As game install sizes keep increasing and storage starts to become a premium, gamers have to make sacrifices as to which games are currently installed on their systems. The PS4 and Xbox One may have long since lost that battle (a lot of games have eclipsed 100 GB in size), but the Nintendo Switch is still trucking along with relatively small file sizes.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't looking to buck that trend. As confirmed by numerous sites across the internet, this latest outing for Nintendo's quirky life simulator will only require a 6.2 GB download for anyone going digital. That number is bound to increase a bit as updates come, but that's roughly half the size of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo has a history at compressing its titles in an efficient manner and New Horizons clearly is following suit. While it is obviously impossible for massive games like the aforementioned Zelda to be much smaller, there's no need for a quaint game like Animal Crossing to occupy an entire SD card to install. It has a lot to do, but everything is contained in a small package.
This shouldn't come as any surprise to Nintendo fans, though. The largest Switch install from the company I can think of is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at 13.6 GB but look at the sheer amount of content that game has. DLC has pushed it further, adding another few GB, but that's still not really a big deal. It beats Bethesda's titles taking up 23 GB each.
We're kind of comparing apples to oranges there, but it is nice that Nintendo is continuing the trend of smaller install sizes. You won't be able to fit the publisher's entire output on just the Switch's internal memory, but it's great to see that anyone looking to get simply Animal Crossing won't need to shell out an additional fee for extra storage.
Animal Crossing might be a game you want to download, as well. With its pick-up-and-play nature being primed for a portable console, swapping out cartridges just to toil away at weeds for 20-30 minutes could get annoying. Having it downloaded, you'll be ready to visit your island getaway at a moment's notice.
Source: Prima Guides