I don't think the cost would be that much lower. If you remove the optical drive then you have to add a bigger HDD to cover it. And besides, it's not like the optical drive is the most expensive component in there. Looking at the PS4 cost teardown (because the PS4 also has a HDD):
Processor: $100
Memory: $88
HDD: $37
Optical Drive AND Wireless: $28
Controller: $18
Other components and manufacturing: $110
Which is also reflected at retail if you're shopping for those components:
Blu-Ray Drive: $70AU
2.5" HDD: $60AU for 500GB
... there are plenty of advantages to going digital, reducing the cost of the console is not one of them
cost of distribution: #1 digital, #2 optical media, #3 cartridges cost of the console: no significant difference performance: #1 digital SSD, #2 cartridges, #3 digital HDD, #4 optical media noise: #1 digital SSD/cartridges, #2 digital HDD, #3 optical media wear: #1 digital SSD, #2 cartridges, #3 digital HDD, #4 optical media cost per GB: #1 optical media, #2 HDD, #3 cartridges, #4 SSD
The thing that's changing? Optical media still wins on all measures to do with cost except for distribution where it loses to digital. As internet connections become faster? Digital distribution opens up to more consumers. Then on the $/GB side of things? Optical media stopped getting bigger, HDDs and flash keep going. Every day optical media is losing that advantage.
The thing that's changing? Optical media still wins on all measures to do with cost except for distribution where it loses to digital. As internet connections become faster? Digital distribution opens up to more consumers. Then on the $/GB side of things? Optical media stopped getting bigger, HDDs and flash keep going. Every day optical media is losing that advantage.
Yeah, this is the thing that's going to define the future of storage and media delivery. Optical discs are a dead end. They're not getting any better. A BD 10 years ago is identical to a BD today, and the cost hasn't really changed either. Carts though?
Considering how hard it is to pirate cartridges, this would be the best thing Nintendo can do if they make carts store just as much memory as Discs.
I can't think of one single cartridge based console that has NOT had its games be easily pirated.
what about the virtual boy? You can argue that its a failure but it has quality games in it and one of which is Wario Land....which I would love to have on the 3DS even if its red and black.
Going off topic on your own point.
I'm doubting the lack of Virtual Boy piracy has to do with security measures and more with it just not being popular enough to have a market for the system.
(then again, Famicom pirates will bootleg literally anything. Name the crappiest game you can think of and it's probably still been pirated. I guess maybe the difference is that once they have a setup to ripoff good games, it costs them little to counterfeit the garbage as well.
Not condoning their practices, just responding to this point.)
^ also the reason that there are still no 3rd party Vita memory cards. I'm sure some 16 year old in China has reverse engineered it by now, but then realized that the market for 128gb+ Vita cards just wasn't big enough to bother.
So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.
Yeah, this is the thing that's going to define the future of storage and media delivery. Optical discs are a dead end. They're not getting any better. A BD 10 years ago is identical to a BD today, and the cost hasn't really changed either. Carts though?
I think part of it also has to do with game sizes. There's a wikipedia list of games that spanned muliple disks and you can see the change. On the Playstation there were a lot of games that spanned multiple disks, the Final Fantasy games in particular. And not just two but 3 or 4 and in one case 5. Go to the PS2 and the disks are quite a bit bigger, far less games spanning multiple disks. None more than 2 disks. Then there's the PS3 where there are none. Other than collections.
At this point even the biggest games like GTA V can fit on one disk. So the fact that flash is getting to the point where it could be affordable at the same capacity as disks? Means quite a lot more than it did when games were regularly being sold on 4 disks.
There is a real difference between flash media (which in the end, will be in the cartridges) and discs; loading the game onto the media is much much slower with flash. Basically they need to write byte for byte to the flash, while the disc is pressed.
@DiscoGentleman: Yeah. That's what I thought since they make their own consoles, why couldn't they just manufacture the carts themselves? I think that its only the chipset that they would have to buy but other than that, I don't see them avoiding manufacturing carts because otherwise, why even have physical amiibo when you can just use it digitally?
Yeah, this is the thing that's going to define the future of storage and media delivery. Optical discs are a dead end. They're not getting any better. A BD 10 years ago is identical to a BD today, and the cost hasn't really changed either. Carts though?
I think part of it also has to do with game sizes. There's a wikipedia list of games that spanned muliple disks and you can see the change. On the Playstation there were a lot of games that spanned multiple disks, the Final Fantasy games in particular. And not just two but 3 or 4 and in one case 5. Go to the PS2 and the disks are quite a bit bigger, far less games spanning multiple disks. None more than 2 disks. Then there's the PS3 where there are none. Other than collections.
At this point even the biggest games like GTA V can fit on one disk. So the fact that flash is getting to the point where it could be affordable at the same capacity as disks? Means quite a lot more than it did when games were regularly being sold on 4 disks.
So they made multiple disks for more of the game and yet couldn't do the same for the carts at the time? Yeah I get that carts were a bit costly at the time but if you're putting more cost of the game by having two discs, wouldn't it be risky to pay more for development?
So they made multiple disks for more of the game and yet couldn't do the same for the carts at the time? Yeah I get that carts were a bit costly at the time but if you're putting more cost of the game by having two discs, wouldn't it be risky to pay more for development?
Well that's effectively what a larger capacity cartridge is. More chips in the same package. The size limit has a lot to do with how many chips they can afford to cram into it before they can't make any money off it.
For disks there isn't really a limit. Disks are so cheap that they can cram heaps of disks in one box and it doesn't matter. If that wasn't the case then it wouldn't be possible to buy movies for $20 new that contain four disks. But when they pushed the size limits in the N64 era? Some of those games retailed for $120AU. It was kinda crazy.
@Jason723: Not my tablet. I have to have Wi-Fi to download anything. I am not paying to have a phone connection on a device that is always at home. My 3DS comes with me everywhere, but just waiting for Wi-Fi when I get home to download my games is fine.
People keep saying the Xbox One doesn't have Backwards Compatibility.
I don't think they know what Backwards Compatibility means...
3DS Friend Code: 2621-2786-9784 | Nintendo Network ID: DefHalan
I can deal with that, 7 hours you can start the download in the morning and be playing it in the afternoon. Or start it the night before and have it ready for you the next day. 3 hours is enough time to just do something else for a bit. 1hour is nothing. So even with my crappy connection the size of the game for downloads is rarely the reason why I get a physical copy. In all of these scenarios the act of waiting for the stores to open, waiting in line, getting the game and driving back? Is more of a hassle than the download. However.
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