Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's File Size On Switch 2 Is Making Us Sweat

One for the (eventual) Express Card I think!

I played the game on ps 4 and don't plan to buy it again but if I would , I wouldn't know how to make enough space on my system...

The newer games, remakes etc that the switch 2 can run, will have bigger files sizes.
It’s something Nintendo world will have to get used to.

It was obvious the full game would not fit on a standard cart BUT they could've stuffed the game onto the cartridge and then have hires textures as a seperate download.

Saying that, I am still buying this fantastic game again to play on the go.

Nintendo really should've started out the internal storage at 512 gb for the Switch 2 in my opinion.

It's A LOT. Between this and Assassins Creed Shadows (62,8 GB), they'll eat up over 150gb... Insane.

I don't want to know how big REquiem will be...

I said this in the beginning when the switch 2 was revealed, why did Nintendo go with 256gb onboard storage 😐 512gb would've been the sweet spot in this day and age.

SE hasn’t put a single Switch 2 game on a cart, so let’s not blame the bloated game size for that decision, even if it’s true that it wouldn’t fit.

Which game will end up taking up the entire Switch 2 internal drive?

Why not seperate the Voice Package !
Thats the reason

...couldn't they at the very least put 64 of those gigs on the cart and have us download the rest? Having to get a new express SD card just for one game seems like a tall order if you're trying to appeal to a wide audience.

@the_beaver You don't have to imagine. eShop says it about 30gb iirc

“It makes us wonder just how large Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be”

I shudder to think how uncomfortable it would be to birth something that large once, let alone rebirthing it all over again.

Ooph.

Haha, lol.
Switch 2's base memory capacity is 256GB, right? Funny.

In the past, games used to be CD 1, CD 2, etc. I think the original FFVII was 3 or 4 CDs.

Couldn't they split a game like this into "package 1", "package 2", etc. that you download as you progress, or even download automatically in the background?

I'm sure there's a good reason why they're not doing this already, but as a non-expert, I wonder.

Gonna have to clean the fridge soon

Worst storage ever spent.

This game is at least 30-40 hours too long and padded tingle and back with terrible OCs and NPCs nobody cared about stuck into the main story.

Worst 50+ hours game I’ve ever finished.

Dear Santa, for X-mas I want a 1TB Micro SD Express card.

Yours truly,

Pillowpants

If people want the big third party games on Switch 2 they have to accept they are going to be, well, big!

I am waiting and hoping, perhaps in vain, for external SSD support. I have a 512GB express card and it is not enough. The 1TB is too expensive and I can never find one. Frustrating.

@OldGamer999 It's wild how few people seem to acknowledge this.

@EarthboundBenjy it's likely also the read speed is higher than whatever the card allows. I wonder why they didn't match at least the MicroSD Express read speeds.

But also, it seems it's not even full price, and the 64GB cards are expensive (I've seen people claim it's like USD15 a piece).

Offff... That's tough. I'm thinking about getting this one.

The Switch 2 should've came with at least 500 GB of storage.

“Let’s make storage the customer’s problem!”

Hi guys. I have an 1TB mSD Express card in my S2, and it is near full since about 90% of my game library is digital. Still, I plan to get this, even if I do have to delete some games
Can only imagine how much a supposed 2TB Express card would cost...

@Filthy Ah, but you did finish it.

@SearchingS yes, this. I wonder how much of the Yakuza Zero download is due to language files that many will never use. Star Wars Outlaws is small by modern standards and that lets you download the languages that you want. Really wish more companies would offer this option up front.

Yikes. Switch 2 doesn't feel future proof with these game sizes, especially if these developers are forcing to go all digital...

@OldGamer999 @IronMan30 You can spend $200 on a 1TB SD card to fit the 3 F7R games, or you can spend an additional $200 and buy 1TB of storage and the rest of the PS5. Probably get all 3 games for far cheaper than on Switch 2 as well. We'll the 3rd game will be at least $70 on both but 1 & 2 will save you some cash.

