Nintendo Appears To Have Updated Donkey Kong Bananza's Switch 2 File Size

Nintendo's compression continues to be absolute witchcraft lol. A game this big with a file size this small seems like it should be impossible.

Nintendo should sell their proprietary compression technique to Activision and EA.

Mario Kart World is a big open world so it makes sense for DK to be less than half the size.

Witchcraft. That's the only logical reason for a game of this caliber to be so compressed.

Edit: @Bigmanfan beat me to it!

Do we know the game is going to be big though?

I don’t mind shorter games, and it really has little to do with how great a game is anyway

How nice to not download 100gb of content for once.

@N00BiSH Not really... Nothing in the games screams large file size. The textures look low res, blurry, and simplistic. Models are low poly with some of the environment being pokemon levels of bad. There probably also aren't that many audio files which are compressed (RIP anyone with a HIFI system). Given that the Switch has extremely high-speed storage they are don't have to repeat textures which saves on space. Nintendo also develops only for one platform. They don't have to worry about how their game will work if they have to port to another platform.

But God damn do the game look good!

My guess is that since the terrain is mutable, it is not taking up space in the game because it would have to be generated on system rather than completely modeled in storage… if that makes sense?

But that’s just a theory…

@AverageGamer Did we watch the same footage? Nothing about the game looks “low res and blurry”.

I think it helps that Nintendo's games tend to not have heaps of voice lines and textures that take up literal tens of gigabytes like some UE5 type games etc.

But yes still, impressive they keep sizes so compact.

I guess Pauline takes up less space than Oddrock

All the clever stuff people have said above.
But also their game engine itself will probably help massively, and probably specifically produced and designed just for switch 2.

Thank god for Nintendo probably almost the only real game company left that knows what console gaming and exclusivity and getting the best from your console really is about.

@Jprhino84 It looks horribly low res and blurry if you set it to 360p on Youtube

I really wish Nintendo could handle the compression for third parties!

Please share your compression techniques with Capcom. Street Fighter 6 is taking a huge chunk of my SD 😭 Cmon Capcom, compress baby, compress!

@solarwolf07

A GAME theory

@chickje It’s funny you mention that because I made sure to set the direct to 4K 60 in order to offset YouTube compression as much as possible.

"Compression" this, "Compression" that.
Some people are obsessed with methods they're used to, instead of thinking ever so slightly outside of the box.

How about.. "Low res textures that get upscaled by the Nvidia AI tech, whilst they're being loaded into memory." and "Shaders are doing a lot of the work on DK, look at his actual texture" and "layers of textures create multiple forms of the same texture in different looking styles", and a myriad of other wonderful methods to keep the overall amount of data to a minimum.

Why must it always be about compression?!

One thing I hate in video games is when the audio is ao compressed that the voices sound muffled. But the audio in the trailer seemed pretty loud and clear. And damn does the soundtrack sounds amazing! That is the thing that made me even more excited for the game!

Also, Mario Odyssey, alias the 3d Mario game the most packed with content ever made is only about 6gb. Nintendo are masters of optimization, that's all!

It’s nice seeing first party games that isn’t obsessed with being 100+ GB.

It sucks they only manufacture 64gb game carts then. Nobodys gonna splurge on carts 8 times bigger than their games.. tell me youre pushing for digital without telling me youre pushing for digital. But Im happy for digital buyers.

@sanderev I'm not too sure. SF6 for ex is 49GB. Ok, it has the World Tour mode but it is a pretty small "open world". And it has almost no pre rendered videos in it.

Considering their gamecarts suck now for thirds...

I know they're going the way of "simplistic but nice" graphics, with not-so-high textures and all, but still. That's quite impressive. This game looks like a Pixar movie !

@Automated_Unit_4937 It isn’t as though those companies aren’t equipped with the talent or resources to compress their file sizes better. They make a conscious decision not to invest in it because they have decided it’s not worth it and that people will put up with it. That’s all it is.

@Jayenkai Obviously, lay people are using the terms "compression" and "optimization" interchangeably. Not a big deal if you can tell what they mean, take a chill pill

@MamaSymphonia I kinda agree.. Like "screensaver" (nngh) But there were lots of people talking about giving other companies the compression, and such, and that's where I draw the line!!!
There's no clickable "magic me mini" button. It's hard work and effort that keeps the games small.

How is it that much smaller than Mario Kart? Did the game require that many gigs in order to have Boshi?

Absolute wizardry. Hopefully it doesn’t mean the game’s too light on content (doesn’t look like it will be)

DLC incoming ?

@StewdaMegaManNerd Mario Kart World's massive soundtrack probably takes up a good chunk of space.

That file size is pretty incredible to be honest. I know this game will be packed with content so I expected a higher file size amount. I have plenty of space to spare regardless since I only keep games I am currently playing downloaded. I don't even have an SD card in my Nintendo Switch 2 yet.

I hear "Key-Card" bells......

@sethfranum I highly highly doubt that Nintendo will ever use a Key Card. They’ve already said that they have no intention of doing so and Bananza was already in late development at that point.

@sethfranum they already said their games won't be on game key cards

@HugoGED Nope bad comparison. It depends on how many objects are used, and their sizes. Not a big open empty world that doesn't take up much file size at all.

I like that odd rock was a troll stand in piece from nintendo, it was the one thing that didn't sit right in the previous DK trailer. So much better now. Love the whole idea of this game. My kids will love it too.

More evidence that this is from the Odyssey team. Odyssey's file size was 5.6 GB so this seems about right for a Switch 2 "follow-up" that suggests the game will be of a similar scope. I'll be getting this digitally so I'm glad it won't be taking up to much space as it's one I don't think I'll ever want to delete. Can't wait

I genuinely wonder just how the hell they do it.

This is exactly why I was in no desperate rush to get an SD card.

256gb is plenty to be going on with if Nintendo keeps pumping out similar file sizes

@Jprhino84 I think you're confusing image resolution with texture resolution. The actual image resolution of the game is fine. You need to go back and watch the video. Look at some of the texture on the rocks that Donkey Kong pulls from the ground.

@AverageGamer I’ve watched it plenty. That isn’t blurry. Somewhat simplistic perhaps (which is why I didn’t dispute that part of your claim) but those aren’t blurry textures. The fact is that there could be numerous technical ways to keep the file size down. Assuming it’s due to something that we can see in the footage is pure guesswork.

Man nintendo compression system is magic, only 8.5GB for 3D games like this is amazing 😃

I want to hold off buying a SD card for as long as possible. Want to get a 1tb but don't want to spend more than $100 on it

The game would have been 1.5 GB larger, but Nintendo decided to save space and time by not making any shoes for Pauline.

@Bigmanfan Umm that's fine and all, but how can you say a game "that big", and it's not even out yet and no one really knows how "big" it is? Also, it's funny that your username is "Bigmanfan", considering. haha

Don't worry, I will have it ready. This game will be epic!

I will be getting it on cart so hopefully there won't be much to download 😊

@Apebitmusic I suppose I am making some assumptions lol. But typically only their biggest games get dedicated directs, so seems like a safe guess.

Very nice, wish third party Devs could do the same, some third party games are way too big these days!

Genius Nintendo.