Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, if you want to use its full name, has made headlines today with the unveiling of its debut trailer and release details. Naturally some questions for big GTA fans and indeed Switch collectors have revolved around the file size and what we can expect from the Switch physical version.
Well, it's certainly in the top list of sizeable Switch games, with the North American eShop page listing it as 25.4GB. That's pretty small fry if you happen to download a lot of games on systems like PS5 and Xbox Series X, but is relatively high end on Nintendo's hybrid. Only select titles like Doom (2016) and the NBA 2K games come in with larger file sizes.
If you're going for the eShop version on 11th November you may be fine, especially as relatively big microSD cards are quite affordable in this day and age. It'll raise questions about the retail version, though, as an 'all on the cartridge' offering would necessitate Rockstar paying out for the higher capacity stock from Nintendo (or a deal being struck on more favourable terms). We've seen plenty of occasions where publishers buy cartridges with too little memory and enforce mandatory downloads on players; it's not a popular practice of course, as it rather detracts from the point of having the cartridge at all.
Rockstar does have some negative precedent with this. L.A. Noire was a hefty 29GB for the download version, but even those with the physical edition had to download 14GB of the game.
At the time of writing there's no confirmation as yet on how much of the game will be on the cartridge; we'll keep an eye out for updates.
Comments 98
Wow thats insane
If they can get this game on a cartridge, no excuse to not get Kingdom Hearts on a cartridge.
Saying that all the ports we have gotten so far have been cloud games, This is nice to see.
I can’t see them doing a Witcher 3. Unfortunately. I will probably still go for physical
Hm... Full Borderlands Collection have size file about... Over 70GB, am I right?
Strange, the Euro eshop has it listed as 13gb.
It says 13.1gb on Irish eshop
If you view the eShop listing, it seems each game can be downloaded individually, though it seems they have to be purchased as a bundle, so those without large SD cards should be okay, even if it means only having one GTA downloaded at a time.
You'd hope a company as rich as Rockstar with as safe a bet as GTA would be willing to invest in putting all the content on the Switch cartridge, but we'll just have to wait and see.
@Vyacheslav333 Borderlands Legendary Collection is 21.8 gb on switch, BUT if you count Tales from the Borderlands (that's a telltale game if you've never heard of it) it's about 28 gb
If all three are not on one cart I will not be purchasing.
I am on the fence with this one as it is.
Digital purchase all the way, do not care what file size is as micro sd cards have become quite affordable as of late
@Stocksy if there’s any franchise that can “do a Witcher 3” it’s GTA. I’ll hold out hope, but I won’t place any bets.
I'm pretty excited for this, and I can deal with the file size cus i have a huge micro sd card. Just hope this game runs well.
For 60$ either all on the cartridge or NO buy Easy as that!
Not surprising when you sell three such games as one package. Of course, as someone who had already beaten the games anyway, I might find more sense in simultaneously having all three repeat playthroughs to casually fool around in... but at the cost of 25 Gb at once? Only time will tell.
Still, despite this size and a price my bank's converters interpret as closer to €68/$78 (Russian eShop's recently recurrent downsides of being related to, as you might guess, Russia and its economy😏), I do see myself eventually getting this trilogy on Switch anyway. We're even reportedly getting gyro aiming - and, oddly enough, exclusively on Switch. Push Square commenters are predictably unamused, and it's a headscratcher indeed - DS4 and DualSense both support the functionality.🤔😅
Take Two owns Rockstar and 2k. 2k has never spent more than the minimum viable on physical releases. Don't expect anything different here. I'm more excited that it's getting a day one release on Switch.
Thank heaven for the 1TB micro sd card i got as a present then. I would like the physical, however.
Hmmm... so wait are there full on-cart physical editions coming? I'm really comfortable digital these days, but if we (off-topic) go into the cloud, that's where I draw the line. I do hope this collection gets a proper physical especially cause its a compilation of some of the best GTA games.
Doesn't bother me, I'll buy physical either way, additional install or not.
@kingbk Cartridge size has nothing to do with Kingdom Hearts (3) not being natively ported to Switch.
Just charge $60 and put it all on a PROPERLY SIZED cart.
Please be on 1 cartridge…. I mean, there is no excuse. GTA wil sell very well. And there are 32gb cartridges. Plus i think they even have a 64gb one. No excuses Rockstar!
