Summary
- The Switch version of Hogwarts Legacy will require a day-one patch, which is mandatory to download and will take up approximately 8GB of storage space.
- The decision to include a day-one patch was likely made to reduce costs on Switch licensing fees, as physical versions of the game come on a 7GB cartridge.
- The Switch version of Hogwarts Legacy will have smaller file sizes and lower-resolution textures compared to other consoles, but will still offer a similar artistic experience.
The Switch port of Hogwarts Legacy will receive a massive day-one patch that will be mandatory to download, Warner Bros. Subsidiary Portkey Games has announced. Owners of Nintendo's hybrid console will finally get to play Hogwarts Legacy on November 14.
The hit Harry Potter RPG was originally treated to a staggered release, which started with its debut on PC and the current-generation consoles back in February. Hogwarts Legacy then made its way to the PS4 and Xbox One three months later, and was originally planned to hit the Switch in late July before that version was pushed back by nearly four months.
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With the November 14 release date fast approaching, Portkey Games has now confirmed that the Switch port of Hogwarts Legacy will come with a day-one patch that will require around 8GB of free storage space to install. The update will be required for playing the game, the publisher has confirmed, in addition to clarifying that the physical versions of both the Standard and Deluxe Editions of Hogwarts Legacy will come on a cartridge that's approximately 7GB in size. Taken together, those two information tidbits suggest that the day-one patch largely exists because the publisher wanted to cut costs on its Switch licensing fees, which scale with cartridge sizes.
That's not meant to be a criticism of Portkey Games. Supplementing small cartridge sizes with day-one downloads has been a standard industry practice since the Switch first hit the market in 2017. As then explained by industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, a 32GB Switch cartridge is approximately 60% more expensive than a 50GB Blu-ray disc for the PS4, which prompted many publishers to limit physical releases to 8GB and instead require sizable day-one update downloads.
Portkey Games also confirmed that additional language packs for Hogwarts Legacy will weigh around 1.5GB a piece on the Switch. Overall, the upcoming port will still be much more efficiently compressed than the original version of the hit Harry Potter RPG. As a reminder, Hogwarts Legacy weighs around 80GB on the current-generation consoles and PC.
The space savings achieved on the Switch largely stem from the lower-resolution textures that will be used on Nintendo's console. Fans can still expect graphics that are artistically close to other versions of the game, at least if the first Hogwarts Legacy Switch screenshots that recently emerged on the eShop are any indication.
Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and releases November 14 for Nintendo Switch.