Nintendo Switch Cartridge for Zelda Breath of the Wild Revealed

For some time we knew that the Nintendo Switch will be using cartridges for their games. Now that the official presentation has been made we have also been able to give you a first look at the boxes of the games but also the cartridges.

[Moonman]

Cool, now make those official clear plastic little Gameboy cases to carry them in like back in the day. ;p

[THamm]

The good thing about this, which anyone whose played a cartridge before, is NO LOADING. I cannot explain how much the gaming world has suffered since the incorporation of loading screens. Ruins the immersive aspect of most games, something that made good games into boring games. Bravo Nintendo for this move but unfortunately no horsepower

[christocolus]

The no loading aspect is what I'm actually excited about. Nice

[badz149]

No loading? You sure about that? The Vita uses cartridge and there are loading screens in games. Even smartphone games have loading screens.

[cell989]

Grasping at straws bro. Really? That's such a great feature for you? When most games now I days load once for no more than 10 seconds and streams everything in real time after that. Cmon guys get real

[SierraGuy]

Now imagine it with horsepower...Come on Sony.

[nitus10]

NO LOADING!

Sorry to burst your bubble but all software and that includes games have to load into memory and that loading is limited by a combination of system bus and the loading (reading) speed of the device which contains the program (read games) being loaded.

Since I don't know what the speed of the Switch's bus is I will assume it has the same performance of the PS4pro which is SATA 3 (6Mb/sec). This in itself is pretty good although if you compare it against high-performance PC's that have SATA Express (16Mb/sec) or PCIe (over 32Mb/sec) then it is slow. Even if the Switch has a PCIe bus (which I doubt) you are still limited to the performance of your cartridge which can be anything from 25MB/sec (cheap SD cards) to around 260MB/sec (Class 10 high-performance SD cards).

Ok you start a game from a solid state device (eg cartridge, SD card or even an SSD (500+Mb/sec read) ) howe fat do you think loading takes?

Most games on start usually have advertising usually the distributor and developers names and the graphics engine that was used to develop the game. Just this alone takes a few seconds, then we have the game start menu which depending on the game may only take a few seconds from the time you start to your continue. So much for "No Loading".

[BG11579]

This is not a cartridge, this is a memory card, just like a SD card or a hard-drive. This doesn't translate into no loading. If that was the case, then every game put in a hard-drive wouldn't have any loading...

[Christopher]

Loading is RAM issue, not based on the type of media used. RAM needs to be cleared and new data loaded into memory from one place to another.

[jaycptza]

THamm is being silly, clearly doesn't know anything about technology. even PC games on PC with an SSD (what you call a cartridge will need to load data into the RAM) the problem is that all the data has to be made usable unpacked, loaded (into RAM) sequenced etc before youre able to play it

[KTF26]

old consoles see the cartridge as part of the main memory
I don't think it's the case with the Switch
more likely it see the cartridge as storage similar to optical and hard drives
it defiantly faster than optical drive and more likely faster than the hard drive depending on the speed of the slot
but I don't think it'll work like like old days

[MaximusTKG]

@Cell989

Most games take less than 10 seconds to load? I find nearly all games take more than 30 seconds, and usually more than a minute, to load. Unless you lump a few 16-bit indies into that (Stardew Valley, for instance), I say you need to take a stopwatch out and actually see how much of your life you lose to loading screens. You would be surprised.

[3-4-5]

* Carts = no loading + NO install.

You can buy the game put it in the Switch and play right away.

No more waiting.

** Anybody who doesn't know this buy know hasn't been paying attention or hasn't done research.

[IamTylerDurden1]

These are no different than the "cartridges" aka cards that the Vita uses. There WILL be loading times.

[Nathan_Hale53]

I mean, I am excited for the Switch, but 3DS cartridges take time to load, and stuff downloaded directly onto any device takes time to load. Sure it is faster than disks by a bit in general, but there are always loading screens, even my fast SSD on my computer has (a short 1-8 second wait depending on the game) loading screens.

[BG11579]

@3-4-5 You haven't play the Ps4 much haven't you. Killing Zone, one of the first Ps4, allowed you to play the game while installing it.
You seriously need to try and play other games in other consoles besides the WiiU.

[indysurfn]

Yeah THamm is right. No loading except at the start of a game..... well a little loading at the start of the game 4 seconds maybe. Well with my 3DS with much slower memory than the SWITCH that is how it is. That was how it was even back in the Genesis/SNES days. So why would much faster SWITCH memory be any different? I guess not too many people have a good memory (no pund intended) to remember how things got slow the second I put my first Sega cd/ and then later PS1 disc in.