It says 13.1 GB (GTA3 taking up 2.2Gb, Vice City 119MB and San Andreas 10.8 Gb.)
Yeah...something isn't right here...
But heck, if these games get the physical they deserve and complete on card, then even I'll snaffle one up!
For full price it has better be on a 32GB card.
If it isn’t on 32gb card, I can see them putting 3 and SA on a 16gb card and downloading VC.
Not much if you've downloaded GT Sport on PS4. Weridly, Switch Lite is the first console where I've mainly bought digital games. Just seems to suit the handheld format for me. I might get the disc version on PlayStation.
As long as they allow you to download the games separately (around 12gb each), that's fine.
As for the physical edition, well, we all know how it's going to be XD
@Snatcher What ports do you mean?? In September we had Ni No Kuni 2, DBZ Kakarot and Diablo 2 in the standard way, and recently we got Dying Light. We haven't received many cloud based games actually, only the people make a lot of noise around them.
If the entire collection isn't on the cartridge I will just get it digitally, I really hope they confirm the details sooner rather than later so I don't have to wait.
A Kingston 32GB SD card is £5. If they can't put it on cartridge then I'll be very disappointed.
I can’t see them putting all three on one cart. If they do I’d be surprised
Just buy the Asian version, which always seems to have multigames on a single cart.
I am not optimistic R* is going to shell out money for 32 GB cards, and I'm even less optimistic Nintendo would want to forge a deal with these guys to get these games all on one card. But I would LOVE to be wrong about all this!
I've looked everywhere and can't find the physical game up for preorder.
Almost 100% of games released nowadays receive at least one update to run as intended… so all of them should have a “[Future] Adicional download required” label on its box.
still not as big as the Resident Evil games file size those go up to 40gb
"Hope ya have a big SD card, 'cuz I'm puttin' my game in it."
@ecco6t9 same here , we need to get them to stop this anti consumer practice. Whats worse is that sometimes other regions get all on cart or multiple carts. Corporate greed for the win.
Like this game would not sell if all on cart.. With this Rockstar have the opportunity to make a statement.
@GrailUK interesting, looks like they setup vice city and gta3 on the same engine when they redid them for mobile, making vice city just a mod pack. That is most likely the editions being offered here.
@Stocksy i paid 34.99 for Witcher 3 all on cart, what excuse does everybody else have ...
So that likely means it will physically ship on either a 8GB or 16GB card with a day one download for the rest...
I would be amazed if all the games are on a 32 GB cart on release...
So a day one download for the physical edition looks almost certain unfortunately.
I need a bigger microSD, the one I have is 128GB and I'm constantly having to 'clean the fridge.'
I am willing to pay more for physical, but pleeeease don't make me download 10 plus more gigs. This happend to me with Hat in Time.
Most likely be the smallest physical card they can use, similar with LA Noire with a large download
Getting the PS4 version. These are games for the TV anyway, and I've got a lot more memory on that thing than on my Switch.
@ICISAZEL exactly my point. 32gb cart. But these guys They didn’t do it for LA Noire. Cant see them doing it now.
@Stocksy Also lets not forget the Bioshock collection release. That was insulting and I am still disappointed
It's a long shot but since Nintendo is pushing this through their social media, they may help in making sure it's using a 32GB cart like they did with Witcher 3 seeing that this is a pretty important release for Switch but that's largely wishful thinking, lol. Granted, I know this is a really LONG shot but still a possibility. If it's left solely to Take-Two Interactive, they will cheap out as much as possible and I fully expect them to do something like an 8GB Cart and force you to download the second 2 games fully since that's how they've handled the bulk of their Switch releases. They are one of the absolute WORST companies for physical Switch releases.
@the_beaver Recent. like over this month recent.
Time for them to release the 64gb carts so us with 1tb or 2tb whenever that comes can fit the games.
Some people are speculating that the switch version is being distributed by Nintendo themselves, which could indicate they are producing a cart big enough to hold all the games on one cart. hopefully.
They can always seek advice from Shin'en since they're essentially compression wizards.
GTA 3 on the cart the other 2 as downloads. Calling it now
@doctorhino Oh! That's some good deduction!