Obviously PS5 won't get you handheld play but if you're planning to play all 3 FF7R games on Switch 2 it might seriously be worth looking into a PS5. They'll probably look better on there as well.🤷‍♂️

That's how ridiculously expensive gaming has gotten. Costs like $900 to play 1 remade PS1 game.🤑

@8bit-Man At least physical Switch 2 games don't have to install to internal storage like the PS5. PS5 sounds like it has way more storage at 800-something usable GB, but that got eaten up incredibly fast by physical games.

It seems like Nintendo didn't expect to up their max game card capacity up to 128GB sooner then.

Given the availability of 128, 256, 512GB and 1TB Express variants of microSD cards, the same storage technology Switch 2 game card uses, it'll be only a matter of time that higher capacity ones will be available for the publishers.

@Ampelmann Actually, I believe Rebirth was split into two discs on PS5. I guess they could do the same here.

Forget cartridges, I'd have to shelve either Cyberpunk or pretty much all the installed BC items to cram this in as a download. All the more reason to stick to other Roman numbers in the FF binge queue for now, I guess.

@OmegaX83 "1TB mSD Express card" can honestly sound like a welfare flex in itself.😅 I was lucky to get my Switch's 1 Tb (mSDXC) with a discount but have since balked at anything larger (once in a blue moon when it's even stocked here) because you can literally buy a good-shape used Switch Mariko or even OLED at those prices. And the only available expresses here are still capped at 256 Gb for the aforereferenced price of my aforementioned 1 Tb card.🙀💀👻 Not to mention the distracting double takes you have on every new check thanks to almost trollish designs like this:

Hoooleeeeey crap. That's a beefy game. Biggest file size on Switch 2 so far, isn't it?

@contractcooker Perhaps they're waiting for the price of the higher capacity ones to go down enough as technology marches on, after which point it'll be offered.

It's not like as if Nintendo is dead set only having 64GB available for the rest of Switch 2's lifespan.

Yeah I unfortunately won't be buying this (or the rest of the games in the series) for this reason alone. The amount of games I'd have to delete to make room is crazy, and that's with a Micro SD card.

Storage has been my big issue for ages. It was already a bit of a problem on Switch 1 and whilst the Express format is obviously better on a technical level we seem to be back in 2018 so far as capacity and cost goes. Also, if they keep the 2TB cap that's really not going to be enough with these file sizes, patches, DLC and the like. Unless the idea is simply that we keep erasing and downloading when we want to play a specific game. Which I think is bad for flash memory anyway, right?

This reminds me of the days where I had several memory cards for GCN-- I guess those days are back. I don't like it, but...

I'll pass. I'd love to play this on my Switch 2, but this file size is way too hard to swallow. Even if I wasn't so against game key cards. If I want to play FFVII so bad I'll just play the original. For the remake I'll just get it on steam eventually. Much easier to manage big files there.

@rjejr Including the cost of a console is not a good way of looking at the costs. You'd have to divide the cost of through the amount of games you have on it. And might as well calculate how much you're going to use on KWh while you're at it. Switch (2) is a much energy cheaper device than a PS5.

Should have put it on two cartridges like in the old days

The weird thing is, there are some who insist this could've been magically compressed to fit a 64gb card

Never leave home without the 1TB Express MSD Card for your S2! Which cost almost as much as the whole S2 console, but are worth every penny.

@OmegaX83 i’m hoping in the future update. Nintendo will expand the storage capacity for SD cards

@SBandy1 Feels like part of the problem is that devs (or more likely, publishers) are getting a bit too comfortable having consumers subsidize their storage space (and graphics cards in PC gamers' case) rather than take further steps to optimize their games.

Of course, the original FF7 was so big, it notoriously had to be split across multiple discs... Which I dont think I'd actually mind returning to over GKCs, if it had to be an either/or.

There’s absolutely no way they can make Part 2 on the Switch. That game is massive.

And this is why I’m gonna avoid buying third-party games on Switch 2, storage is an issue as it’s still more expensive to buy a 1 TB microSD Express card than a 1 TB SSD.

I like to have a selection of games ready to play so I do get that excessively large download sizes are a detriment.

