Discussion SpawnWave investigates TotK cartridge size

[Jersh]

It's strange they use 32GB, and then absolutely wreck the compression on the pre-rendered cutscenes.

Sorta strange, sorta not. I don't think it's as simple as targeting file size tiers; with the ubiquity of digital buyers now, every bit counts. Especially when they still sell SKUs with only 32 GB internally.

There's that, and also something else I don't understand: why make us download a day one patch when they had plenty of room to include it on the physical medium? I mean, it's not like they rushed the release of the game, they even delayed it to make sure it's polished. So why even a day one patch?

I have the impression that the game was originally intended to fit into a 16GB game cart, and that it changed along the way.

It's frustrating to buy a game in physical format deliberately to avoid the dematerialized one and not have the whole game on physical support even though there's plenty of space available. This is a bad trend in the industry and until now it was to Nintendo's credit that they did not participate in this trend. Besides, I imagine that the next copies shipped will contain the day one patch directly on the physical support, as it was the case for Breath Of The Wild.

I guess there are a lot of good reasons for that, but it seems to me that it's reasonable and possible not to have to go through a download. They took the time to polish the game, they delayed it, so I'm not happy that the problems that needed patching weren't fixed BEFORE the cartridges were made. I mean, I don't understand why the performance issues fixed by the patch were impossible to identify before the gold version, they were quite obvious.

But I fully admit that I may be missing some things.

That patch wasn't on the cart because it wasn't close to done. It barely got out before reviews dropped; several said they were wrapping up their time with the game when they got it.

Nintendo has regularly participated in this trend throughout the life of the Switch. Off-hand, I know Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade 3, and Splatoon 3 had day one patches. I believe it's far more common than not with their larger releases, I just don't have a list on me.

The performance issues were almost certainly identified before the game went into production; but resolving them takes time, and the 1.0.0 version was deemed good enough for those few that would play without updating first. It's unfortunate, but it's just reality nowadays, and Tears of the Kingdom had a larger than normal benefit. If you hadn't noticed, it's actually gotten two additional patches already since the initial one anyway. It was delayed for polishing, but the sense I'm getting is that it's a stretch to say they took their time. They worked right up through the release date and have continued to do so.