Standard Micro SD Cards Won't Work On Nintendo Switch 2

Dangnamit. That 1.5TB card I have spare isn't an express. Ah well, more expense. Lol.

Nintendo is going to have to clearly communicate this to consumers. I can see a lot of people putting in a basic SD card and wondering why it doesn't work. Frustrations will erupt online about the system being "broken" or something.

Nooooo. It should support an external drive too docked. I need 2 1.5TB for all my games and more for the new Switch 2 games. It could support them to play Switch OG games at least that don't need the extra speed. Like Series X/S with XO games.

It’s pretty stupid decision. Thank you, Nintendo.

I could only find a single microSD Express card in my local online stores. And it's only 128 GBs. And the description doesn't even call it as such. Is Nintendo seriously hoping that there will be wide adoption within 2 months or that 128 GBs will be enough? What are they smoking?

Great news, makes no sense to bottleneck all the other tech improvements with standard SD cards.

Remember , U have 256 gb of internal memory !

Wow, stupidity at its best

Well at least this time internal memory isn't pathetic 32gb like on Wii U and Switch so it's not that big of a problem for me.

@Luffymcduck and you think 256gb will cut it.

I found only one on Amazon, 1TB for 270€, pretty expensive if you need 3 just for the Switch 1 games... It should be required only for the SW2 games. I don't understand why they did that for older games.

They should have gone with 526gb.

This just made me re:think my day 1 purchase, because I can only move around 80% my Switch 1 data to Internal Space of Switch 2, so I need that extra space and planned upgrade from 0,5 TB to at least 1 TB with Switch 2, but they only support Express which is newer tech and I still not found any shops at my country selling those, so 1 TB will cost me almost second console at this point. This Console now will end up for me costing around same price like PS5PRO costs which now makes me reconsider day 1 buy...

@Rpg-lover
At launch yes.

I was already thinking of getting a new micro SD card for this so I’m not too upset.

Welp gonna hold off till I find a 1.5 TB (they don’t exist yet). Glad they are using a faster format though.

Still better than the twins. I have an external ssd (from my xbone) and the expansion card (so two different memory types) to keep my series x alive. At least this will be a universal format that can be used in other devices later. And the internal memory (for the switch ) is pretty beefy. Likely more than enough to hold all the launch games.

Perhaps the worst part of the direct for me. This reeks of Sony hubris and their dedicated memory storage formats with the psp and vita.

At the very least, this gives us excellent reason not to migrate our entire Switch library tobthe Switch 2 and makes me somewhat glad that the only games benefited with the transition would be the Switch 2 edition paid upgrades.

Judging by a quick google search, the only Minsk retailer even yielding any "micro SD express" results is the local branch of the cheap but shifty Ozon (basically Russian AliExpress of sorts), and even said results boil down to a 128 Gb SanDisk for the local price of a Gen 9 joycon pack. Between this and all the earlier touted 1080p/120fps dead weight, I'm no longer fully confident it's even properly April 2 yet.🤔😅 Sounds like I'll spend a long while just using the built-in 256 Gb for the Switch backlog besides... wait, what will the Gen 10 exclusive filesizes like MKW even be?😳

Damn it's confusing to shop for one now since the older microSD cards are also littering the market. The only few microSD Express cards I found online only had storage for 128gb and 256gb, most of the higher ones look fake and had non-trustful brands. Also every time I search for the Express cards, I got results for the Extreme ones instead which are similar and cheaper but they're not Express cards. Nintendo better solve this situation soon cause most new customers could easily mistake microSD Extreme cards for microSD Express cards which they aren't. Heck even the Steam Deck and ROG Ally support all kinds of microSD cards with no issue, why Nintendo why? The least y'all could do is allow latest versions like the microSD Extreme and microSD Ultra cards to work on it too.

Yeah, as someone who invested in a 1.5 TB microSD card that's only about 1/3rd of the way full, I'm pretty PO'd about this, not gonna lie. Bit of a sour note in the middle of this Direct.

@squidduforeal
It's a freaking SD card, not a rare physical copy. Why should I have to look outside my local online stores?

And even on Amazon, there are lots of results for "Extreme" cards, which are not Express and I could only find a single 1 TB at 200 bucks+shipping+import tax+duties. Just lovely.

