Hardware Nintendo not sure about Switch HDD support

[darkten]

I'm not too worried, It takes awhile to fill up 128GB...

 

[TheCyberQuake]

Yooooo.........yall games are CARTRIDGE based......meaning u can put 20 in a small case on the go. Why u need em stored on the SD or HD if they are already on small tiny cartridges?

People who complain that their game collection is 350+GB are usually pirates. Not very many people actually buy that many games digitally. Unless you have a lot of money, not many people can afford paying for 90+ games if you average a Wii U game to be about 3.5gigs. That would be about $3000 if you are generous and say the games are $30.
And if you have money to buy all those games, then surely you should have enough to buy SD cards for those "legit" games.

Plus I prefer most of my games to be a physical format. One day the digitial copy will be impossible to redownload, but the physical copy will still be available for me to play.

 

[Futurdreamz]

People who complain that their game collection is 350+GB are usually pirates. Not very many people actually buy that many games digitally. Unless you have a lot of money, not many people can afford paying for 90+ games if you average a Wii U game to be about 3.5gigs. That would be about $3000 if you are generous and say the games are $30.
And if you have money to buy all those games, then surely you should have enough to buy SD cards for those "legit" games.

Plus I prefer most of my games to be a physical format. One day the digitial copy will be impossible to redownload, but the physical copy will still be available for me to play.

AA third party games can be 40GB+, and most of the first party heavy hitters average 10GB or so. It is very easy to hit 300+ GB without pirating a single game, or spending over a grand.

Though to be fair I have no idea how much I've spent.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

AA third party games can be 40GB+, and most of the first party heavy hitters average 10GB or so. It is very easy to hit 300+ GB without pirating a single game, or spending over a grand.

Though to be fair I have no idea how much I've spent.

Let's be real though, how many people are actually buying AAA third party games on Wii U. Those games are a far greater experience on any other platform. I do realize some people will, but a majority I feel would rather buy those titles on platforms that can render them and handle them much better.

 

[SonicMC]

Who's happy it's sd! I am; I have a vita and still only have a 16gb card as the 64GB are 90-100$ I can get a 200GB+ sd for 70-100$
Still I have some usb hdd It would be nice to be able to use both. one for games I want on the go and the other for games at home

 

[ultramario1998]

People who complain that their game collection is 350+GB are usually pirates. Not very many people actually buy that many games digitally. Unless you have a lot of money, not many people can afford paying for 90+ games if you average a Wii U game to be about 3.5gigs. That would be about $3000 if you are generous and say the games are $30.
And if you have money to buy all those games, then surely you should have enough to buy SD cards for those "legit" games.

Several newer games on other consoles are getting pretty large--DOOM + its patches is ~80GB. If we're expecting third parties to support this thing, storage suddenly becomes a real issue.

In all honesty, microSDs aren't that bad--you get 200gb for $60, and the technology is very rapidly advancing. Plus, as many other people are pointing out, games come on cartridges that don't need to install anything, so you can just buy physical if you run out of room and don't want to delete anything.

I also don't think that adding HDD support would work for many people either. If you plan on using the portable feature of the switch, like many, what happens if you want to pull it out? How do you expect that your game (that could easily be 30-50 GB) is automatically copied to internal memory/microSD--which, let's be real, has comparatively limited write cycles?

 

[KingVamp]

I think if not at launch, sometime after that they will support Hdd. Give people the choice rather they want one or not.

 

[Xzi]

Micro SDXC makes sense, people should have loads of them by now between phones/tablets/portables. $16 for 64GB. At the same time, there's no reason Nintendo shouldn't allow for external HDD support. What else could we even use the USB ports on the dock for otherwise? Other than charging, anyway, and that's a bit of a cop-out.

That being said, I don't care too much either way. I'll split digital/physical depending on storage size. Kind of happy to know I'll be getting some physical cartridges again TBH, especially with BotW SE ordered with the console.

 

[Deleted User]

Woah I didn't know SDs didn't exist

Wheres my floppy disks1111!!!

 

[the_randomizer]

Woah I didn't know SDs didn't exist

Wheres my floppy disks1111!!!

Nothing like 256 GB SD cards that cost more than a 500 GB HDD, right?

 

[Deleted User]

Nothing like 256 GB SD cards that cost more than a 500 GB HDD, right?

