In the recent Direct, two exciting third-party collections were announced from two acclaimed series, Batman: Arkham Trilogy and Metal Gear Solid Master Collection. It’s time to get that SD card ready though, as they are both download heavy, despite being physical carts.

Batman: Arkham Trilogy features the three critically acclaimed games from Rocksteady Studios and WB Games Montréal, but only one, Arkham Asylum, is available on the cart. The other two titles, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, will be additional downloads. The silver lining in this situation though, is that at least the first game is playable, so the other two can be downloaded later.

The additional downloads for Metal Gear Solid Master Collection aren’t completely clear just yet, as to whether or not you can enjoy certain content and then download additional content, or if a download is required immediately upon starting up the game, but this will be cleared up closer to release.

What we do know is that to enjoy the full title, an additional 31GB will be required, and a further 30GB is needed for the additional video content. Here’s the official word from Konami:

To enjoy all available content, game data must be downloaded (free).

• Internet connection required

• 31.4GB ( + 30 GB for bonus videos )

A microSD card (sold separately) with free storage space of minimum of the amount listed above is required to download this game.

*The total game size and necessary storage requirements listed above are still tentative and will be finalized by September 2023.

*The bonus video content is referring to Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel and Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel.

This is far from the first time that Switch gamers have experienced something like this, especially with third party titles. Nintendo uses proprietary Switch carts, with sizes ranging from 8GB carts up to 64GB. More often than not, publishers will choose the cheapest cart to put part of their game on, and then put the burden onto consumers and require them to make space is their Switch storage or purchase additional space themselves via an SD card.

Are these additional downloads off-putting? Or will you still be purchasing the physical editions when they release later this year?