Have Micro Express SD card ever been released for the original Switch? I've been trying to work out which version my card is, but it's so small it's really hard to read!

They are just copying the Vita.

Hahah, having Vita flashbacks.

To those saying no biggie, the price is over 4x the typical Micro Sd price, 128 gb costs as much as a 512 gb standard micro sd, the 256 gb variant is actually more expensive than some 1 tb cards.

How come all the other handhelds work just fine with standard Micro Sd cards?

@Henners If it didn't cost a fortune, it's not an Express card, currently they cost around, sometimes over 4x the price of same capacity standard Micro Sd card.

This is very sad to hear but I guess I'll be deleting and redownloading games a lot anyway. My favorite part about Switch 1 was not having to do that as much.

Welp, now I feel foolish for buying microSD cards last Christmas. I'm not planning on transferring every one of my Switch 1 games to 2, but still. My poor wallet.

@Ploppy Except the PS Vita really is a cheap out, the thing force you to buy Sony's expensive proprietary memory cards and nothing else as it is a requirement of the system since it only had 1gb of internal storage. Switch 2 at least includes 256gb of internal storage, Nintendo's mistake right now is abandoning the older microSD cards in favor of the Express ones which are not standard yet. Perhaps the only good thing about the microSD Express cards is that Nintendo doesn't make them.

@Razzy I got mine in a sale years ago, thinking the 256GB version could pay for itself with all the digital games I got with the vouchers. It not being Switch 2 compatible is a big no for me early adopting it.

This is so dumb and consumer unfriendly. Guess mine will just be a paper weight.

Good, if nintendo can't have ssd for switch 2 at least this new type of sdcard is fast enough to play switch 2 games with little to no loading.

@Henners Then it's a standard one, Express cards started appearing just over a year ago.

@themightyant They are 4x as expensive, that's hardly a 'little'.

We'll see how far these transfer speeds will go then. SSD is a key part of this console generation, and while 800MB/s should be enough for many games, I expect some will require more than 1GB/s

We know the new unit has 256GB on board - but do we know what size the games are? How fast is that going to get gobbled up?

A quarter-tera still ain't a whole hog's hatful, not these days. I was onto a half-tera card on my OG Switch early on in year 2, and for everything else I've been known to rip through a 5TB portable hard drive in a little over a half a year. I don't so much have a stack of the things as a fleet.

@squidduforeal
I guess I could use it in my computer, but shame on me for wanting to use the thing I paid money for lmao. Nothing wrong with more storage.

physical games all the way better then digital ones that kill storage much faster.

This is good news. The load times on switch 1 can be bad, even in game. A (theoretical) 9x faster throughput will be a nice performance boost and make using the switch 2 a lot more enjoyable.

I've drawn attention in the past to the point that the Micro SD format was a major bottleneck for the Switch 1, so it makes sense that they'd seek out an alternative for the Switch 2.

...But the alternative was very obviously the widely available M.2 NVMe drives, not a new Micro SD format with effectively zero presence on the marketplace, and no large capacity sizes to speak of.

This alone ensured my not picking up the system at launch, even before getting into other things.

@AnVold No it's not. The more demanding Switch 2 games require faster reading times that standard micro SD cards can't do.

@BTB20 indie and original Switch games too?

Storage is a big deal for me and correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't this format cap at 1TB, at least for now? Games are generally getting bigger not smaller. Biggest downer of the Direct for me since portable games tech seems to be outpacing SD card capacity increases. Well, biggest downer with the cringey chat trailer section but that's more of a personal peeve.....

Think I will be keeping my OLED Switch for most of my Switch games.

@AnVold It's either all or none, otherwise you'd be forced to have certain games only on the system storage. And how would that be regulated?

@BTB20 easy, like it works with HDD on PS5 and Xbox Series. You can install and play PS4 games from HDD or SSD on PS5, but for playing PS5 games you need to install them on SSD.

This was why I was holding off buying a regular Micro SD card. There were rumors of express only support.

I think 256 GB is the highest size available... Not too bad if the legendary Nintendo game file sizes stay low.

How much more expensive a M.2 NVMe disk would cost? I mean OLED steam deck 512 gb cost less than $200 more

@Luffymcduck If you're like me coming from the PSP and PS Vita era, having 32gb of internal storage is a blessing. While the PS Vita only had 1gb of internal storage, the PSP hardly had any internal storage at all (if you don't count the PSP Go that is).