Like your going to even need 256GB or even 500GB HDD. The system has no games yet (lmao).

Hey, maybe it will come in a system update or some shit.

 

[ultramario1998]

Nothing like 256 GB SD cards that cost more than a 500 GB HDD, right?

to be fair, 256gb microSD's are so expensive ($150-200) because they're new. Go down one rung on the ladder to 200gb, and you're paying about $60.

This storage medium is also advancing very rapidly--there are dev prototypes of 1TB SD cards right now

 

[Futurdreamz]

yes its a usb type C

...no, it's clearly a USB 3.0 Type-A. it's the one next to teh HDMI port, not in the Switch slot

 

[the_randomizer]

to be fair, 256gb microSD's are so expensive ($150-200) because they're new. Go down one rung on the ladder to 200gb, and you're paying about $60.

This storage medium is also advancing very rapidly--there are dev prototypes of 1TB SD cards right now

Can you imagine how expensive 1 TB cards will costs? The Switch only supports to 256 or 2048 gigabits, for those who do digital only, well, yeah. My other concern is that NAND only has a finite no of writes, less than an HDD has, more wear and tear. I don't trust constant read/write on SD cards.

...no, it's clearly a USB 3.0 Type-A. it's the one next to teh HDMI port, not in the Switch slot

Did you watch the presentation? It was clearly marked as USB C.

 

[Futurdreamz]

no its a usb type c

Where's the bloody HDMI port in that picture? You know damn well that's not what I'm talking about.

 

[ultramario1998]

Can you imagine how expensive 1 TB cards will costs?

My point is that costs for larger micro/SD cards will get gradually smaller as more expansive ones come out. You can pay $20 for a 64gb microSD right now. A few years ago, you were paying several times that.

The Switch only supports to 256 or 2048 gigabits

Incorrect. The switch supports all cards that follow the microSDXC standard, which theoretically goes up to 2TB (you can't get one of those yet)

My other concern is that NAND only has a finite no of writes

Fair 'nuff. However, flash memory has gotten significantly more sturdy in the past few years--I can't imagine that microSDs in these things would crap out too soon. (whether they do or not remains to be seen, of course)

 

[the_randomizer]

My point is that costs for larger micro/SD cards will get gradually smaller as more expansive ones come out. You can pay $20 for a 64gb microSD right now. A few years ago, you were paying several times that.

Incorrect. The switch supports all cards that follow the microSDXC standard, which theoretically goes up to 2TB (you can't get one of those yet)

Fair 'nuff. However, flash memory has gotten significantly more sturdy in the past few years--I can't imagine that microSDs in these things would crap out too soon. (whether they do or not remains to be seen, of course)

Wasn't aware that there was no cap on the SDXC card, so I apologize and stand corrected for assuming otherwise. Still don't want to rely wholly on SD, I'd rather use a USB HDD when I'm at home, as I trust them more than SD cards, but that's just me.

 

[Spore2]

Apparently some gamers out there are not aware that cartridge based consoles do not need to rely on a hard drive for a scratch disk. One discussion went on about how NBA 2K need over 10gb of hard drive space. This might be the case for optical based consoles because of the limitations of that media but not for cartridge based consoles.

 

[SonicMC]

Micro SDXC makes sense, people should have loads of them by now between phones/tablets/portables. $16 for 64GB. At the same time, there's no reason Nintendo shouldn't allow for external HDD support. What else could we even use the USB ports on the dock for otherwise? Other than charging, anyway, and that's a bit of a cop-out.

That being said, I don't care too much either way. I'll split digital/physical depending on storage size. Kind of happy to know I'll be getting some physical cartridges again TBH, especially with BotW SE ordered with the console.

I can think of one additional use for the USB Port on the Dock:
USB to network adapter for people who don't have great wifi at home. My friend uses one on the wii u and has much better time watching netflix and amazon on it since he added it. Could be useful for the switch for people who's wifi is less than optimal.

Link to the one my friend has
https://store.nintendo.com/ng3/browse/productDetailColorSizePicker.jsp?productId=prod10279

edit: Also just remembered if they bring smash bros over to the switch. The usb to gamecube adapter could be used.

 

[Axido]

Hey, guys. HDD or not, the Switch's way of handling extra memory is better than Nintendo ripping off their customers with overpriced proprietary memory cards.

*disgustedly glancing at you, Sony*