GB. Since the title doesn't mention which part of the Switch's memory (internal or external) it's referring to, I must assume it means the combined total because, you know, internet users don't read anything below the headline.

I'm going physical with SSBU but 16gb isn't even a thing to be worried about in comparison to my other consoles.

I have no interest in Smash anyway, but that’s still nothing compared to the other platforms. I love that Nintendo is still keeping file sizes of games similar to last gen.

I may sound like a broken record at this point, but the lack of file compression this gen sucks. It’s also the reason I have no interest in 4K. The file sizes and streaming bandwidth requirements for 4K are absurd. As long as ISP’s push data caps, 4K isn’t for me.

@Balchad

I started with a 128GB card, but recently upgraded to a 400GB card. I have less than half of it left.

On a side note, unless I did something wrong, I followed Nintendo’s instructions on backing up my game installs to my PC to port them to my new SD card, but that crap didn’t work and I had to redownload over 100 GB of data. 🤬

Physical as always!

@Moroboshi876 : This is also an "evergreen" title that will never need to go on sale and is guaranteed to sell millions of copies for the next 5 or so years (if not more), so Nintendo has absolutely no excuses whatsoever.

If Nintendo themselves cheap out on this, they can go to hell. Enough is enough. Iwata-san would have never stood for this kind of crap.

@Hikingguy Kind of like the joke of a hard drive that come in the standard PS4 and Xbox One? I had my Xbox One for less than 6 months before I had to buy an external hard drive (or re-install my games each time I wanted to play them which can take forever).

Grabs popcorn to read bellyaching comments

@Hikingguy This is for the digital purchase. This isn’t in addition to a physical copy.

@ValhallaOutcast Difference is, Sony and Microsoft ship their consoles with a reasonable amount of internal memory included. Nintendo’s paltry 32GB is a joke by modern standards on a console that relies very heavily on digital media.

Why would you download when you can buy collect the cool little cartridges and cases!?

@thesilverbrick agreed Nintendo completely cheaper out on internal storage but doesn’t help the fact that good with a lot of content will be huge and 16 GB is almost still small in comparison

Nintendo does their best at their compression tricks

All my original comment meant was 16gb games should be a shock worthy of a story

@thesilverbrick
Sony and Microsoft certainly do not ship their consoles with enough storage. 500GB sounds like a lot but with mandatory installs it disappears fast, our PS4 and Xbox One were maxed out within 6 months after just a few games. Even worse was there was no alternative storage solutions, so we had to delete games before we could play any new ones.

Luckily our Switch never had such problems as storage was available from day one.

Most of the party games I bought digitally.... But this one will be the exception!
Im not worried about the space, just want to add this to my collection of game cards! :&

@ThanosReXXX it’s so big cuz yo momma is here. Ooohhhhhh

You are mixing "memory" with "storage". The Switch has 4 GB of memory and 32 GB of storage.

@HobbitGamer Yo momma jokes, REALLY???
Talk about a blast from the past...

I already know WAY too many of them, so my brain is already poisoned...

Wow, bigger than I expected...was planning to go digital but I may have to delete something for it to fit. (Sorry Xenoverse 2, I hardly knew ya. )

@thesilverbrick Not in a relative sense. X1X and PS4 Pro come with 1TB storage on consoles that regularly eat 50-100GB per game (physical and digital). Switch comes with 32GB on a console that eats between 1-9GB per game (physical) but much more digital. In the actual count of "how many games can you own without buying more storage or uninstalling things", Switch comes out basically even for physical buyers (except these stupid games requiring 9GB downloads), and worse for digital buyers. Of course Switch has to buy solid state memory while the other consoles through in a cheap budget 5200RPM laptop drive.....

@CaPPa 6 months and maxed is good for a PS4 or Xbox and sounds reasonable.
32gb is maxed day 1 on switch

I'm 100% digital, 16GB is no problem. I'm used to downloading games much larger than that on Steam.

@Hikingguy Got IT!! (sorry, it’s been one of those work days where you wonder how some people around you don’t lock themselves out of their office)

Even though I have played all Super Smash Bros. games (4 on 3DS only), I have never been a huge fan of the gameplay. The first game had interesting bonus stages that I liked like Break the Targets. The third one included a Kirby-like story mode. This fifth entry seems to be huge fan service which is good if you are fan of a big roster.

@ValhallaOutcast okay so what? Ps4 can handle those games sizes and xbox most certainly can. But Nintendo can handle. But stuff like this is big for Nintendo.

@EvilLucario Get both physical and digital
For a game like Smash I would say it's totally worth it to have it digital so you can always play it when you feel like it.

Also remember guys $140 for 400GB microsd card on Amazon Prime Day is not a bad deal at all.