However it's pretty lamentable that we are so hooked on convenience that so many people are unable to handle focussing on 256-512 GB worth of games at a time and just removing and redownloading things as they need them.
Seriously, how many games are people juggling at a time XD

@Pillowpants PS5 is an energy hog, no denying that, I actually always power mine off rather than rest it, so that is a fair point, but I don't think it takes away from the broader point. If you already have a Switch 2 and you're fine with it, but you need to spend $200 on a memory card to play the 3 FF7R games, you might as well do the math on getting a PS5 for those 3 games. It's going to cost more obviously, you're getting a whole other console, but maybe not much more for what you get. I bought FF7 Rebirth digital b/c it came w/ FF7R Integrade as a free bonus. So I'm guessing if you're buying those 2 games now on Switch 2 you can save some money getting the PS5 versions now.

Not saying people should, but it might be worth doing the math. For a $199 SD card you can buy a fully functioning Switch Lite.

Cyberpunk is 90gb on ps5, 60gb on switch with a real cartridge. FF remake isn't an open world, it's just a bad remake of the first 5 hours of an excellent game. If you really want to play it, it's really cheap on ps4 or ps5. I finished it on ps4 and it was an horror, they stretched the story so much and added stupid nomura twists it ruin the original story, if you want to play ff7 play the ps1 version it's a gem and if you want there is a lot of mods on pc to make it more modern that are so much better than what square did with remake.

@Filthy you obviously never played the second one if you think the first was "padded" - and thats coming from someone that happily tolerated it to see the story again.

@IronMan30
We all probably want bigger better games from Swtich 2 and more third party games, so increased size will happen.
I think Nintendo will keep their file sizes reasonable, but they could hit 50gb with a new massive Zelda game.

@AllBLK but but but. What about Nintendo’s profit margins????

Honestly I agree. They should have had 512 GB and 1 TB skus in my opinion. But alas, this is where we’re at.

@nathatruc Different games, different engines, different devs, different scalability.

This game was a lot of fun, I 100%ed it on PC around Christmas last year, now trawling through rebirth. I'm excited for those who have yet to play this, it's worth the storage space. But I'll be finishing the trilogy on PC personally, where it's really not even a concern.

They can lower the file size with putting all languages as free DLC. And keep the English. Still wont be anough but that would shrink the file size enough.

But this is on Nintendo themselves. They didnt prepare for this. Internal storage should have been minimum 512GB.

Imagine what the file size would do with a call of duty on the NS2

Defo the type of game you will archive once you are done with it. But not really a surprise.

Why not release it on multiple cartridges like they did with the discs on the original PS release?

@Ampelmann FF7 was 3 CDs in the USA. A CD is 700mb. Quite the difference here.

Don't forget everyone: those Nintendo-branded microSD Express Cards will be discounted for Black Friday (US) sales. I assume they will do something similar globally for end-of-year sales.

Someone is gonna have to invent a way for games to take less gigabytes. Like Damn. 😲

Yet they want GTA 6 or red dead redemption 2. Yikes!

This is why we NEED to be able to have the ability to use External hard drives and they should have given us TWO SD slots!

My 1Tb is already full!

I need a 5Tb SD EX card!
Resident Evil 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 will fill up a card just by themselves!

And if they ever bring MorrowWind over... Ugh!

@the_beaver

Roughly 30Gb for Resident Evil 9

This is one of the very few cases where I think the GKC format - since the max Switch 2 cart size is 64GB as of this writing - makes sense. But this still means the consumer must choose how to manage digital storage. For me, this means playing this on a different platform where large capacity storage is cheaper.

Uh y is is the same as the ps5 version shouldn't it be smaller using lower quality assets and resolution

@AllBLK 100% agreed. And if they had done a 1TB version, I would have been all over it. I imagine that when we get a refresh down the line (possibly an OLED), it will have 512GB.

@Drago201 holy ***** it's bigger than the ps5 version

@OldGamer999 I agree and I'm fine with all of that, personally.

@ROMhaiku When has any game ever came on multiple carts? Multiple discs, sure, but that's not at all the same thing considering how much more expensive carts are.

