Q: The Nintendo Switch is fantastic news for long-term Ninty fans (myself included). However, Nintendo need to make sure they don’t repeat the mistakes they made with the Wii U. One of the major flaws was storage capacity. Not only was it limited to just 32GB but the console was far too high in price in comparison to what its competition offered.
D4G: The Nintendo Switch needs to offer storage not just to better the Wii U, not just to make it more appealing to PS4 and Xbox One owners, but to offer storage space for a games library purely dedicated to digital content (no disc tray/insert is visible on the Nintendo Switch).
However, while this reason should make more storage capacity a no-brainer for Nintendo, the real question is how would Nintendo go about this in a console that works as both a home AND mobile games system? Simply adding storage of 250-500GB to the Nintendo Switch Dock would give the home setup sufficient storage, but what about when the player switches to the Nintendo Switch Console? Sure, Nintendo can also add storage to console device, but this adds cost to the system at retail and when you look at tablets retail pricing with 16-32GB, is that really enough storage for a mobile games system that plays home console games?
Here are some ideas that Nintendo could go with:
1) The Nintendo Switch Dock remains just that, a dock. All storage is actually built-in to the Switch Console.
PROS: Would solve the issue of having storage for both the home and mobile gaming setups.
CONS: Storage purely in the Switch Console could result in limited storage capacity (for weight, space and cost reasons). We wouldn’t be surprised if the capacity had a limit of just 128GB.
2) The Nintendo Switch Dock carries the main storage and the Switch Console has a small amount of storage, to help it with any mobile game it’s playing at the time (around 16-32GB – that of an average tablet).
PROS: The Nintendo Switch has more than enough storage for its digital library.
CONS: The Switch Console will be limited to one major title or a selection of indie/smaller titles (such as Bomberman or Dex).
3) The Nintendo Switch Dock has ALL storage. The Switch Console has none (with the possibility of a very small flash capacity for game saves). This will mean that if the player intends to play a game on the go, they must have the game cartridge.
PROS: The Nintendo Switch Dock should have a perfect storage capacity for digital games.
CONS: If you only have the game as a digital download, you’ll be unable to play it on the go.
D4G think this is easily Nintendo’s toughest decision with the Switch, and one that Ninty could still be contemplating, even now (hence why nothing but the look and main feature of the console has been discussed). But as much as we’d love the 2nd idea, if we had to put our money on one of them, we’d go for option 3 (purely to keep costs of the Nintendo Switch down).
Hit those comments and let us know what you think? Have you thought of any other workarounds that Nintendo could use? Let us know!
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