Past authentic Swap video games and upgrades gobbling up valuable storage, the Swap 2 additionally sees the addition of GameCube titles to the retro library accessible to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers. Just like the basic video games accessible for earlier consoles such because the NES, SNES, or Recreation Boy, these are all packaged in a single launcher, with each recreation within the respective assortment put in without delay.
That is tremendous for the SNES assortment—with round 80 titles crammed right into a barely-noticeable 267 MB bundle, who cares if there’s a bunch you may by no means play? But with simply 4 titles presently accessible (F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, SoulCalibur II, and Tremendous Mario Strikers), NSO GameCube is already a 6-GB dedication. Authentic GameCube discs may maintain simply shy of 1.5 GB, so every addition goes to see that launcher demand ever more room, and every undesirable recreation may forestall you from putting in one thing else you wish to play. Whereas this solely impacts NSO subscribers who use the GameCube library, the liberty to decide on which GameCube video games get put in could be an enormous assist.
The Downside With the Answer
The excellent news is that Swap 2 nonetheless permits customers to broaden storage through microSD playing cards. Downside solved—simply whack a large capability card in, proper? Not fairly. Swap 2 solely helps microSD Express format playing cards. There’s good cause for this—the brand new commonplace presents a lot quicker information learn and write speeds, permitting video games to load quicker—however the rule causes issues.
One is value. MicroSD Specific playing cards value extra per GB of storage than their predecessors. On the time of writing, a SanDisk 128 GB card is $17, whereas its Swap 2-compatible microSD Specific format card is $54 for the same amount of storage—a 3X premium. One other is card capacities. There are a handful of 1-terabyte microSD Specific playing cards in the marketplace, however provides are vanishingly low, and costs are astronomical. Though you possibly can technically use a number of microSD playing cards together with your console, Nintendo advises against it, so swapping a number of smaller playing cards round is not an choice both.
Extra confusingly, the SD Specific format solely refers to hurry, not capability, which has its personal requirements. Most microSD playing cards you are doubtless to purchase, whether or not they’re within the Specific velocity format or not, are “SD eXtended Capability” commonplace, or SDXC. These can theoretically maintain a most of two TB of information, although the most important reliable card you are prone to discover on sale is 1.5 TB.
Nonetheless, in 2018, the SD Affiliation—the trade physique that units requirements for SD reminiscence playing cards—introduced SD Ultra Capacity, or SDUC. This helps capacities as much as a staggering 128 TB, “no matter type issue, both micro or full dimension, or interface sort together with […] SD Specific.” There are not any SDUC playing cards in the marketplace in any respect but, so we’re a protracted, good distance from having the ability to slap “even” an 8-TB card in your Swap 2 and set up every little thing you may dream of. In idea, although, absolutely this implies you may someday be capable to just do that?
