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Goodbye NX, hello Switch

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cmdrdredd said:
Only internal storage is used for patches etc. that's never going to be more than 32GB. Speed doesn't even matter in the conversation here. Capacity vs cost does.
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What?

Maybe you misunderstood me. When you run a game on a PS4 or Xbox, it's loaded from the hard disk drive. When you run a game on the switch, it's either loaded from the cartridge, local storage, or a micro sdcard. Speed absolutely matters if you care about game loading times.
 
Chiropteran said:
What?

Maybe you misunderstood me. When you run a game on a PS4 or Xbox, it's loaded from the hard disk drive. When you run a game on the switch, it's either loaded from the cartridge, local storage, or a micro sdcard. Speed absolutely matters if you care about game loading times.
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Nobody was taking about that. You are changing the subject a little bit. What we were talking about is the default storage out of the box being way too small and large storage options for a digital library is extra cost. At least that's what I was talking about. We already know that game patches won't use any of your extra storage and patches are getting larger and more frequent from many developers.

I'm thinking like this. Family buys a switch and then buys a couple games digitally. Storage fills up and now the kids have to beg for sd cards. With a higher capacity this may not be an immediate concern. Also what happens when some games are 30GB or larger and won't fit on the internal storage at all? With the PS4 or Xbox they can have a lot more games installed digitally without worrying about running out of space and needing more storage. It is a fair comparison.

Personally I like to have the physical media for my games but I understand the convenience of downloading it instead and never messing with the carts or disc.
 
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cmdrdredd said:
Family buys a switch and then buys a couple games digitally. Storage fills up and now the kids have to beg for sd cards. With a higher capacity this may not be an immediate concern.
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Nintendo is really incentivizing families to avoid digital games. Not only does it require buying a SD card but it means if you buy each kid a Switch (like so often happens with iPads/3DSes) they can't share the same game purchase. Add in the fact that their nostalgic parents remember and innately like Nintendo cartridges and it seems every market Nintendo is targeting with the Switch will avoid digital games (which is what they want) unless they don't get the hint.


In much bigger news, we learned that Capcom is the reason the Switch has 4GB of ram and not less (thank you Capcom) and they are porting over the RE7 engine to make a AAA game. In fact it seems Capcom had a lot of input on the Switch and are only coming out with a Street Fighter 2 remake because of how easy it is to port with early development tools.

https://mynintendonews.com/2017/02/18/capcom-is-looking-into-bringing-resident-evil-7-to-the-switch

In other news we have full teardown pics:

http://m.imgur.com/a/IVQTT

Most people will debate Pascal vs Maxwell but I am interested in how large the heatpipe is- much larger than the Shield!

That is very important because no matter the GPU this puts it a step ahead for gaming of say an iPad GPU which is faster in the first minute but is throttled back significantly in long playing sessions due to a lack of active cooling.
 
poofyhairguy said:
Let's not jump to hyperbole here. You don't have to carry ALL your game carts, and the ones you want to carry are small and can fit in a slot made for them in almost every Switch case they are selling. Plus a decent 128GB MicroSD is $40, most SSDs (especially 128GB+ ones) are more than that.
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You'll want to carry most of your carts around with you if you want to play those games on the go. The 128gb sd cards write up to 80-90mb/s which means they're equal to hard drives on average. A 128gb ssd is $40-50 these days. SD cards win out here simply because of economic reasons, namely it isn't easy to get an external ssd drive for the same amount of money.

Anyway, this issue just destroys the hybrid notion of the Switch. In the end 32gb internal memory is Nintendo being cheap (more profit I would assume), especially if patches etc. can only be put on the internal memory.
 
Ranulf said:
You'll want to carry most of your carts around with you if you want to play those games on the go. The 128gb sd cards write up to 80-90mb/s which means they're equal to hard drives on average. A 128gb ssd is $40-50 these days. SD cards win out here simply because of economic reasons, namely it isn't easy to get an external ssd drive for the same amount of money.

Anyway, this issue just destroys the hybrid notion of the Switch. In the end 32gb internal memory is Nintendo being cheap (more profit I would assume), especially if patches etc. can only be put on the internal memory.
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It definitely is them being cheap, they want to make money on each console sold. I could understand them not having a super powerful system since it's a hybrid console so battery and heat concerns, but shipping with only 32GB is unacceptable for a gaming machine when one game takes up half of your storage. It would have been better for them to release two SKU, one with more storage like 128GB as well.
 
Almost an exact match for the Shield 2017 SoC:

uLF2CUq.jpg
 
Ranulf said:
So... that SD card is a required purchase if you want Dragon Quest Heroes digitally.
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Actually the Switch-branded SD Cards won't work, as they are only 16GB and 32GB. Huge screwup there, and those cards are EXPENSIVE.

