If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Nintendo delays Switch 64GB game cards to 2019 - Report

Developers told it will be another year before retail games can ship on cards over 32GB due to technical issues

Nintendo Switch developers may be getting a little more room to work with, but not for another year. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo told third-party developers recently that 64GB game cards for retail games would not be made available until 2019.

At the moment, Switch game cards max out at 32GB of data, significantly less than the 50GB allowed by Blu-ray discs used on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While that's plenty of space for many titles (the Wall Street Journal noted Nintendo's critically acclaimed Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey both come in at under 16GB), some third-party publishers have already run into space constraints. Titles like NBA 2K18 and WWE 2K18 still require retail purchasers to download additional information to a microSD card, while Bethesda shipped Doom with the single-player campaign on the game card, and online multiplayer requiring a separate download.

People familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal the delay was due to technical issues, with one suggesting that Nintendo wanted to avoid a social media scene similar to the one following the Switch launch, where there were reports of units warping in the dock and JoyCon controllers unpairing from the system at random.

Industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto saw limited significance in the delay of 64GB game cards telling the paper they "would be nice to have, but surely not essential for the Switch's success." He added that he expects 2018 to be even better for Nintendo than 2017, and as reported earlier today, so does Nintendo.

Related topics
Author
Brendan Sinclair avatar

Brendan Sinclair

Managing Editor

Brendan joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2012. Based in Toronto, Ontario, he was previously senior news editor at GameSpot in the US.