Reaction: The NX Could Benefit from Using Cartridges Instead of Discs

I personally LOVE the idea of cartridges coming back(possibly), bring it on!!

I personally believe that Nintendo, as well as every other hardware gaming company, should go exclusively digital.

Its much cheaper and more efficient to download the games on one console, and if its a cross play game, use your Nintendo account to download it on your other console (portable/home).

I understand that not everyone can afford fast internet, but its my strong belief that that excuse is holding gaming back. Not everyone can afford to upgrade to a new console, but that doesn't stop developers.

Some people make less than minimum wage, and saving up for a console is like saving up for a car. Takes a while, or may never happen.

So many games nowadays are online based. Gaming, like social media, is becoming solely online. Its time to stop making excuses and go solely online.

No loss of cartridges/discs when misplaced, no damages from scratches and dust, none of that. Instead, saved in your system itself, and backed up on the cloud like Steam for when your storage device fails.

A lot of people get really defensive when it comes to this topic, and try their best to justify why they would rather physical media for their entertainment, for collecting/owning reasons. And someone who thinks otherwise gets insulting and inappropriate comments calling them names. Stupid, horrible, etc.

However, doesn't mater what I think. Just my opinion. You Stoll have the freedom of choice.

However, we all know gaming will go digital only. May not be today, tomorrow, day after that, next gen, next gen after that. It will happen eventually, and theres nothing we can do about it.

I want cartridges back. When your 3 year old insists on taking the game out of the PS3 or WiiU, they are touching the disc and getting it dirty. Compared to a cartridge, where if they pick it up, who cares?

And most importantly, less loading. Like, what more reason does anyone need beyond LESS LOADING.

Reason #12. They don't scratch.

Here's what I'd like to see, and it's something I've thought about before:

An option to have either digital copies of games or cartridge versions, and the cartridge versions would actually be almost like slightly thicker playing cards (maybe a bit like the old Master System or PC-Engine game cards, or those e-Reader cards for the Game Boy Advance), with full old-school art over the front too (possibly even with Top Trumps score values and stuff printed on the front, a bit like trading cards or the recent Animal Crossing cards), and you could even collect/trade them just like trading cards (if you were so inclined).

I think something like that would be awesome for collectors, and they also wouldn't take up much room either.

Maybe you could even get an optional high memory writeable card for a bit more money, where you could store multiple digital copies of games at one time; so you don't have to buy physical versions of every game, or just go with digital only, and you still get a physical card just for the cool factor.

It goes back my general idea for NX, once again:

http://www.inceptional.com/2015/06/26/heres-the-gist-of-my-idea-for-nintendos-nx/

I wouldn't be opposed to carts. Reading off the disk is one of the biggest bottlenecks in systems so it makes sense.

Why would anyone not want this? Imagine something like an SD card, cheap to produce and really small now.

3DS has cartridges, and they work really well. If Nintendo NX has even faster cartridges that can support 25-30GB games, I'm fine with the cartridges.

It really doesn't matter to me whether it supports discs, cartridges or both. I also like digital games, so I think I'm fine with Nintendo's decision.

I care more about the price of games than the format they use. If it keeps the price the same or cheaper, I'm all for it.

But frankly, my favorite format is digital.

@NintendoLee Yeah: If Nintendo's not really going to support using CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays for movie playback and stuff like that anyway, and you can get these cartridges in a high enough storage capacity that it wouldn't be a major loss over using disks, I'd be well up for that.

Price and storage capacity would be the biggest factors. Nintendo doesn't want to end up in a similar situation to the N64 vs PlayStation, where Sony had the cheaper format with the vastly superior storage space.

If, however, the console isn't trying to compete with the others in terms of supporting the biggest and most cutting edge games out there—and, if it's a sort of home console/handheld hybrid it could get away with that—cartridges might well be the way to go.

@Titan_Clocker If that happens, then I quit gaming. I want to own my things, not own a license to them.

@NintendoLee Two of the main factors holding cartridge based media back has been the price and storage capacity. We do now have cartridges that are comparable in size to a bluray, but they still cost a fair bit more to produce which will make NX games more expensive. The benefits would be that the games would not need to be installed to a HDD or SSD. It would also slash loading times exceptionally smaller then they are now. The only downside I see is cost. That may be the only thing holding this back from reality.

