It looks like we may have stumbled across the file size for Pokémon Sword and Shield earlier than expected, all thanks to the early appearance of a download card.
Twitter user @MIN428 has shared the following image online, showing off a download card for the upcoming games that was found in a retail store. These cards are often available as a way for fans to pick up a digital copy of their chosen game while visiting their local store, although we wouldn't usually expect to see them a whole month before the game releases.
Assuming the information here is correct, however, the games should be around 10.3 GB in size. For any fact fans out there, that would place it in between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's 14.4 GB size, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's 7 GB size. The Pokémon Let's Go games were under half of this amount at approximately 4.55 GB.
If you're thinking of picking up a copy of either game digitally, you may well need to invest in a micro SD card if you haven't already. All Switch models come with 32 GB of storage as standard, although some of that will already be used up by the console's operating system.
Are you planning on getting one or both of the new Pokémon games digitally? Will you grab a physical copy and avoid any storage issues anyway? Tell us below.
[source twitter.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 33
Huh, 10.3 gigs for less Pokemon, weird
Physical for me as always but that size is rather small considering other games.
But looking from a Pokémon perspective it is the biggest yet
Those are baby numbers, let's make this a mans game and kick it up to 10TB
@mrmememan
I don't think it's that weird when considering the jump to HD.
Pokémon Sun/Moon on the 3DS were around 3gb, and designed for a 400x240 screen.
The download size could be attributed to the inclusion of video clips or such though, depending how they decide to do the title screen or other cutscenes. That's the sort of luxury they have when you have access to the 16gb game cards.
Though i'm shocked that we are getting the games file size revealed before they reveal stuff like the Starter Evolutions. I am all for surprises, but for the love of god just show us the second forms already.
@mrmememan Can we just not this time? Just once? Everyone's said their piece and no one's changing their minds.
@patbacknitro18 @RupeeClock It's just a joke
Bloated as per usual for GF
@RupeeClock
GameFreak is also known for wasting tons of space because of poor work performance.
For Sun and Moon instead of having one model with swap-able features they made a new model for each variant of Lily.
10.3GB is nothing. Most games on other platforms are way larger these days. Some PC games are literally 10 times this size or more!
No national dex aside, we're still talking about literally hundreds of fully animated HD 3D models.
@Xaessya I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens again for this game as well GF should take lessons by Nintendo how to do use less space and data with their games.
Checking also the numbers of players for each position are all 1. Not surprised at all anyways but nice we can play both handheld and docked
Oh, Gamefreak, you continually leave me scratching my head...
cool, 10.3GB. I'll keep that much free on my microSD. Times two.
@mrmememan "Joke"? What on earth is a "joke"? I think you mean a "Gamefreak."
I generally purchase physical for myself and my family but if I was digital only, this would make my 1TB microSD so worth it
Can’t wait to see the complaints about the file size.
I love how people are automatically assuming Gamefreak are wasting space when they literally know nothing about the contents of the game.
Compared to some games these days, 10.3 GB is nothing.
10.3 GB with those graphics? There has to be a lot of stuff we don't yet know about...
Man, Pokémon comment threads are nasty these days. I hope everyone simmers down when the games drop.
@mrmememan To be fair it has around 300 already confirmed, which is more than usual. It's only if you had a full pokemon bank that you'd ever notice or care. If you haven't kept up with pokemon in awhile, the cut doesn't affect you unless you had an obsession with an obscure pokemon
@Tyranexx Switch games are heavily compressed. That's why the file sizes are much smaller than other consoles
Okay. Can we now reveal more pokemon and version differences?
@Xansies Right. Switch games, especially most first-party games, are wonderfully compressed.
I'm getting a physical copy so no storage worries here.
I think what everyone’s issue is that GF has stepped on its fan’s toes so many times now that anything will make us angry. They messed up too many times and have terrible PR and took away Pokémon all so they could make dynamax and this is all for double the price of the main games before it.
But people will still defend them.
@Jashin What's wrong with the graphics? Looks similar things xbc2 to me. The animations and a lot good the models were ripped from the 3ds version, but the models themselves in hd aren't bad and the world looks good, mostly
This site really baffles me sometimes. People defend Luigi's mansion size, then bash this. Why not just wait for the games to come out, before jumping to conclusions at all?
@RupeeClock When you emulate Sun/Moon (and X/Y for that matter), most stuff in the game appears in HD. Pokemon and trainer models are nice and smooth, and no black outlines appear. Looks real sharp.
My personal guess: Dynamax models are mostly uncompressed and take up a huge chunk of memory, at least 3GB. More involved story cutscenes and uncompressed audio probably will also eat up a bunch of memory.
@Bret
Yes, but the models and environments still use low resolution textures, intended for the low resolution display, and the processing capabilities of the system.
@NoxAeturnus
I totally agree with you! Everyone knows each other's opinions.
Tap here to load 33 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...