To be fair I am pretty sure the Dragon Quest Heroes games (and the Switch branded SD cards) aren't even being released in non-Japanese markets so Americans won't have that problem.

Actually looking at the game sizes of the rest of the games made me feel better about sticking to a 64GB card I have lying around for now. The games I plan to buy digitally (and not physically) are all all 2GB or less. At that rate my 64GB card will last until 256GB cards are super cheap.
 
poofyhairguy said:
Actually the Switch-branded SD Cards won't work, as they are only 16GB and 32GB. Huge screwup there, and those cards are EXPENSIVE.

To be fair I am pretty sure the Dragon Quest Heroes games (and the Switch branded SD cards) aren't even being released in non-Japanese markets so Americans won't have that problem.

Actually looking at the game sizes of the rest of the games made me feel better about sticking to a 64GB card I have lying around for now. The games I plan to buy digitally (and not physically) are all all 2GB or less. At that rate my 64GB card will last until 256GB cards are super cheap.
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I'm getting Snipperclips which looks great and it's download only. Most indie games are download only so more storage is definitely needed especially if you even download even just a couple of Nintendo games from the store. I'm just scared to get only 64GB since Nintendo has yet to be clear on their download policy for some odd reason.
 
zerocool84 said:
I'm getting Snipperclips which looks great and it's download only. Most indie games are download only so more storage is definitely needed especially if you even download even just a couple of Nintendo games from the store. I'm just scared to get only 64GB since Nintendo has yet to be clear on their download policy for some odd reason.
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They already said all downloads are tied to Nintendo account and not console for the switch.
 
gus6464 said:
They already said all downloads are tied to Nintendo account and not console for the switch.
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Yes but we don't know ANY specifics of this. They haven't talked how you are able to download stuff, is it as easy as PS4 or Xbox? It's Nintendo we are talking about. Is there a set limit of downloads? We can't just assume it's going to be the same as its competition. Like assuming we'd be able to use the the console instead of a smartphone app for online stuff.
 
zerocool84 said:
Yes but we don't know ANY specifics of this. They haven't talked how you are able to download stuff, is it as easy as PS4 or Xbox? It's Nintendo we are talking about. Is there a set limit of downloads? We can't just assume it's going to be the same as its competition. Like assuming we'd be able to use the the console instead of a smartphone app for online stuff.
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I 100% agree you can't assume the best case (or even the standard case) with Nintendo. The only thing that gives me a little confidence that I can move from a 64GB card to another one down the road is the fact that you can do that with the 3DS. With that console you can just copy the card contents in Windows and it will work.

We will see though. I am buying physical whenever I can to avoid these sorts of issues if possible.
 
poofyhairguy said:
I 100% agree you can't assume the best case (or even the standard case) with Nintendo. The only thing that gives me a little confidence that I can move from a 64GB card to another one down the road is the fact that you can do that with the 3DS. With that console you can just copy the card contents in Windows and it will work.

We will see though. I am buying physical whenever I can to avoid these sorts of issues if possible.
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I almost always buy physical as well, mainly because Amazon gives you 20% off unless you there are some killer deals on the console's respective online store which sometime there are.

64GB microSD cards are super cheap, on Amazon they are like $16.
 
I don't understand why people are supporting a company that are intentionally lagging behind the rest of the gaming world. It almost feels like Nintendo is becoming the EA of consoles. Back before we had hard drives, we needed memory cards, but we have the ability to throw in multiple 128GB and higher SD cards into a phone, so why is Nintendo given a pass when they skimp on storage space - effectively forcing the consumer to buy "memory cards" just to play the games? Not only are they getting a free pass, people aren't even batting an eye at this.
 
zerocool84 said:
64 is so cheap it's hard to pass up but with the Switch I'm spending extra for the 128.
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I think that is a good decision. I have an extra 64GB card after I moved to an iPhone so for me it's a sunk cost. If I was starting from scratch I would buy a 128GB Samsung card.

Mario Kart being 7GB is a good sign to me. That and Snipperclips are the digital games I am getting on that list.

Well and I am Setsuna. I am a sucker for JRPGs.
 
Stg-Flame said:
I don't understand why people are supporting a company that are intentionally lagging behind the rest of the gaming world. It almost feels like Nintendo is becoming the EA of consoles. Back before we had hard drives, we needed memory cards, but we have the ability to throw in multiple 128GB and higher SD cards into a phone, so why is Nintendo given a pass when they skimp on storage space - effectively forcing the consumer to buy "memory cards" just to play the games? Not only are they getting a free pass, people aren't even batting an eye at this.
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I'm pretty sure the only reason is because it is the only way to play Nintendo brand games. If you could buy Zelda or Mario on PS4, PC, or X1, I'm pretty sure the majority of people wouldn't even consider a Switch.
 
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