Reported from The Wall Street Journal, originally to be delivered second half of 2018, Nintendo delays the 64GB Nintendo Switch cartridges to third-party developers till 2019. Problem? Technical issues.
Developers who’ve created games for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have legroom when working with 50GB Blu-ray discs compared to a limitation of 32GB Switch cartridges and the Switch’s internal storage being 32GB. This will have some difficulty bringing games over to the Switch and costs wise too. Games such as NBA 2k18 requires about 23GB and Doom’s size requires 25GB are some examples of third-party file sizes being drastically different than Nintendo’s games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild (13.4GB) and Super Mario Odyssey (5.7GB).
Not only size is an issue but cost-wise too. Switch owners calling it the “Switch Tax”, third-party games have higher costs compared to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Game analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted the disadvantages of Switch owners when purchasing game ports. L.A. Noire price $10 higher on Switch.
Not only in the U.S. but in Japan, Dragon Quest Heroes 1 and 2 costs 1,000 yen more on the Nintendo Switch than the PlayStation 4 because of the cartridge prices (reported by Gadgets360). With many third-party developers have games that exceed the cartridge size and with this news leaves them a bit disappointed.
Having to take a game already created on a higher-storage disc and squeezing it down to an expensive 32GB cartridge puts more time and money on the publisher, hence the “Switch Tax” comes in. If the Nintendo Switch wasn’t as successful, we wouldn’t see games like L.A. Noire willing to be ported over. If we saw the 64GB cartridges already, more games would have been ported easier and quicker. Maybe even better resolutions for the Nintendo Switch when undocked!