Image: Nintendo Life
Storage-hungry consumers in Japan have been jumping on available stocks of super-fast MicroSD cards as an ongoing memory shortage continues across the computer industry, with no signs of getting better in the immediate future.
As reported by Tom’s Hardware, a spiralling issue of rising costs and demand that’s far exceeding availability means empty shelves and insane prices as regular consumers swoop on anything that’s left over once large data centres and AI companies have bought up their fill. Oh, AI, is there anything you can’t make worse?
Speaking with IT Media, Tokyo-based vendor Techhouse Toei said that its inventory had been very badly affected. “The larger versions of popular series keep running out of stock…This might drag on for a while.” With all sizes of MicroSD cards, from 256GB all the way up to 2TB models involved, it’s not hard to see how or why consumers (and those pesky AI centres) might start to make the jump en masse to new and improved MicroSD Express technology used in Switch 2.
Have you picked up one of these yet? — Image: Nintendo Life
The report goes on to detail how even older tech, such as HDD drives with huge storage capacities, is being bought up. “It looks like large-capacity models are getting sucked up for AI use,” one shop owner said, “so we aren’t getting any stock at all. Everyone knows what’s going on, so even if the price goes up, the drives sell out immediately… and the cycle repeats.”
It’s certainly something that’s already been an issue here in the West, and even through our own personal searching for MicroSD Express cards online, it’s been notably hard to find sizes beyond 256GB for anything approaching a reasonable price, and the 1TB options are already being sold for…well, a quick search indicates around £200, which is quite a lot.
Some of this, of course, has been down to the popularity of Nintendo’s console, but there’s little doubt that any further stress on MicroSD availability would make it significantly harder to find a card for your Switch 2.
With no signs of the supply situation abating, and with AI being the number one reason cited behind all of the shortages of storage, RAM, and GPUs, it does seem as though the prepared Switch 2 gamer should perhaps brace for the inevitable impact and nab some backup storage ASAP.
Have you got a Micro SD Express card in your Switch 2? (478 votes)
- Absolutely, day one!39%
- Yep, I picked one up when I ran out of space13%
- Not yet, but I’m on the lookout10%
- Not yet, I’m waiting for the prices to go down17%
- Nah, I’d rather spend the cash on a game and juggle my downloads5%
- Nope, I haven’t even filled up the onboard storage yet!9%
- I don’t have a Switch 2, but I appreciate being included in polls8%
Have you already bought a MicroSD card to satisfy your needs for your Switch 2? Had trouble buying one, or found them too expensive? Make sure to let us know.
[source itmedia.co.jp, via tomshardware.com]
PJ is a staff writer across Hookshot Media. He’s been playing video games pretty much nonstop since the early 1980s, which is ages ago. Favourite genres include RPGs, puzzle games and lovely big single player adventures of all kinds. The weirder the better.