When Switch cases arrived back in 2017, they looked comically unnecessary. The SD cards the games were installed on were tiny while the plastic surrounding them was exponentially bigger. Most cases didn’t even come with anything else inside. I’ve enjoyed collecting them but they were a huge waste. According to a new leak, the Switch 2 cases might be even worse.
The biggest takeaway from the Switch 2 reveal last month was that everything about the new console is bigger. Bigger Joy-Con controllers, bigger screen, bigger Mario Kart races. And it sounds like the game cases might be bigger too. Universo Nintendo editor Felipe Lima reported in January that French retailer FNAC had accidentally leaked the dimensions for a Take-Two Switch 2 game at 5.12 inches wide and 7.7 inches tall.
Then last week, Switch 2 subreddit user HertzBurst made an artistic rendering to show just how much bigger this roughly 43-percent increase in case size would look. If these new dimensions are accurate, and not just an error or placeholder, they would make Switch 2 game cases even taller than PS5 cases, which are only 6.7 inches tall. Those cases hold Blu-ray discs, though. While they’re often similarly devoid of game manuals and other inserts, at least in that case the box is barely much bigger than the thing it’s holding.
The Switch 2, on the other hand, will presumably feature SD cartridges similar in size, if not identical to, the existing ones. What could Nintendo possibly need all of this extra space for? Is it really that afraid of people walking into GameStop or Walmart and accidentally buying a Switch 2 game for a Switch 1 or vice-versa? Or will the new console usher in a new golden age of game cases bursting with maps, posters, and other cool stuff?
I still remember buying games for my original Switch on launch day. I opened up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and it was empty except for a small rectangular nugget of plastic. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, on the other hand, came with stickers and a beautiful little gold booklet directly inspired by the manual for the original Legend of Zelda on NES. It felt complete. My obsession with buying games physically was rewarded.
Somehow I don’t think the Switch 2 games will, on average at least, do the same. But if these really are the specs, then surely Nintendo has to shove something else in there, doesn’t it? The company wouldn’t just ship millions of bigger plastic shells all over the world with nothing but tiny cartridges inside? Right? Right??
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