The port of Rockstar’s cult classic historical detective title, L.A. Noire on the Switch is not exactly compatible out of the box. While the game will run just fine on the new Nintendo console, you need additional storage to do it, as the digital version of the game comes in at 29GB. That is too much space for the Switch’s internal memory.
As much as people are enamored with Nintendo’s newest console, many have pointed out the lack of storage space as a real downfall. We said as much in our review, as compared with the hundreds of gigabytes available on the Xbox One and PS4, it seems like a real oversight. The L.A. Noire storage requirements could be the tip of an iceberg which sees expanded storage become near mandatory for Switch owners.
At 29GB, the game is too big for the Switch’s standard storage. Although the console comes with 32GB as standard, 6.2GB of that is reserved for the system, which Gamespot notes. That means that if you’re running the digital version of L.A. Noire, you absolutely need expanded storage. Rockstar also warns that any microSD card used must have a minimum read speed of at least 60MBps.
One way around this for those not looking to splash out on expanded storage is to play the physical version of the game. Although you will still be required to download a 14GB patch alongside it, that should at least make it possible to play the game without additional storage — even if the update does take up almost half of the onboard memory.
Although this is a problem that is likely to extend to many more games — Doom already requires an additional 9GB of space for multiplayer — this may be a more common issue with third-party games on the console. Nintendo’s own titles tend to be much more compact, with Mario Odyssey weighing in at just 5.2GB in total, while Arms is just over 2GB.
If you’re wondering why there is such a disparity between game install sizes, you are not the only one. We recently sat down with several developers to ask them why so many modern games take up so much storage space.
