Non-optical media formats have come a long way since the N64 days. Currently, the largest a 3DS game card can go up to is 8 GB, effectivley rivaling DVD storage capacity. The highest a Vita card can go up to is 16GB, twice as much as the largest 3DS card available. And lets not forget the 128GB SD cards we have now.
Many signs point to Nintendo's next platform, the "NX" as a universal "hardware agnostic" platform. Meaning, one unified gaming platform spread across multiple devices with varying levels of specs. Since physical media is still the primary form of video game distribution, Nintendo would still want to continue using physical copies of games. But since will presumably be available in both mobile and home variants, Nintendo would need one media format, to encompass ALL NX devices.
If Nintendo does plan to go this route, could they possibly scrap optical media and go for 3DS style game cards? For this to work, the minimum capacity would need to rival a single layer Blu-ray, 25GB. Nintendo could also offer higher capacities in say, 32 and 64GB as well if developers need more space. I understand this sounds rediculous, but do you think it could work?
I do recall Vita proprietary memory cards to store games being a nail in it's coffin before it could take off. Food for thought.
The problem with the Vita's memory cards was that they were unnecessarily expensive. A 4 GB SD card was much cheaper than a 4 GB Vita card. Plus, as I said, 3DS and Vita cards are roughly on par with DVD storage. If a flash-based game card can hold as much as a dual layer DVD, then it's certainly possible for one to equal at least single-layer Blu-ray capacity at a reasonable price.
It depends on how much 32/64GB carts cost to produce in 2016/2017. The cheapest 32GB cards on Amazon right now are about $13. If Nintendo can find a way to get that cost down under say... $3, maybe.
Many signs point to Nintendo's next platform, the "NX" as a universal "hardware agnostic" platform. Meaning, one unified gaming platform spread across multiple devices with varying levels of specs. Since physical media is still the primary form of video game distribution, Nintendo would still want to continue using physical copies of games. But since will presumably be available in both mobile and home variants, Nintendo would need one media format, to encompass ALL NX devices
I agree with what you're saying except for that last point. The fact that the different devices under this "single platform" umbrella would have different specs means that there'd be no point. The very nature of differing specs, even if it happens to be the same in every other respect, means that you'll have to build two versions of the game. Even if just for different texture resolutions or just generally taking advantage of the extra hardware on the non-portable version.
It's the same deal with mobile devices where they are fairly hardware agnostic. Some apps will work on anything, some only work on particular devices. On iOS there are entirely separate downloads for Tablet and Phone versions of software. Apps that are developed for tablet, AFAIK, won't work on your phone at all. I think it'd be fair to assume that the gap between a portable and a home console will be even greater than that.
I can see some sort of digital cross-buy happening. Maybe they extend that to physical purchases but I could see them just flat out not doing that. More likely full retail games get a cross-discount system for digital and some of the download-only titles get cross-buy. Perhaps that somehow works into the replacement for Club-Nintendo for people who buy physical copies. I think that seems far more likely.
Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"
Before downloadable games really came into existence the way they have I always imagined them selling games in flash drives. You could have a keyring of Nintendo or Playstation games or w/e. I mean haven't they already done that with an Xbox game? Or maybe just a PC game. So the idea has been done but not full blown.
But I suppose any card/cart would be alright as long as it's cost effective and still delivers above what the WiiU can offer and is at least the size of a 3DS cart, no bigger. Do not distribute floppy disk size NX games.
Before downloadable games really came into existence the way they have I always imagined them selling games in flash drives. You could have a keyring of Nintendo or Playstation games or w/e. I mean haven't they already done that with an Xbox game? Or maybe just a PC game. So the idea has been done but not full blown.
It's not quite the same but technically you can do this on Steam if you really wanted to. Because games on Steam are technically all digital and it doesn't care where the game is saved as long as you own the game on your account. So if you really wanted to you could put a bunch of small games on a thumb drive along with Steam itself. Plug that thing into any PC, login to Steam, boom. Done.
Not that playing games on a PC that's not yours is a good idea... at all.... in any scenario... but still, it's a thing.
Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"
I get the feeling all their games will be digital. You own it on your Nintendo ID and you can play it on whatever NX device you have. This will be sad for people like me who love owning the games physically, but it is the way of the future and the best way for them to make money, knowing full price goes to them and no retailers.
I don't think they'll go as far as going digital only. But the nature of physical releases means that they won't be able to do the same cross-platform deals. Think about it, if they literally put two games in the box what's stopping you from selling one of the copies? Unless they tie those copies down either to your account or by forcing you to put the disk in? They won't do that. With digital you can't sell your copy so they can just open it up pretty much entirely.
Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"
I believe that whatever format Nintendo chooses, it will need to at least have a 50GB option. In order to play well with multi-plats as they'll need to match the capacity of a dual-layer Blu-ray available on the other consoles. There's also the possibility they could adopt the upcoming Blu-ray UHD format, which has a triple-layer 100GB disc, but that's a long shot.
While I'm sure the future is 100% digital games, I think it will be a while. It's just so easy to burn 50gb of data to plastic disc than to have it download forever and hog up precious space on your hard drive (which is ideally ssd, which ain't cheap and not great capacities yet).
My Top 9 Favorite Games of All time.
1. Judgement
2. Baldur's Gate 3
3. Bully (Rockstar)
4. Person 4 / Golden
5. Sonic Adventure 2
6. Xenoblade X
7. Ape Escape 2
8. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
9. James Bond 007 Nightfire
...Wouldn't that just give them less room than on a disk?
ROM carts don't really have a storage space limit. It's just gets more expensive the higher the capacity. It's not quite the same thing, but there are commercially available SD cards and other flash storage devices right now up to 256GB. Those are expensive and not at all practical for game distribution though.
Right now, Nintendo can put a 3DS game on a 4GB ROM cart and sell it for $40. In order for carts to be viable for the NX, they'll need to be able to put an NX game on a 64GB ROM cart and sell it for $60. They can probably get away with 32GB carts for a while, but PS4/XB1 games are already pushing the limit of 50GB on dual layer bluray discs.
Based on that trend....
NZ era: 4GB x8 = 32GB cartridges
Probably not big enough to replace disks but it's not far off. Much closer than we were ten years ago. Consider this
That 30GB line? It's not high enough you could argue but it's doing quite a bit better than the "5GB" line did around 2009/2010. And a hell of a lot better than the 500MB line did back around 2005-ish. Games are getting bigger but not at the same rate that storage is getting cheaper. "Going back to cartridges" isn't anywhere near as crazy as it sounds
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Topic: Could the NX return to "Cartidges"?
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