"Unpopular" microSD Express Cards Snapped Up in Japan; Switch 2 Showcase Inspired Sudden Buyer Interest

[T0@st]

Up until very recently, the microSD Express format was viewed as a commercial disappointment for involved manufacturers and suppliers. Potential buyers were not attracted to premium price points; as demanded by designs that can leverage (up to) 900 MB/s read speeds. Hermitage Akihabara—a Japanese electronics and computer hardware chain—has tracked an alarmingly sharp climb in demand for microSD Express products. The popular retailer documented this recent trend across several articles, with last week's investigation diving deep into units selling: "at a rate of 337.62 cards per hour!" The upcoming launch of a highly-anticipated mainstream gaming device has seemingly sharply driven up sales of a largely forgotten storage format. Hermitage Akihabara explored this unprecedented turnaround in fortunes: "Nintendo's influence is amazing. The 'microSD Express card,' which had hardly any sales due to lack of use, sold out in an instant as soon as it was announced that it would be used in the Nintendo Switch 2. It was sold out not only in (our) Akihabara shops but also on EC sites nationwide, and it caused such a stir that it was even covered in the general news."

Hermitage Akihabara expects to replenish its stock within a non-specific timeframe—but prices could remain "quite high," due to manufacturers (reportedly) being fairly conservative with production output. The store's "behind the scenes of the microSD Express card sellout" news piece outlined some compelling data points: "our mail order service received a large number of orders. According to the calculations made by the mail order staff, they were selling at a rate of 5.63 units per minute, or 337.62 units per hour, which was also a surprise. Of course, we didn't have that much stock, but it seems that we were selling as much as we had. One interesting thing is that most of the buyers ordered only one copy. At most, three copies were purchased, and more than 80% of people ordered one copy. Most of the buyers were pure users who wanted to save one to use with the Switch 2." As reported earlier in the month, Lexar has readied the world's first 1 TB microSD Express card. Their $199.99 (MSRP) 1 TB PLAY PRO microSDXC Express model is already available to purchase, months in advance of Switch 2's global launch date (June 5). Industry insiders believe that Samsung is collaborating with Nintendo on an "official" range of microSD Express cards.



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[teamtd11]

You need a device to use one in before you have any use for one.

They are backwards compatible, however no point spending if you are not going to use the express part.

 

[john_]

Damn, $450 the console and $200 more for extra storage, $80-$90 per game.
The Switch 2 is going to be a very expensive device to use.

 

[HairyLobsters]

Damn, $450 the console and $200 more for extra storage, $80-$90 per game.
The Switch 2 is going to be a very expensive device to use.

No game is $90 if you're talking USD.

 

[Cheeseball]

microSD Express isn't widely used because there are no other devices that make use of the extra speed yet.

The only one I can think of is SanDisk's own microSD Express USB-C reader, so unless you just need to store data on microSDs thats the only use for it. Might as well just get USB 3.2 Gen 2 flash drives which are currently cheaper.

 

[Tomorrow]

As much as i hate Nintendo and their business (not to mention legal) practices, i have to commend them if they manage to popularize SD Express.
We can blame smartphone manufacturers for SD Card stagnation. Many have removed SD Card slots from their smartphones. Many smartphones do not even support UHS-II or UHS-III speeds. Instead they have weaponized non-expandable internal storage in a bid to upsell higher capacity models and their cloud storage services.

If they allowed fast and cheap SD expansion i feel like most people would not bother buying 512GB or 1TB versions of their models. They would buy the baseline 128GB and expand it with MicroSDXC (or SD Express) instead. It is their fault SD Express has not taken off.

 

[Ravenmaster]

I noticed all the 1TB Lexar Micro SD Express cards suddenly went sold out on Amazon after the Switch 2 Direct. They had been in stock for months, not shifting. Then boom, all gone right after the event.

 

[Chaitanya]

Waiting to find out if camera makers also adopt SDexpress in future to make this format affordable as things stand right now like CFexpress A its a single manufacturer format.

 

[Bruno_O]

Damn, $450 the console and $200 more for extra storage, $80-$90 per game.
The Switch 2 is going to be a very expensive device to use.

I've seen it for ~100 AUD (256GB size), but considering the Switch 2 itself has 256GB and most Switch 1 games use 10-20GB, most people won't actually need to upgrade... you can always delete/download games again, and again most people prefer physical cartridges where the Switch storage is only used for updates.

