Tiny, detachable “mini SSD” might finally be a giant deal for gaming handhelds

The Mini SSD card is not and will by no means be a formally ratified customary, nevertheless it does goal to unravel an actual drawback for transportable gaming methods—the necessity for quick storage that may load video games at speeds approaching these of an inner SSD, with out requiring customers to take their very own methods aside to carry out upgrades.

Why are video games getting so dang large, anyway?

A 2023 analysis from TechSpot advised that recreation measurement had elevated at a median price of roughly 6.3GB per yr between 2012 and 2023—video games that are available in over 100GB aren’t the norm, however they don’t seem to be exhausting to search out. Some of that improve comes from improved graphics and the higher-resolution textures wanted to make video games look good on 4K displays and TVs. But TechSpot additionally famous that the storage necessities for narrative-heavy, cinematic-heavy video games like The Last of Us Part 1 had been being pushed simply as a lot by audio recordsdata and assist for a number of languages.

“In total, nearly 17 GB of storage is needed for [The Last of Us] data unrelated to graphics,” wrote writer Nick Evanson. “That’s larger than any entire game from our 2010 sample! This pattern was consistent across nearly all the ‘Godzilla-sized’ games we examined—those featuring numerous cinematics, extensive speech, and considerable localization were typically much larger than the rest of the sample in a given year.”

For one other outstanding current instance, contemplate the set up sizes for the Mac model of Cyberpunk 2077. The model of the sport on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG runs about 92GB. However, the model obtainable for obtain from Apple’s App Store is a whopping 159GB, solely as a result of it consists of the entire recreation’s voiceovers in the entire languages it helps. (This is due to App Store guidelines that require apps to have all attainable recordsdata included once they’re submitted for overview.)

It’s clear that there is a want for quick storage upgrades that do not require you to disassemble your console or PC utterly. Whether it is this new “mini SSD,” a quicker iteration of microSD Express, or another as-yet-unknown storage format stays to be seen.