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Nintendo is going through stress from the AI scarcity, as growing NAND costs are doing extra than simply mountain climbing the corporate’s prices to construct the favored Switch 2 gaming handheld. According to Bloomberg, some customers are reportedly balking at buying new titles, particularly because the console’s specs restrict its onboard storage to only 256GB. The proven fact that it makes use of extra highly effective {hardware} than the unique Switch implies that its sport titles are actually considerably bigger. For instance, the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, one of many main franchises on the Nintendo platform, is about 102.5GB, which means it should take up round 40% of the console’s onboard storage.
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One gamer instructed the outlet that they used to purchase video games “on a whim,” however are actually extra cautious “because the space is filling up so quickly, at a pace that I didn’t imagine.” According to figures collated by Bloomberg, Switch 2 software sales momentum “lags behind the unique Switch’s.” As of the end of 2025, it calculates that the average number of games purchased per console is just 2.18. When the Switch reached the same sales milestone of around 17 million units, that figure was 3.88, a marked decrease in Switch 2 game sales.
If you’re a collector and wish to have a ton of video games put in in your console, vastly bigger titles like Final Fantasy imply you’d must buy external storage to increase your Switch 2’s capacity. Although you can easily get one of the best microSD Express Cards from Amazon, they’re more expensive than ordinary microSD cards, and the storage chip shortage is not doing gamers (or Nintendo) any favors. For example, the 512GB TeamGroup Apex microSD Express Card cost around $100 in late 2025 but now sits at $114.99 on Amazon. The 1TB Lexar Play Pro is much dearer, too — it’s at present priced at $219.99 on Amazon, though it used to value lower than $190 earlier than the scarcity.
These worth will increase on the Switch 2’s storage options are giving avid gamers pause when looking for new video games — and that’s an issue for Nintendo. Although the corporate doesn’t promote its {hardware} at a loss (not like Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation), it does so at exceedingly skinny margins. That means it nonetheless depends on the gross sales of its video games to make up for almost all of its revenue. But with growing sport sizes, many customers are actually having second ideas about shopping for video games willy-nilly, particularly as storage prices spiral uncontrolled.
The firm is making an attempt to assist avid gamers by launching Nintendo-branded microSD Express playing cards made by Samsung. The report even claims that Nintendo has “secured concessions from retailers” to surrender a number of the income on gross sales of those units. They’re at present available on Amazon for just $59.00, however at simply 256GB, you’ll must buy a number of of those if you happen to’re an avid sport collector. Furthermore, this provides to the already comparatively excessive worth of $449 for the console, which was pushed by the uncertainty of tariffs and world geopolitical occasions. And with titles already costing round $50 to $80, the necessity to spend additional for storage will certainly weigh extra on avid gamers’ pockets and eat into Nintendo’s revenues.
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