 

[john_]

No game is $90 if you're talking USD.

If you go at 10:00, you will hear that the $80 price for some games is for their digital version. If you want the game in it's physical version you add $10 extra. And that's in the beginning of life of the console. If Switch 2 succeeds, AAA game prices will only go up.

I've seen it for ~100 AUD (256GB size), but considering the Switch 2 itself has 256GB and most Switch 1 games use 10-20GB, most people won't actually need to upgrade... you can always delete/download games again, and again most people prefer physical cartridges where the Switch storage is only used for updates.

If Switch 2 ends up faster than a Steam Deck for example, that means that PC games will be ported to it, that means that PC game sizes, will start becoming more common in Switch 2.
Also not everyone enjoys a fast internet line and even if they do, Switch is a handheld device, not a console that someone sticks on a TV. So if you go on a trip, you probably want all or most of your games available. And do people spent over $500 for a console to play 5 games? 10 games? And considering Switch's expected life of 7 years, 2-3 games per year is probably enough to fill that storage, if we assume that people will only buy that many games.
A few more thoughts. Is that storage all available for games? Do people who want to grab a Switch and dive into a game have enough patience to wait for the game to download?

So many excuses to pay for that extra storage

 

[ZeDestructor]

Waiting to find out if camera makers also adopt SDexpress in future to make this format affordable as things stand right now like CFexpress A its a single manufacturer format.

I think it will, and as of right now there's at least 3 decent vendors - SanDisk, Samsung and Lexar.

 

[Chaitanya]

I think it will, and as of right now there's at least 3 decent vendors - SanDisk, Samsung and Lexar.

Samsung was a paper launch with only Sandisk and Lexar actually making their cards available for purchase.

 

[ZeDestructor]

Samsung was a paper launch with only Sandisk and Lexar actually making their cards available for purchase.

Fair, but that'll get solved within a few months of the switch2 launching, if not less. I really *really* wouldn't worry about it.

 

[HairyLobsters]

If you go at 10:00, you will hear that the $80 price for some games is for their digital version. If you want the game in it's physical version you add $10 extra. And that's in the beginning of life of the console. If Switch 2 succeeds, AAA game prices will only go up.


If Switch 2 ends up faster than a Steam Deck for example, that means that PC games will be ported to it, that means that PC game sizes, will start becoming more common in Switch 2.
Also not everyone enjoys a fast internet line and even if they do, Switch is a handheld device, not a console that someone sticks on a TV. So if you go on a trip, you probably want all or most of your games available. And do people spent over $500 for a console to play 5 games? 10 games? And considering Switch's expected life of 7 years, 2-3 games per year is probably enough to fill that storage, if we assume that people will only buy that many games.
A few more thoughts. Is that storage all available for games? Do people who want to grab a Switch and dive into a game have enough patience to wait for the game to download?

So many excuses to pay for that extra storage

In the US, both physical and digital games are the same price. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet.

Nintendo Maintains Nintendo Switch 2 Pricing, Retail Pre-Orders to Begin April 24 in U.S. - News - Nintendo Official Site

Retail pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 will begin on April 24, 2025. At launch, the price for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will remain as announced on April 2 at $449.99, and the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle will remain as announced…

www.nintendo.com

 

[john_]

In the US, both physical and digital games are the same price. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet.

Nintendo Maintains Nintendo Switch 2 Pricing, Retail Pre-Orders to Begin April 24 in U.S. - News - Nintendo Official Site

Retail pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 will begin on April 24, 2025. At launch, the price for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will remain as announced on April 2 at $449.99, and the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle will remain as announced…

www.nintendo.com

That's good, but not good good. More like that's good that it isn't that bad. Still we are talking about the console and two games that where announced - if I am not mistaken - before tariffs. So they are probably keeping those prices to not sabotage any further the console's launch. But as the article points

However, Nintendo Switch 2 accessories will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions. Other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions.

Understandable comment, but it could mean price increases no matter tariffs or whatever else.

Anyway, this is something that should bother the buyer of Switch 2. Paying $450 for a console before seeing how prices of the games evolve could be a bad idea. If I was paying $450 for a console it would have been difficult to NOT swallow the game prices. So I would wait before paying those $450.