@Lazygamer17 is it not very close to the same size of smash for Wii U?

Are there not other Nintendo published games in the 16GB range?

Again I’m not trying to compare or say anything other than “why is this a story”

So I definitely want the physical version in other words. Huge games are what physical editions are for.

A hard copy for me please Nintendo. No doubt updates will take up a ton of space anyway.

@Hikingguy Who is forcing you to buy the digital version instead of physical?

Well, I rarely get digital anyways. And considering how most Switch games are actually pretty small, relatively speaking (Odyssey takes up much less space then I ever thought it would) I'm cool with it. I never expected this game to take up any less the 10 gigs, at minimum.

@Balchad I have a 256GB atm but am seriously considering upgrading to the 400GB during this sale. 256GB isn’t enough these days XD

I just hope those 16gb are all fit on the cartridge and I don't need any additional download.

Not a big deal, I'm buying physically anyway, but even I wasn't this still wouldn't be a big deal. Buying extra storage for your console isn't something new, I don't understand why in 2018 some people think it's some foreign idea. It's kinda been the standard since the N64/PS1 days..

Eh. Still getting it digitally. This is the sort of game I'm going to want to pop in and out of for years to come. I made the mistake of buying Splatoon 2 and MK8D physically, but I won't repeat that mistake with Smash.

@tekknik Yeah I have been struggling with my 200GB card for a while now. I finally just decided to buy the 400GB myself, I am tired of trying to figure out what I want to delete and passing up games for taking up too much space.

Physical, like always for me.

@thesilverbrick, maybe so but considering the games that come on the ps4 and Xbox one. 500gb and 1tb are small too.

I am getting the physical copy anyway.

I have the space...

The chore of deleting unplayed games / redownloading games when you wanna play them again: That's one of the biggest downsides of digital gaming. I'd rather swap a cartridge and be done with it. I'm too lazy to organize hundreds of digital games, especially when Switch's data management is just as clunky as the one in the Wii and Wii U.

this is why I invested in a 400GB MicroSD card

Oh how I wish they'd add external harddrive support.

NINTENDOLIFE, Already, so many games are over 15GB and some are even close to 30 GB. Are we going to have EVERYTIME an article that tells us that the Switch has around 30 GB of internal memory?

The game will probably ship on a 16GB card and be missing just a few things on the card itself that will not be compulsory to enjoy the full experience, like maybe a few BGMs or something that will only make it in through a day 1 patch. At least I don't think a 16GB card could hold it wholly, cause the actual available space on a 16GB one is probably a bit less than 16GB. If it's just a few music tracks and the game is still fully playable off the cart in years from now, I can live with that rather than them putting the game on an 8GB card and have us download over half the size of the full game for it to even boot.

Imagine if ninty went for the 8 gig cart

@Hikingguy Nintendo could have never enough internal storage to appease every single person and requirement. Software can be archived, and SD cards are cheap. I don't really see it as an issue.

Yeap I'm buying the physical copy instead. My microSD card is now at the point where it can no longer accept games larger than 5GB. Please Nintendo release a new Switch with 200GB hard drive please or at least release a new Switch with 2 microSD card slots.

I agree with the people who want a Switch with 2 micro SD card slots, but come on guys,

Micro SD cards are standard tech these days. Long past are the days of buying proprietary system specific memory cards like the Gamecube and PS2 used.

The prices are dropping regularly. A 200gb card isn't even 50 dollars on Amazon right now. Such a card would have been more than double that just a couple years ago.

@EvilLucario Why can't the cartridge be with you all the time? Surely you have a case and it can hold some games.

Definitely digital....even if I have to get a bigger SD card. There’s nothing nicer than sitting back on the couch and switching games if you want without having to dig out the other cart. Try to find something nicer than that I dare you!!

Good I got a 128GB SD card, but if I'm getting this it's physical.

Storage. Not memory. I was like "2gigs? Who cares? Why are you reporting on this."

So, '.3 gigs or more higher than the Wii U version'. That's how I read it😏 I believe by now, anyone with a brain k ow you need a capable memory card for Switch games and to ignore the internal memory. I haven't touched my internal memory because there's really no point. Just get some hefty memory cards or by the physical copy. That should be it.

I guess my 3.5GB counterfeit micro-sd card from China isn't enough then. Oh well. I didn't want to get this game in the first place. No Waluigi = No buy.

You mean half of it's storage. Not memory.

@1UP_MARIO
6 months wasnt good as the games were divided between the 2 consoles.
It's ok now but the point is that it took 7 months for external support on the Xbox One and over 4 years for it to come to the PS4. That's why we stopped buying multiplats on PS4 after the first year. The Switch had storage support right from the start, I bought a 128gb card for $40. There's also the fact that all physical media is installed on those systems but not on the Switch.