I don’t think we getting 3 games in the cart. Let’s hope
For three games, 25 GB sounds kinda normal.
Need to see the performance of these games but if they're solidly done then I can see myself picking these up to play on the go.
I am currently holding in my hand a 32 GB cartridge with the entirety of The Witcher 3 on it. So there is no real excuse for the download codes.
I actually sold my LA Noire because the mandatory download banner on the case bothered me too much.
It's crazy to think the reason Kingdom Hearts Colllection couldn't be handled natively by the Switch seems to be more related to storage than processing power (settings could be tuned in order to make it work on KH3)
@kingbk KH wasn’t ported, it’s streaming. They specifically had this made for the Switch, just like other AAA devs have done in the past with games like DOOM and The Witcher 3.
@Aurumonado no, you aren’t. That’s a 32GB cart and—while it has the whole game on it— they definitely patched it a couple of times post release.
I think I'll pass on downloadable games this size on the Switch until the Switch can play games from an external hard drive if that ever happens.
Oh this doesn’t bode well at all…. I would gleefully buy a cart with all 3 games on it, but regretfully skip the collection entirely if it’s an undersized cart needing a mandatory download.
Please don’t keep us in suspense for too long Rockstar. 😬
@Res462 My mistake - I fixed my comment. That's actually even more impressive.
We'll get the inevitable 4gb cartridge that's just a launcher that needs 21gb of download data. And the box will have a plain blank inner cover.
If it was the people that ported Witcher 3 to Switch then I would be optimistic on the 32 card being used. Like it was mentioned before, LA Noire on Switch was disgustingly handled and I don’t see this being much better.
I highly doubt Take Two will use a 32gb cart because they never have. I'm assuming it will be on a 16gb cart with the rest being a download. Hopefully I'm wrong and the complete trilogy comes all on the cart. It's nice to know GTA will be getting kind of a physical release for Switch at least, instead of digital only 😕. Now I just need confirmation of a physical PS5 release please.
GTAIII and Vice City are on the cartridge, while San Andreas is a separate download.
I agree with everyone that is excited to play this on a Nintendo system. I messed around with all of these on the old consoles, but I loved Chinatown Wars on 3ds. Looking forward to this on my Switch OLED. I have a PS5 but Switch will be my preference.
For 2K/Rockstar standards, this is pretty generous. San Andreas is the biggest game of the three and would take up probably 12-14gb, whereas the two others would take only 6gb (this is basing off the comparisons of original file sizes). Each game is the average size of any Switch game, but jammed into one Game Card or download.
The most irritating thing about Rockstar is that they released GTAV on PC on SEVEN discs, that's seven DVD-9s, each with textured artwork (which certainly wouldn't be cheap to produce either).
As cheap as DVDs are (I can't vouch for double-layers), I have a very hard time believing that a 32GB cartridge in 2021 is going to cost as much as pressing seven DVD-9s with textured artwork and a large box, especially for a company whose flagship game has been dominating sales charts since 2013.
With great reluctance, I did buy (and complete) L.A. Noire, but on two conditions: 1) It was shrink-wrapped, and 2) It was cheap (I ended up buying it for around AU$30 after it was discontinued). Frankly, I thought that was too much, but I would have happily paid full price for a proper, honest physical edition (and still would!).
As much as I want GTA on Switch (especially Vice City), this is going to be a very hard pass if Rockstar screw over the Switch's physical release. I'll just stick with Chinatown Wars on DS and GTA V on PC instead.
After reading this I checked my system data. I have a bunch of stuff archived (including MK11 ultimate, which is a whopper at30+ gb) but the largest active game I have is Xcom 2 collection at 17.9gb on the sd card.
This is noteworthy because my copy of xcom 2 is physical. Oof
Makes sense as despite being PS2 games they are enhanced, have revamped visuals and are meaty games. I plan myself on getting the PS5 version at launch for that nice 4K 60FPS but i also plan on getting the Switch version as a nice present.
@Snatcher *Seeing that
Damn, hope it's all on the cart. Would it be cheaper for a publisher to put it on multiple smaller carts, and mold a new case? I'm not buying if it's not on the cart. At that point, i'll get it for $2 on steam someday instead.
Don't mind the file size really! Though I wish the games make enough sales to make Rockstar do the same for Bully and RDR1. More than happy to have GTA trilogy on Switch!
