Time to upgrade your 3DS SD card: 'Pokémon Sun,' 'Moon' need more than 3GB each

By Danny Cowan Published October 7, 2016

Looking forward to downloading digital copies of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon for your Nintendo 3DS next month? You may need to upgrade your external storage, as Nintendo confirmed (via Serebii) that Pokémon Sun and Moon are large enough to max out a stock 3DS SD card.

Weighing in at 3.2GB each, Pokémon Sun and Moon will claim the majority of available space offered by the 4GB SD cards that are bundled with most Nintendo 3DS handhelds, giving players little room for other games and applications.

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Nintendo also warns that some players who download the demo versions of Pokémon Sun and Moon may not be able to transfer their saved data to purchased copies, as 4GB SD cards don’t offer enough storage space to accommodate both a demo and a full version of Pokémon Sun or Moon.

According to Nintendo, Pokémon Sun and Moon will each claim approximately 26,215 “blocks” of 3DS-defined external storage space, making them two of the largest 3DS games released to date, in terms of file size. A fan-curated list of Nintendo 3DS game file sizes reveals that few titles rival Pokémon Sun and Moon‘s hunger for storage space, save for exceptions like Square Enix’s expansive RPG Bravely Default: Flying Fairy and Capcom’s survival horror series sequel Resident Evil: Revelations.

Pokémon Sun and Moon also take up more space than previous Pokémon series releases Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which each weigh in at 14,395 blocks, or 1.8GB. Pokémon X and Y, meanwhile, occupy a comparatively paltry 13,801 blocks.

New Nintendo 3DS XL handhelds sold at retail include a free 4GB SD card for external storage, though players have the option of upgrading to a larger card and transferring their saved data using an included system utility. If you want to upgrade your system’s storage prior to the launch of Pokémon Sun and Moon, keep in mind that new Nintendo 3DS XL platforms require microSD cards, while original Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, and Nintendo 2DS systems accept standard SD and SDHC cards.

Pokémon Sun and Moon premiere at retail and digitally via Nintendo’s eShop on November 18.

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