[DoomeDx]

lol you are not smart :p

[blawren4]

No hard drive install perhaps but loading screens may never go away. Loading screens put content into memory. Depends on the bus speed among other things. Don't get your hopes up about loading screens going away.

[3-4-5]

* Game Cartridge = No or minimal loading times and games don't have to be installed on hardrive.

[nitus10]

Sigh!. Load games via digital download on a 1TB 7200rpm HDD, a Hybrid HDD or even an SSD (Expensive but incredibly fast) drive I could have well over 100 games some AAA and others games I really like. I can take my machine anywhere and I have the choice of playing any one game out of those games I own without inserting a cartridge or Bluray disk. I can even get a cheap but robust 10" to 12" HDMI monitor for when I am away from home for under $100 USD although admittedly you can do this for the Switch as well.

For a bit of homework, why don't you do a search on "performance comparison of SD cards". You can even look at Hard Disk Drives then Solid State Disks and you will see that if you want performance you are going to have to pay for it.

The two main things that the Switch has over the current consoles is the fact that it will have Nintendo games and it can act as a portable which, to be honest, will be enough for some people.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Minimal install, yes, but games will certainly have loading times. Do u own a Vita?

This is downright idiotic to think there will be no load times. These are basically SD cards, not old school cartridges. Vita uses the same thing, good lord.

[vergilxx3]

I have a vita and A LOT of games , there are loading screens
but you hardly notice them.
way faster than ps4 i think

:Edit

Tested bunch of Games and loading time varies between 3-15 seconds
tested on:
Sword art online lost song
Final fantasy X
World of final fantasy

BUT
Games Like borderlands 2 took about 30seconds

[Segata]

Hori has you covered and it's licensed by Nintendo

[Articuno76]

@THamm Cartridges don't mean there is no loading. The 3DS and Vita have loading. So does the Switch.

[Scatpants]

Although using solid state media, loading would most likely be faster than standard HDDs.

[Utalkin2me]

Those are not much smaller then the controllers, lol.

[3-4-5]

There are a ton of game cases out right now to buy. Go to amazon...so many cool options of LoZ themed and regular ones.

* I love cartridges for my Vita,3DS....and now for the Switch.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Idk why ppl are so enamored with these cards. The Vita used the same thing, these do not remind me of the old NES cartridges at all. If anything they are less retro and more akin to the current day tech of SD cards. They should've at least made the plastic casing of the card look like mini Gameboy or NES cartridges. At the very least make them grey.

[tdogchristy90]

I wonder how often they'll get lost. Like if we'll start hearing stories about lost games. The fact they are smaller than say a phone or CD (tiny) makes me question.

[Nyxus]

Handhelds have had cards this small for years. PS Vita games are even smaller than this.

[tdogchristy90]

I haven't had a handheld since the original game boy/game boy color so wasn't sure.

[Vegamyster]

I have a 3DS case that i got from Club Nintendo before they were shut down and it's great, it's the size of a regular 3DS game case that it holds 18 games, they just need something like this and i wouldn't worry about losing games. http://www.nintendoworldrep...

[Erik7357]

Would be quite the opposite, I would be worried I would loose ALL my games lol.

If you loose that case say goodbye to all those games haha

[attilayavuzer]

Nintendo bringing back HitClips

[IamTylerDurden1]

Nope. These are SD cards, not old school cartridges. Vita...

[jaymacx]

They can get lost. All depends on the user really. I dropped my fire emblem fates card in my break room. Luckily someone figured it was mine and returned it to me. Just take good care of your stuff and use a game case. I have one for 3ds that holds many games and it helps me keep up with them.

[rainslacker]

Just takes some extra care. I always like the cases which allowed you to carry about 10 games or so, and you can carry them easily in your pocket, or some carrying cases allow the system to be carried as well. But switch is kind o big for keeping it in one's pocket.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Tbh, they do get lost. I've lost Vita games.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Everyone should take care of their games. I always put games back in their cases. It is all down to you if you lose it.

[Scatpants]

If I get one I'll probably buy a 1 or 2 Tb card and just get everything digital.

[demonddel]

Kool I'm tired of scratches on my disc

[aaronaton]

Blu-rays don't scratch, unless you're referring to your WiiU games?

[Vegamyster]

Didn't the Wii-U use 25gb bluray discs?

[demonddel]

One of my favorite movies of all time don't even play anymore Avatar Blu-ray I wonder why

[BizarroUltraman]

Lol..thats obviously false. But it takes a pretty good one for it not to work.

[deathtok]

Scratch-resistant not scratch-proof. Either way they are miles beyond DVD!

[jaymacx]

Wii U disc have a nice coating on them and the edges are rounded off. Definitely better than standard DVDs.
All discs can be scratched though.

