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Nintendo Switch game file sizes reveal you’re going to need to spend even more money

Published Feb 21st, 2017 4:28PM EST
Nintendo Switch game download sizes
Image: Serpell-Rand/REX/Shutterstock

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If you were wondering whether or not you would actually need to buy an SD card for your Nintendo Switch, wonder no more. Nintendo of Japan shared the list of download sizes for eight upcoming games, and while a few of them weigh in at under 2 GB, one is so large that it won’t even fit on the console’s internal storage.

As we learned last week when the first Switch leaked out into the wild, only 25.9 GB of internal storage will be available to players when they take the Switch out of the box. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — the first must-own title for the Switch — takes up 13.4 GB of space. So if you decide to go with digital downloads over physical copies of games, you’ve already used up more than half the console’s storage.

While that’s concerning in itself for those of you who don’t want to pony up for an SD card on day one, Nintendo also revealed that Dragon Quest Heroes I & II, a launch title in Japan, will require 32 GB of storage. If you don’t have an SD card in your Switch, you literally cannot download this combo pack on launch day.

Here’s the full list of file sizes from Nintendo of Japan’s website (via IGN):

  • Disgaea 5 – 5.92 GB
  • Dragon Quest Heroes I & II – 32 GB
  • I Am Setsuna – 1.40 GB
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 13.4 GB
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 7 GB
  • Nobunaga’s Ambition – 5 GB
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris – 1.09 GB
  • Snipperclips – 1.60 GB

If you’re going to download anything larger than an indie game, an SD card is going to be a necessity. Lucky for you, we’ve already put together a buyer’s guide for those of you who don’t want to do research.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.