@Titan_Clocker Cheaper for who? Because the digital pricing of games, especially with Nintendo first party, is always well overpriced. In fact it's often considerably more than retail.

I would love carts to come back.

I don't care about all the benefits of cartridges if third parties are turned away by them because all the other consoles use discs.I'd rather have a NX verison of a multi-platform with more loading times instead of not having it at all.

I think it would be really cool if they looked like mini nes karts. Even have mini black dust covers.

@Titan_Clocker yeah but, sadly companies like Konami scare gamers away from digital for randomly removing titles plus storage on PS4 is already a pain with the 4 GB updates to 40 GB games. They need to also make download speeds faster and utilize the cloud for storage with better account management and regulations on publishing and pulling games.

I want to physically posses the games. I got digital only when it is strongly discounted. Only digital is a no go for me.

Plus, you can trade in games in shops or exchange them with your friend...

Some have suggested that this might mean the NX is a handheld 3DS replacement or a hybrid.

Consider this: It means that once there is a new mobile 3DS replacement. The cartridges and format will be the same. You will be able to play them on the NX with no alterations.

Maybe it doesn't go both ways, maybe it does with huge considerations for scalable performance.

For some concerns, like storage space: Maybe the console adds a downloadable segment to larger games (as with DLC) that is stored on internal storage. That way you'd install huge chunks of the large games on internal storage, while swapping out smaller games all the time with no installation needed.

I see many benefits, but I just don't know the current cost structure of it all. It feels like it would add considerable cost to the game format.

I want CARTRIDGES!
IT WILL BE CARTRIDGES!

But also remember - Nintend make a higher profit from selling eShop games - that's good for everyone except GAME and GAMESTER. . . because they have more budgets to make BETTER GAMES!

I'm a collector and a gamer. I won't lie, I hate disk media. It can be scratched, split in two and basically become useless over time with normal wear and tear.

I love Nintendo and if they go cartridge I might actually do a happy dance... Naked, on YouTube... Maybe.

If they go digital only, I'll probably wait for price drops on the console and games before buying and I'm a very dedicated Nintendo fan.

Carts could work better than Blu Ray with storage technology improving plus most games are only half finished with the other half downloaded on the first boot.

Seeing my daughter almost breaking in half my copy of Super Mario Maker while trying to take it out of it's case made me realise how much I don't like discs anymore.

I'm not holding my breath but I would love instant access ROM chip carts on the NX. It's about the only thing that would get me excited for it.

If we buy that the NX has a handheld and home console component, having a cartridge would make it infinitely easier to play the same games across devices in the event that someone doesn't want to go digital.

@NinjaWaddleDee they could stop they physical games from working by a cart or disk shut off swich.

A gold legend of Zelda nx cart would be super cool.

@Titan_Clocker Well, I don't have to be rude or anything to disagree with you, but the thing is that the internet issue is definitely not an excuse. Try to take in the bigger picture if you will: even in the States there are still a lot (and I mean a LOT) of rural areas where the quality of the internet connection and/or speed is truly abysmal, so what you are saying would then mean that these people, that can hardly send an email without problems, are holding gaming back? That really is a bit ridiculous, and digital only (although more than likely the future of gaming) just isn't a good enough solution YET.

Infrastructure needs to be improved so that people everywhere can have decent internet and related services.

As for the whole cartridge thing: it truly IS better than digital only, since you actually have the game instead of a copy online that can be removed at the provider's whim, and the reliability of physical media is still FAR superior to any online content, streaming or otherwise.

Scratching and such does hardly ever happen with cartridge based media, if at all, so that's no reason either.

And people put WAY too much faith in cloud-based content and services. If Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo decides to pull the plug on a server or game, then it is gone forever, while I will still be able to play my physical games years, no DECADES from now, as long as I disable the online connection (so it will not check and be able to disable my game anyway), or maybe that won't even be necessary, like with the original Xbox games.

So, bigger picture, not just going from your own perspective and to add to all that, just pick any number of the other reasons that other people gave you. Also a lot of good arguments against online/digital only.

I think that if that is the way we are gonna go, then a lot of the older or more traditional gamers will simply stop gaming altogether or will become retro gamers...

But hey, if digital-only is your thing, then that is your own opinion and that is perfectly fine by me. These were just my two cents on the matter...