I'll wait for the whole story to be on a physical game card, likely attached to a portable SSD sticking out of the card slot.

@Unit_DTH Almost as much is a stretch. They cost $175 - 220 depending on the brand. That's less than half the price of the console. I got mine on sale on Amazon for $157.

@ButterySmooth30FPS other exemples star wars outlaws 50gb on pc 19gb on switch 2, yakuza zero director's cut 95gb on pc 45gb on switch 2.
Split fiction 85gb on pc 69gb on switch 2, ac shadows is 115gb on pc 62gb on switch 2, Hogwarts legacy 85gb on pc 24gb on switch 2. I know it's not the same engine... but they could all reduce the size of the games on switch 2.
Square support was great on switch 1, on switch 2 they really drop the ball with the gkc, no upgrade path...
But all that doesn't change the fact that FF remake is a bad remake of a great game.

@Waluigi451 They are making it & it's not double. It's about 145GB on the PS5, which is about 50% bigger than the original.

Imma be real, the whole "can't fit on a cartridge excuse" pisses me off.

Sure, the cartridges can only hold up to 64GB. But if thats the case, they could actually use that space and have the game require a 31GB Download. That way you actually save some storage space on the Switch 2's memory.

@AllBLK then the price of the system would been over $500.

@RiasGremory Probably, but they could have made both.

@Res462 The game that takes up the whole internal memory will be Call of Duty whenever that releases.

@Gabe250 people will still complain about the price even $450 was quite reasonable for switch 2 being between ps4 pro and ps5 power.

Don't people archive software after beating the game? Why would you spend big $$$ on SD cards? I'm certainly used to archiving from PC gaming.

One of the very rare examples where a keycard would make sense.

@RiasGremory I see this comment a lot. Not debating on price but the Switch 2 is not between a PS4 pro and PS5 in power. The CPU is weaker than a PS4 pro, but has some more modern graphical architecture in its GPU so in the right kind of game, especially where there isn't a huge open environment that's demanding to process like SF6 in 1 v 1 matches (not the open gameplay parts of the game) it can look closer to a series s game, if not better in some ways. But I. Terms of power and the cpu, it is not as powerful as a PS4 pro

That's a huge size, but luckily I don't have a massive library, and with a 512GB memory card along with the switch 2's memory, I have enough space for Remake once I delete a few games. Since I do that anyways after I beat a game (barring the exceptions like Zelda and Xenoblade), it won't be a problem once I finally get around to playing Remake.
I'm weirdly excited to play Remake on Switch 2, because while I have played it on PS4/5, there's just something about being able to play it on the go that rocks.
In any case, at least it's not a Cloud (heh) Version, still salty about Kingdom Hearts being a cloud game.

Once upon a time, I was among those that felt the need to have every game downloaded at all times. These days, I simply uninstall everything that I'm not planning to play any time soon, and I'm happier for it. A 256gb SD card, along with the internal storage are enough for the handful of games you might be playing at any given time, and buy physical on the cart when availble. The new Samsung P9 cards are on sale on Amazon right now, $48 & $75 for 256gb & 512gb respectively.

@Gabe250 I was joking mate

This whole trilogy is going to need a dedicated SD card. No way am I gonna get it on the card I have already

@RiasGremory The price of the system is already over $500 in some countries.😐

@ottoecamn I agree with you. I have said something similar. Why not use an actual cartridge to the max and allow the rest of the game to be downloaded to the system? The excuses for using game key cards are all bs in my opinion and just come back to taking away ownership from consumers. The micro SD Express requirements are also ridiculous. The format isn't easily available to some people and is also extremely expensive compared to regular SD cards. The Steam Deck and other PC handhelds are doing fine with basic SD cards. I know the speeds are slower but it's not unbearable.

Internal storage is faster right? I feel like I want to wait for a good deal on a 1 tb card to hopefully fit my whole library. It'd take me a while to chip away at my backlog to make room but might be a decent idea even if it makes me late for the fancy stuff.

@Gabe250 I'm willing to bet anything a refreshed Switch 2 will definitely have more memory.

