It is a gaming fan's worst nightmare. You buy a new game and go to download it. Up pops the dreaded message: ‘Insufficient storage.' You are faced with the agonising task of deciding what needs to be archived or even deleted from your drive to make space. Of course, there is the option to simply buy some more storage, but if you are a Switch 2 owner, that might end up taking a bigger bite out of your bank account than you expect.
Nintendo Switch 2 uses a newer microSD standard
The Nintendo Switch 2 will require a different type of microSD card compared to the original. This new type of card is called microSD Express, and they are considerably more expensive than the standard microSD card you might have in your Switch, Smartphone, or Steam Deck.microSD Express cards from Sandisk have an MSRP of $49.99 for a 128 GB capacity, whereas a 128 GB standard microSD card from Sandisk can cost $14.99 or less. The 256 GB microSD Express costs $64.99. Lexar is planning on making the largest versions available, with up to 1TB planned; these cards are even more eye-wateringly expensive. The Lexar 1TB models are priced at an incredible $199.99, with a 512GB version at $99.99.
microSD Express prices compared to SSD
As pointed out by Tom's Hardware, the differences are even more stark if the microSD Express prices are compared to the cost of SSDs. Every Gigabyte of storage on a microSD Express card costs 20 to 25 cents. A gigabyte of storage on a basic SSD will cost a mere five or six cents.Though the Switch 2 will have more storage than the original, it is still a mere 256 GB. With modern games taking up large amounts of space that on-board storage will fill up in no time. After that, you'll need to fork over the cash or make a hard choice about what to delete. This is made worse by the fact that Nintendo has confirmed some physical cartridges just hold a game key, not the full game, forcing you to download the content onto your internal storage.