Dammit, i got a 512gb card at Christmas in prep for switch2 bigger games, cant return it now😱😬

@kalosn While ssd is faster and makes storage more convenient, using it on a device like a traditional gaming handheld does make it a cause for concern as they tend to eat up battery like no tomorrow and could cause the system to overheat faster.

@Serpenterror That explains quite a lot for the PC Handhelds and Steam Deck... Fortunately this is a new solution that was hinted early last year, so hopefully it'll be able to strike a balance.
Switch loading times were quite low already (for Nintendo games at least), so I wonder how they'll be on the new console.

@themightyant I think you're overestimating how fast the prices will drop. There's very few devices utilising the capabilities of Express cards, so they'll remain niche for quite a while and the price drops won't be nearly as steep. Not to mention that the consecutive speed classes you mentioned never had such a massive price hike from one to the next.

@AnVold Regular SD cards are too slow. It's not stupid.

@Razzy amazon here in the us has a 512gb for $50, thats not so bad.

Update- apparently I saw wrong, 256 is $60, 512 is $100, 1tb is 199.99.

@john_lennon999 completed them all have you?

@Runex2121 jesus christ.

The severity of this issue will entirely depend on how big the file sizes of Switch 2 and Switch 2 Version games are.

Bought my Express card but should've wait longer another version came out and was far cheaper. I got 256g right now the 1tb is to much right now.

@Serpenterror Agreed. My PSP Go came with 16gb, a huge amount at the time, and then Vita came along and we got nothing. Fortunately the Vita is now pretty well treated by the mod scene so proprietary memory is a thing of the past.

They're going to need to communicate this very clearly for at least the first couple years, and really push the officially-licensed ones (and maybe even put some big stickers on the official Switch 1 ones still in stores to say they're not compatible with the Switch 2). Searching "micro sd express" right now brings up a lot of SanDisk Extreme cards, which sound very similar; lots of people are going to buy the wrong ones.

I see them emphasizing the 256GB SDXC, but is that the max size? I have no problem getting the 256GB, but I want to go larger if possible.

@premko1
Remember; most of the current Switch library will be playable on Switch 2... as in the 1TB+ of games I and others already own and ideally would like to transfer to a new console if we 'upgrade'.
Those of us who invested in a 1TB... or 1.5TB as I have... have spent a considerable amount of money for the convenience of not having to actively manage our large libraries on lower capacities.
Plus, as others have stated; "Express" SD is extremely expensive, and still currently at low capacity limits compared to slower formats.

That hurts the most for me. I can wait for game sales, or sell them after playing. But storage is a must, and the express cards are still so new that there is not much diversity on the market yet.
The 256GB don't do much, as I'm expecting games to be a bit bigger than the Switch 1 versions.

@Sherly I fully understand , but considering all this express and S2 situation it will be MUCH cheaper to just use S1 for S1 games and wait when express cards will be cheaper ( 1 year IMHO )

Just realized the express cards work on the standard switch.

@premko1
So your cost saving idea is to not use a Seitch as trade in, and instead purchase a Seitch 2 at full price, and keep using both consoles until the price of an accessory drops.
Glad to see you are ritch enough to consider that 'saving money'.
And although I don't have any intention of trading in my limited edition Swtich, most of those who are interested in a Switch 2 will be using their old console as a down-payment... especially given the backwards compatibility that is part of the newer console by design.
You are offering sound arguments, but your logic is nowhere to be found.

...says the person who bought sd card for more than I paid for used Switch

SD express is the best and probably only feasible option for switch 2. The most common UHS-I card is just far too slow with a reading speed at around 100 to 150mb for Nintendo's next gen. UHS-II or III are only slightly faster and it's interface is also very rarely seen in mainstream products. Express is so much faster it's a must for switch 2. This is a conundrum for everyone. And for a portable console it's difficult to copy what PS5 has done, with new PCIe SSD but allowing external hard drive for older gen games.

@Razzy the price is ridiculous indeed but this is not like Vita or the expansion card for xboxsx/s at all. SD Express is a universal interface it's just not been commonly used yet like PCIe long time ago. A removable tiny SSD like the one on Surface Pro (M.2 2230 PCIe) would cost much more. Slower options are simply impossible as new games need much higher speed.