I have this on PS4/5 and love it so. If I do double-dip it will definitely be during a sale as is my feeling on all GKC/digital releases. Looks like it's time to get AT LEAST a 256 EX Micro SD.

I've got a 256gb card and so far I've got about 120gb left to use but ive only got maybe a third of my Switch 1 games on it and the internal storage. When I can get my hands on a 1tb card that will be used exclusively for Switch 2 games and i'll put my most used S1 games on the internal and then my 256gb card will have just S1 games on it. I plan on getting Kirby Air Riders, Sonic Crossworlds and Hyrule Warriors on cart and then download FF7 so I should be okay for space for a wee while.

This is literally another problem with the digital age. Optimization is entirely optional, nloat the game and dump it on the consumer.

That's essentially a ~50 dollar mark-up in terms of factoring space for your SD card for the game.

@Ampelmann Most of the game data had to be duplicated on each CD, with different cutscenes on each disc.
To avoid frequent disc swapping, games would be designed around that limitation. That is, FF7 was designed so that you could play the game through and in one playthrough, you would only need to change the discs after certain story progression.

@Gabe250 It would only even be possible on consoles where the game data is loaded into RAM and run from there.
I think the DS did that but I'm not certain.
I know GBA and earlier you couldn't do that because the CPU was running code directly off the cartridge (once you pull it out, the CPU nothing to run).

So they couldn't do a multicard release?

I wish they'd let us buy the card ourselves and then be able to load the digital purchase onto it. I'd pay for 32-256gb cards with a sticker of the art logo on it

Lol seen this coming a mile away as more and more companies are getting too lazy to use any man hours to work on optimization and reducing file sizes like they've done...forever..until now.

Would be funny if a screen popped up and made you switch the tiny little carts mid game, but then it would be a $100 release which im sure some sheeple would be fine with.

I have a 1TB SD card in my Switch 1 and it's mostly used up.

My PS5 has a 2TB m.2 SSD, and I regularly have to delete games to make space.

If Switch 2 is gonna have huge AAA 4K games, we're gonna need a lot more storage available.

@KingMike You're definitely right in that it's possible, I just don't think any company would want to take on the additional cost of producing multiple carts for a game without a guarantee that it will perform spectacularly.

MicroSD Express Card prices can't come down soon enough

Back in the day, if the game didn't fit on one physical medium, they would bundle two together. I don't think I really get the reason to not just put these games on larger cartridges besides saving money. Which really is a screw you to the consumer. Companies use to do things to appeal to the most easy and enjoyable experience for the customer. Now they all wanna make the most money possible.

I mean, if that space is being put to good use, so be it. It's wild, but I'm ready for it! I didn't buy that 1 TB card for nothing!

@jfp The problem is when you pay that much for a game, you like to load, play.... play something else, play something else, come back to it and play it more.... wait you had to delete it to play those other games.... delete other games, load, play.... But you knew that.

1TB SanDisk micro sd express card when?

Square Enix didn't even bother trying to optimize the file size. It's the exact same on Switch 2 as PC and PS4. If they made the foreign language packs optional downloads, reduced texture resolution, and increased compression on textures, audio, and pre-rendered video, they could have got it to 64 GB.

In the Switch era, Square Enix knew how to optimize. FFXII was 40 GB on PS4, but they reduced it to 12.7 GB on Switch.

They just chose not to because they were planning to put the game on a GKC from day 1 (like they have for all their other games).

Oh boy... I wish you guys good luck if you only utilize the internal storage.

A fact!: Cyberpunk is 99GB game and they fit it with all dlc on the 64GB cartridge! NO EXCUSES devs! We are being manipulated to swallow the fact that devs wanna make more money on us and wanna push the cartridge cost on us by forcing us buy extra storage! Key Cards, NO BUY!

@topsekret finally someone who understands! Yes they could easily fit it on a 64GB cartridge if they wanted to, but they would earn less money on the gamers!

@Gabe250 that would get fixed with physical only for preorder and full payment.

@The-Chosen-one optimization would be enough. Cyberpunk is 99GB and fit on 64GB cartridge. Square devs are just lazy and wanna make more money because this way we gamers have to pay for the cost of memory!