[indysurfn]

I have bought blu rays and hdr blu rays that skip on the first time ever being used. And cant be fixed by cleaning.

[nitus10]

Blurays can be scratched but you really do have to go out of your way to do this. If you nick the printing then effectively the disk is toast, this is why I always recommend putting the disk back in its case or clear/shiny surface down.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

@Vegamyster
No. Wii U doesn't use Blu-Ray at all. The disc were custom created by Panasonic. Since GameCube.

Why it's not Blu-Ray? Because you don't install phyiscal games onto your hardware on Wii U.

[hduce]

Blu rays scratch but that does not happen easily.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Blu-rays don't scratch nearly as often or easily. Blu-rays are wayyy more durable than a DVD or CD.

[BizarroUltraman]

It must be a pretty good scratch.

[Phunkydiabetic1]

Are you like 7? How did you scratch your discs?

[morganfell]

Exactly. I will bet if you drop those cartridges and step on them right they will break. There is a limit to how much carelessness a product is supposed to withstand. Blurays are fine unless you play frisbee with them, use them as coasters, or simply do not know how to care for things within a fair degree of reason.

[Kurdishcurse]

childish and insecure comment.

[AmUnRa]

Blu ray disks have a special coating. All of my 3 year old PS4 games dont have one scratch, so no.

[EricLane]

Need to see a glossy golden cartridge.

[sk8ofmnd]

Agreed, i remember my zelda cartridge on the nes.

[rjason12]

I've been wanting them to use colored carts since they stopped with Pokémon!

[NukaCola]

Golden Cartridge?

LOL, yeah Nintendo doesn't do what fans want or need. That would of been epic, but well...

Fans,

"FU, here are some disappointments"

with love,

Nintendo

[GoldPunch-TR]

Too much big. Pre-order cancelled.

[noxeven]

So we getting vita like box size then, I cant imagine it being a big box

[Kyizen]

More proof this is a handheld and not a console. It doesntbeven play 4k blurays

[Moonman]

Nobody wants an xbox one. Lol

[Uken12]

More proof it is a portable device, can't even play games in 4k. It's screen isn't even 4k. I buy video game systems to watch movies too.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Are you special in the head?

[nitus10]

When I buy a games machine I want to play games!

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Glad it not 4K BLURAY

That way I don't have to install every frisking physical games because Blu-Ray has slow reading.

[Segata]

But with the kickstand you can play it on top of a 4K blu ray!

[Ravenor]

Duct tape those suckers together and you have the ultimate in portability and style.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Now people are bitching over something being 4k or not.. sigh... Why not just settle for 1080p 60+hz.

[Scatpants]

I think the most glaring indication that it's a handheld is that it fits in your hand.

[PhoenixUp]

It's going to surreal seeing Square Enix release games on a Nintendo console with cartridges

[Segata]

I know it's semantics with the word consoles but they got back with Nintendo and releasing games on Game Boy Advance DS,3DS and such. So the whole Nintendo Squaresoft fight has been over since 2003.

[Ristul]

They look good, I wouldn't want them smaller then that due to the label needing to be big enough to have art and title.

[gbsrnctaln]

Thank you, that'll be $60...

[bu3ouf91]

Does it play Blue-Ray discs ?

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

nope. There no disc drive. You won't have to install physical games on to it either.

[bu3ouf91]

Sad

[pleasuretokill]

This system is great for mobile gaming fans, but even then, way too expensive. I am not one of them. I game at home, on a nice big screen, on a nice comfy couch or bed (gaming setups in both rooms) No way I'm going to care about squinting at a 6" screen to game on the go. My phone has that same capability and I never use it. Docked, the system specs are terrible. Nintendo should have waited for the Tegra X2. Tegra X1 is not good enough for home console games.... ESPECIALLY at a $300 price point with no games. Nintendo, I think you have another hardware failure on your hands.

If this was $199, I would consider it.... at $299, lol. Hell no.

[Scatpants]

The presentation really unsold me on it. I'll probably still buy one eventually if only to play Zelda on and whatever other 4 or 5 good games Nintendo will release in the next 2 or 3 years.

[Livecustoms]

Lower the price for black friday and bring a pokemon sun/moon port to switch and ill buy your console ;)

[_LarZen_]

Would be nice if the fake green Zelda cartridge was real. Tho I understand why they need it smaller and use a SD Card instead.

[Manashake]

Let's hope home consoles are not ending up this small.

[Madmich2016]

still not for me seen noo good games it all about the games for me and my family sony ps fan all the way

[Dangerous]

Bloody tiny.

[Azurite]

What's the transfer rate?

[redaxis]

In the days of 128gb micro sd card around, game cartridge this size is not surprising.