I'll only be purchasing this if all 3 games are on the cart in their entirety so it's up to Rockstar if they want my money or not.
There isn't really an incentive for Nintendo to encourage physical sales and do a deal to get all three games on one cart. They'll get a better cut on the eshop and they have more control over the pricing.
call me old fashion but I think somebody would prefer a physical game for Christmas, rather than a download as a gift.
Nintendo would be crazy to have a physical release with only a code or partial product in the box.
@SpringLand I noticed that as well. I kind of hope it's true since then we'd get all the games on the cart for sure. But I wonder what have they cut (if the 13gb is true) in order to get the size to be that small.
As long as all the games are on the cartridge, I couldn't care less. Even if they opt for multiple carts, I'm cool with that. But I'm done with these companies that go the lazy or cheap routes of cloud games or small cart and big download, respectively. CDPR, no matter how problematic now, showed them how it's done with the Witcher 3.
I would imagine most people who don’t care about physical copies don’t bother to post in this article, but I am surprised so many people still do care.
Physical games - that almost always require post release patches and updates - should be extinct by now.
It’s a waste if plastic and space.
Hard pass, even if they would release a physical version it would be like the RE trilogy. 1 game is on the cartridge, the other 2 are downloads...Guess I will stick to the PC version and play handheld on the steam deck instead
It`s 13gb for whole trilogy . How big were the originals ?
25.4GB is a big increase on the 3.2GB the IOS versions run to. Hopefully that means substantial improvements.
@ecco6t9 Is it such a big deal if you have to download part of the games from Nintendo's servers?
These memory complaints are just dumb. Since n64 era, I’ve been managing storage on every device, pc, console, whatever it is. My iPhone runs out if space, need to clean up photos and games. My ps3 needed a 100 gb hard drive, my Xbox and it’s 500gb is out of room and needs to be managed. My switch went from 256gb on launch day to a 1tb about a year ago. Guess what, it’s filling up. When I get an oled, I’m probably just getting a 2tb as well and someday, it might be full as well.
At same time, not every person will need 2tb on their switch and Nintendo is smart for not having those people pay for extra onboard memory and giving them the option of s cheap 64gb if they wanted.
Physical version will probably have Vice City complete on the cart with download codes for the other two.
Article needs updating; it’s 13gb on the eShop.
Eh, sounds about right.
I've gone full digital now anyways. Don't care about carts and sizes and all that nonsense. Just give me the games. That's all I want.
@Emperor-Palpsy
eShop is wrong. eShop usually just lists the base game file sizes, and games that are split for cartridge updates usually have a base size small enough for a 16GB cart, and the rest is an "update" not counted in the file size.
This would line up with 1-2 games on the cart, and the rest an update download.
I will be buying the collection regardless of if they are all on the cartridge or not, though I would have preferred all three games to be physically on the cartridge. I still have my original boxes of the trilogy from my Playstation 2 days, so it would have made sense to have the collection physically too. I know the odds of that are pretty slim with the file sizes reported above. At least one of the games will definitely be a download more than likely.
I wish you could buy them individually. I only want vice city and only want physical media.
The box art has the dreaded 'download required' box at the bottom
Man, they had one job...
@doctorhino Idk what you ment to say but all these games run on Unreal Engine 4 not on the botched anniversary editions they released on mobile devices.
The Switch version likely has lower res textures than the high-end version and as the games are not seperated, share engine data but I cannot say for certain.
@khululy ok, well yeah I'm completely wrong about it using the mobile engine, sounds like running on UE4 is a much better solution so it will be interesting to see how that effects gameplay. GTA5 is on RAGE so I'm surprised they didn't just port it to that, but I also know nothing about the game's code.
@doctorhino I don't know much either but the Rage engine is quite demanding and maybe converting the Renderware(the original engine) assets was easier with UE4? or maybe the team that made this had more experience with UE4 and it would be the easier option.
Also UE4 runs on the Switch, IOS and Android phones as to push as much sales as possible.
They'll go for an 8GB cart and put one game on there and force you to download the other 2 (Like Borderlands trilogy pack which only had the 1st game w/o its DLC on the cart). Bet that's what it'll be.
@Roz1281 i believe Dual cart cases already exist, they ship some games like this is Asia already
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