@Ampelmann probably cost of cartridges

Isn’t the maximum disc size for PS4 50GB? So if that’s the case, why is this nearly double the size?

This is basically consuming almost AU$40 worth of microSD Express storage, which is insane.

Surely a 128GB read-only cartridge wouldn't cost anywhere close to that, and that those keen on owning an actual physical copy would pay a little extra for it (though the digital version should not cost the same as the physical versions in situations where the price of the physical media may significantly drive up the cost; besides, they'd have to fork over their own storage anyway, which isn't free either).

What is completely inexcusable is that game prices have increased significantly and yet publishers (including Nintendo!) aren't even giving us the actual game on the supplied media.

@Znake yeah but the game was cut down, visually a lot to make room

If I get it then it will be on Series X. Looks like they didn’t use the custom hw decompression. I also am not interested until the full game is available at once. For the amount the 3 games will end up costing it should be perfect.

@AllBLK The Switch 2 Pro model or whatever they call it absolutely needs a boost in storage!

Who needs storage? Just delete games you don't play and redownload them if you want them again. What could possibly go wrong?

@GravyThief PS4 game was on 2 discs

Nintendo should have gone back to using discs. It wouldn't have worked for handheld though unless you do streaming like Steam Deck and that weird PlayStation thingy.

This might be my first key card given that it's only $40 and that this is perhaps a legit reason. But it makes me wonder how much of an issue it would have been physically and for the UI to have a 2nd SD card slot.

Wasn't the PlayStation version split across 2 discs? There's no reason they couldn't have put it on a real cartridge! Just have disc 1 on a cartridge with disc 2 being a download, or even better: a second cartridge.

@Arkz ah, that explains it!

And this makes it even more ridiculous that switch 2 has a tiny 256gb memory… greedy, for a basically digital only console

@Purgatorium to redownload can take long. Why should customer experience troubles when the only reason is that nintendo choose to save money put a ridiculuous memory?

Good for you guys finally getting to play an amazing game.

Don't listen to the negativity. It's just sad old people who still miss the 90s looking back on a pretty standard game as something earth shattering.

Makes me wonder how big Assassin's Creed Shadows will be.

I don't recall it's file size on the PS5, but it will likely be around the 100GB mark when compared to both AC Odyssey and AC Valhalla's file size.

They push about 100GB, 120+ with the DLC's.

@GFalcon "Back in the day, if the game didn't fit on one physical medium, they would bundle two together."
That or rework the game into something that does fit.

@SillyG Game prices haven't actually increased that much in overall history if you consider inflation. We just had lower prices for a generation or two.
Toys 'R Us might have asked only $34.99 for The Goonies II on NES in 1987, but if you check the inflation factor, it comes in the range of those $90 Switch 2 game prices.
SNES games were the equivalent of up to and over $150 in modern currency for the most expensive games.

If it can't fit on the cartridge it can't come out on Switch 2. A game is only "released" on a console if it gets an actual release on a physical medium.

@Gabe250 It really isn't a stretch at all, with the cost of the console being $400US and most of the 1TB Express cards Average (sans sale price) $199.99US, with tax that is over $220US coming out to more than half the cost of the console. How is it a stretch to say that it costs almost as much as the console itself? And honestly, they were even more expensive earlier this year, I'm speaking specifically to closer to June 5th the launch date of the S2. I saw them costing as much as $285US and far higher than that on resale sites like ebay.

@Unit_DTH The console is $450, not $400 & if you're going to add tax to the card, you should add tax to the console as well. In no world have I ever heard anyone say $200 is almost as much as $450. Even the guy who posted that said he was joking.

@Gabe250 my bad on the $400 for base model, not sure why I thought that was the cost. Honestly, how I assess the cost of accessories to the cost of the whole console shouldnt really bother you this much, should it? In my world if something costs almost half (or more than) of what it improves, then that just doesn't make sense and I allude to it "costing almost as much as the console". I don't ask you to agree with me, that is how it appears to me.

Well at least this means they're keeping texture resolution intact.....