I really dislike discs. For some reason mine always get this residue caked onto them even in a case and it's just horrible because they stop working. I've never had any kinds of problems with carts aside from my copy of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town corrupting the save on me twice. I bet they could get more out of carts by having the save data save to the console instead of the cart maximizing the space on the cart for the game content. Realistically though I'd probably end up still sticking with my mostly digital library. The last time I got a physical game was Hyrule Warriors: Legends because I had a $20 BestBuy gift card from AndroidPay. I have the largest supported storage options for both my N3DS and Wii U so I don't really even have to think about game sizes.

It would be MAGICAL if the carts were compatible with a "home NX", where games would show up in high definition/1080p on your TV AND some kind of "portable NX/next generation GameBoy", were games would have the same content, but lower resolution (that would fit a portable screen)...

A fan can dream, right?

As long as it doesn't mess up my digital format, I am all for it lol

Not sure if I like catridges again, it's a pain in the neck to blow into ghe connector each time to get the game to work.

Alex, you made me chuckle several times!

@andrew20 But why would they do that if they are selling cartridges?

@Dakt what's wrong with cartridges? i love 'em. much better than discs.

This actually could happen, because games in sd cards would be cheap, and could easily hold big games now a days without having graphic and music limitations like old cartridges use to (like from n64 days).

Also, Nintendo has never used their systems as a movie player like it competitors, so not having a blu ray disc format isn't a big deal to them.

@DonSerrot Just out of curiosity: where do you store your games and how? I still have all my games in perfect working order, and I have Dreamcast, Xbox, GameCube, Wii and Xbox 360 games. And a LOT of them, probably around 600 - 700 in total, and I haven't got a single game that has stopped working.

Some have tiny scratches, but that's all. Doesn't stop them from working, though.

And from what you said I think that what's happening to your discs is a humidity problem, which would mean that you should store them in a darker, dryer place than you have them now.

And obviously in their respective cases. Some of my friends just have the loose discs lying in small stacks on their console or desk and they wonder how the f*** they stop working after some time...

Moving to cartridges is a terrible idea.

Modern games need a lot of space, and need to be cheap if Nintendo wants to appeal to third parties. A custom cartridge format to avoid piracy and maintain control of publishing would increase costs, upset developers, and (once again) show that Nintendo is out of touch compared to their competitors.

It's hard to believe that anyone knowledgeable about the industry would take this idea seriously - but maybe I shouldn't be surprised. NL always puts an emphasis on being positive instead of being realistic. Yum - that kool-aid tastes good!

Xbox One has a disc drive but doesn't read games from the disc. Instead every game whether it's bought digitally or on disc it has to be downloaded entirely to the hard drive. The games are then read from the hard drive. Blu Ray is great for delivering games to people that want to buy physical copies, because they can hold large amounts of data. But they are too slow. That's why it goes to the hard drive. Now flash can be expensive. And games are taking much more space than they used to. I don't think future massive HD games of the future will be on flash memory.

Maybe the mobile version of the games will be flash based

@Don That actually made it worse. The moisture in human breath corroded the connectors, which made you blow into the cartridge even more, which corroded them more and so forth. Bending the connectors a little bit worked much better.

Modern cartridges don't have that problem, however, since there are no bendable or loose parts in them anymore. I've never experienced any problems with my handheld cartridges either, so if they make the same cartridges in a larger format for a home console, I don't see why that wouldn't work.

@HyruleHero Only Xbox 360 games are downloaded. Xbox One games are installed from the disc. And discs being slow is not the reason why they've done this.The Xbox One's Blu-ray drive has a maximum read speed of 216 megabits per second, which is more than fast enough to provide loading of a game or feeding content to the CPU/GPU without any hiccups. The real reason is control over content: what's installed or can be checked online, can easily be disabled if the provider chooses to do so. Physical content played offline cannot.

Definitely possible. You only need to look at the price of some 3DS games to see that cartridges can be affordable.

But they're more expensive to manufacture? Definitely, and people have argued that if it costs $5 more to manufacture than a disc (which costs <$1) then Nintendo would be losing hundreds of millions over the lifespan of the console compared to discs.

But what if it reduced the cost of manufacture of the console by more than $50? No optical drive = less cost, enabling a lighter and smaller console = less cost, no installs required of physical games = smaller built-in storage required = less cost.

And let's be honest, discs are soooo 1990's, isn't it about time we moved on? And a handheld device was never going to use them...

