Nintendo had planned to increase cartridge memory for its popular Nintendo Switch console from 32 to 64 GB, but a new report states that the company will hold off.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo told third-party developers not to expect 64 GB game cartridges until 2019. One source close to the situation said it was to ensure quality, citing Switch owners’ initial problems with the hardware like the joy-con connection issues.
Nintendo originally planned for the new game cartridges to be ready by the end of 2018, and third-party developers were preparing to get their games out for the Switch. This delay may hamper plans for future Switch releases, especially from U.S.-based developers of memory-heavy games.
The lack of memory is cited by WSJ as one reason that U.S. publishers have held off on producing games for the Switch, but WSJ proposes third-party development for Switch has been stifled by existing relationships with Microsoft and Sony.
The Switch’s 32 GB game cartridges are substantially smaller than those of its competitors. Microsoft and Sony’s Blu-ray game discs can hold up to 50 GB, but that hasn’t stopped Nintendo from selling some of its top games of 2017 , including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , which take up less than 16GB.
Serkan Toto, a game-industry consultant based in Tokyo, told WSJ Nintendo plans software releases from well-known franchises for 2018, but that these upcoming titles ultimately won’t affect the system’s sales or continued success.
Rollouts of some data-heavy games “would be nice to have, but surely not essential for the Switch’s success,” Toto said. “2018 will be another successful year for Nintendo, better than what it had seen this year.”
The Nintendo Switch library of games has included some well-known third-party games like Skyrim, Doom and LA Noire , with more coming down the pipeline. Nintendo has already sold 10 million units worldwide and expects to reach 16 million by March 2018.
So what do you think of the delay to the Switch’s increase in game cartridge memory? Let us know in the comments section below.
