Square Enix's Final Fantasy 14 is finally making its way onto the Nintendo Switch 2, but if you want to install the beloved MMO, you'll need to free up a massive 117GB worth of space. That's almost half of the console's 256GB onboard storage, but as has been the case since the handheld's inception, you can invest in a Switch 2 SD card to prepare for the RPG and other storage-demanding games like it.
The best microSD Express Cards are available in capacities from 128GB up to 1TB, and while more expensive than the previous generation's cards, they have remained free of the pricing woes plaguing SSDs, or so I thought. While doing my usual check of some Switch 2 cards for possible deal coverage, I noticed that the once $199.99 1TB PNY microSD Express card is now listed for as high as $371.99 at Amazon, and it's entirely sold out on the UK storefront.
That's a $172 increase since when I originally reviewed it in March earlier this year, and now I'm worried that SD cards are now going the way of the best SSDs for gaming and being affected by the RAMpocalypse. I had hoped they'd be spared from the current gaming storage pricing hellscape, but the evidence is pointing to the contrary.
There was a chance that this escalation was just an Amazon US anomaly. Yet a quick glance at the official US PNY online store reveals that not to be the case. That very card with the P-SDU1TBP31EXP-GE SKU is listed with the same $371.99 (PNY) price tag, a sum that's depressingly not that far behind the current $499 price of the Nintendo Switch 2 console. According to my CamelCamelCamel price checker, its 512GB card hasn't stuck at its $113.99 MSRP either. It shot up to $146.16 on February 6, earlier this year, so even the smaller capacity cards aren't safe from fluctuating pricing.
Of course, if it were only PNY cards being affected, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. Yet, a quick scan of the few storage brands with microSD Express Cards that provide as much as 1TB extra space reveals they too are being affected. The Lexar 1TB Play PRO Micro SD Express Card, the very first 1TB model to hit the market, launched for $199.99 / £199.99. As you've likely guessed, it's not sitting at Amazon US for $200, and instead is available for $349.99 (Amazon). That's a $150 price increase since it became available late last year, and another disheartening sign that the eye-watering SSD prices we've been witnessing over the past year have now got their claws into these Switch 2's already limited storage options.
I'm not the only one who has noticed these changes. 19 days ago, Reddit user dairy_free_bacon shared a screenshot from the GameStop storefront on r/Switch2 subreddit stating, "Anyone else notice that 1tb sd cards went up by $100??" They explained that they had previously bought the GameStop-branded 1TB microSD Express card for $199, and it's now listed for $299.99 instead, the price that it still sticks to today.
The comments of this post were ablaze with the reasoning behind this dramatic increase, and plenty of Switch 2 owners seem to have come to the same conclusion I have - that the RAMpocalypse has claimed another victim. User pikachuyann replied to the post stating, "The "RAM price crisis" doesn't affect only RAM, but all sorts of storage too," and I believe they're bang on the money, though I'm definitely not happy about it.
You see, microSD Express Cards don't function like older SD Cards. These newer, speedier Switch 2 accessories have hung up the standard UHS-I interface that powered your older Switch's storage and utilize a PCIe interface with an NVMe protocol instead, much like the solid-state drives you pop into your gaming PC. That's how they manage to provide lightning-fast speeds up to 890MB/s read & up to 810MB/s write like that of the 1TB PNY microSD Express Card I picked out earlier, compared to up to 100MB/s of alternatives like the $189.99 (Amazon) 1TB Amazon Basics microSDXC card.
If the storage crisis has already got M.2 SSDs in its midst, it makes entire sense why microSD Express Cards would also be affected. The correlation feels even more accurate when you remember that Sony announced during March of this year that it was suspending orders of its CFexpress memory cards and SD memory cards "due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors." When I originally covered that news, prices of Switch 2 SD cards were unaffected, but it seems the dwindling supply of DRAM and NAND storage may have finally taken its toll.
As of writing, you can still grab the officially licenced cards from Samsung and SanDisk that even feature some Super Mario art and provide an extra 256GB, which is plenty for Final Fantasy 14 when it launches on August 4, 2026. However, if you wanted to pick up 1TB just to be extra cautious for any patch updates and other Switch 2 releases, you're going to have to pay a pretty price, and I fully expect them to get even more expensive in the months to come.
As an alternative, I recommend sticking with a 256GB or 512GB model. Their prices have also been up and down, you can generally find brands sticking to their MSRP in most instances, especially if you grab options like the Samsung 256GB microSD Express card, which has even experienced discounts during sales events like Amazon's Prime Day. While you always receive a little less than stipulated, the combined 512GB is plenty for Final Fantasy 14, and further upcoming releases like Pokemon Pokopia's Bubbly Basin DLC and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave.
I'd just grab any Switch 2 SD card sooner rather than later. As we've discovered, no storage is seemingly safe from the ongoing RAM Storage Crisis, even that of the lower-end capacity cards. Though I'll keep my fingers crossed that they won't go the way of the 1TB models and that of the Nintendo Switch 2, which is receiving a price increase of its own this coming September.
If you're settled for storage, check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases instead.
