Rumor: Switch 2 has 12GB RAM and 512GB internal storage

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IcaroRibeiro said:

Regarding the storage 

If it comes with only 128 gb of storage it can be as well as having storage only for the SO and saving files because 128 is as good as nothing considering the size of games nowadays...

I believe people are forgetting with the size of games getting bigger they will need more expensive cartridges. What I believe it will happen is they will no longer be able to fit all their games in cartridges, likely needing to store part of the games on the console which will need more storage 

I don't know how much it costs in your countries but 1 TB SD card from SanDisk can go as far as 140 USD. 512 are around 80 USD. I get you guys are thinking "but you already is buying SD Cards for base Switch", well yes but a simple 128 card (20 USD at time) was enough for my Switch with games being smaller and cartridges often having the full games. The idea everybody already has SD cards and taking from granted people will happily keep buying them is misguided because Switch games are much much smaller than the current AAA third party game sizes. This will no longer be true 

Unless devs start compressing the games better I fear that I will need at least 512 GB for a library even uninstalling games periodically. This is the storage of the least expensive PS4 model way back in 2023

Having this storage in the base system would be fantastic and make me save tons of money. I hope this rumors are true. I'm sure Nintendo can get internal storage for much cheaper prices than the final consumer could ever. 

I am not sure if Nintendo will need more expensive game cards. Each generation since the introduction of cards on the DS, they've been using a more modern variant that was able to provide more storage capacity for roughly the same price as before. Additionally, due to raised game prices on the PS5, it wouldn't be an issue for Switch 2 games to cost $10 more than Switch games whenever a high capacity card is needed to store the whole game on it.

On Switch most of Nintendo's games have been 5 to 10 GB in size with just a few going above 10 GB, hence why 16 GB cards have been sufficient for first party games all generation long. On Switch 2 Nintendo's own games may double in size, but cards in the sizes of 16 GB and 32 GB will be absolutely no problem. When it comes to third party games, their sizes are usually largely inflated because consumer-friendliness isn't something they do on PS and Xbox. People keep falling for this time and time again, such as only a year ago when Persona 5 Royal was coming to Switch with its 50-something GB and a lot of people were concerned; Atlus/Sega put the whole game on a 16 GB card without problems. This isn't magic, it's just doing the normal work.

Beyond the above, people are getting carried away by these rumored specs. Just because AAA third party games could be ported to Switch doesn't even remotely mean that any given third party will actually do it, because a lot of AAA publishers have a long history of not bringing games over despite the absence of technological problems. The point is, it's a waste to worry about games that won't come to Switch 2 anyway, regardless of what Switch 2's specifications are.

The bottom line is that the majority of gamers still doesn't really grasp that today's game cards are not like the cartridges all the way up to the GBA. Technically, a card is a type of cartridge, but in the practical sense it's very different because high capacities are feasible at low prices. So whenever someone says "cartridge" or "cart" when refering to Switch's storage medium, there's a high chance that they do not really know what they are talking about.

DS: 8 to 512 MB (so up to 0.5 GB)
3DS: 1 GB to 8 GB
Switch: 1 GB to 64 GB

The maximum capacity for each console was rarely used, if at all. So in practical terms, its half the maximum theoretical size that was used for the biggest games on the respective systems.

It shouldn't be expected that this scales linearily from gen to gen (3DS was a theoretical increase of x16 for the maximum capacity, Switch an increase of x8, so Switch 2 would be x4), but doubling Switch should be doable for Switch 2, resulting in 32 GB and 64 GB being commonly used. Factor in data compression and where's the problem of too little storage then? It will be the same as on Switch where it comes down to the unwillingness of any given third party to be consumer-friendly and do what's realistically possible. It's a third party problem, not a console manufacturer problem.