I suspect that the NX will be a handheld and console that use the same cartridges. The cartridge will contain lower res textures and the game's program. When you put the cart in the console, it will download higher res textures to internal memory. This would allow them to use smaller carts to combat the higher price vs optical media.

@bstoppel I think I said this before? Did you read my comment or is it a case of 'great minds'?

@Skunkfish both DVD and Blu-ray are indeed bought for under a $1 a piece (DVD's about 30 cents last time I checked) but flash rom cartridges really aren't that much more expensive: the 3DS cartridges can be made for around $1, so bigger cartridges will cost only a little bit more, and since they will be bought in bulk quantities, the difference in cost will not be that steep.

That' s mean more compact design for the wii u

Such a bad idea...

Damn Nintendo...

@ejamer amen!

It's almost like Nintendo wants to kill it's self...

@NinjaWaddleDee

I don't think that's necessary. Games will still last you a long time. And its gonna happen, just nobody knows when.

I'm fine with cartridges as long as Nintendo doesn't lose third-party support because of it; that is a must-have for the NX for it to sell better than the Wii U.

@InternetBowser

"I don't think It'll ever go digital"

Ever is a strong word. Do you really expect people 1000 years from now will be going to game stores? Internet speeds are getting faster and cheaper, and physical games are on decline. Physical music already died. So yes, it will happen. Sorry to say

@FragRed I was referring to the companies. Not having to produce thousands of discs and cases for them can very profitable. That's not a pro consumer thing by any means, but companies think that way. Nothing we can do

@NIN10DOXD

Fair points. Physical media won't die over night, but I don't see people going to game stores and waiting in lines rather than downloading them in the comfort of their own home 100 or even 50 years from now.

Id really welcome it to be honest.
Flash media is becomming dirt cheap to produce. 32gig as a standard volume is about enough for your average game and there is enough room for more. There is almost no hard limit in that sense, since flash media is evolving way faster than optical media.

Also, the console wouldnt require an optical drive, one of the more costly components. This would reduce failure affinity, production costs, size, power consumption and noise.

As for the games themselves: Next to no load times, the ability to write data onto the medium itself (the Ocarina 64DD ideas of a persistant world comes to mind) or even the return of special hardware. Game needs more RAM or something in the lines of Sonys "facial animation and emotion chip ? Build it into the game medium itself. Also, no more scratched discs and copy protection would be a non-issue for the next couple of years.

That said, it would also mean that the games cant be manufactured anywhere. Optical media is so established, that there are numerous companies printing data onto discs.
Nintendo would need to ensure that publishers would have access to production without hindrance.

And weve seen how well that went with Amiibos...

All in all, if they can ensure rock solid logistics and can convince 3rd parties of this idea, it can immensly benefit them as well as consumers.

@Dakt I agree. And if Nintendo announced that the NX was to be delayed for another two years they would find something positive to say about that.

@keresmatic

I totally understand those points, but with physical media on decline, and it being cheaper for comapanies for them to make everything digital as oppose to manufacturing discs, its gonna happen eventually. Sorry to say

Cartridges may load faster but who remembers having to blow on cartridge ports and worn contacts?

@ThanosReXXX I live in the desert, so humidity isn't really a factor here. It's most likely the dust that gets everywhere, even stuff that should be sealed gets dust in it out here. I expect it with loose discs, but it happens to discs in cases too. There isn't really anything that can be done about it here.

@ThanosReXXX

I completely understand the internet problem, but my point on poor poor internet connections holding gaming back still stands. Not really the user's faults, more of an area problem like you said. But that's still am issue that stops gaming from hitting its full potential.

And ask yourself, with how fast and cheap internet is getting, do you really see gamers going out to wait in lines at game stores, as oppose to downloading games from the comfort of their home 100 years from now? Or even 50 years from now?

We may not live to see that day, but the days of collecting and trading physical media are limited.

I mean, you see the media talk about how azing and high tech the future is gonna be, and it doesn't seem right to imagine someone taking their flying car and traveling to a game store 😂

Although I can't respond to all your replies to my original comment, I do wanna say thanks for the feedback.

If it's gonna be closer to the 3DS cartridge as opposed to previous consoles, I'm all for it.

@NinjaWaddleDee A "license to own them"? It's downloaded on your system, forever, not like the early Xbox One "stream the game" idea.

@Titan_Clocker I'm with you're idea, overall, though. I think digital's best. The only reason I bought a physical version of Birthright was to get a discounted download of Conquest.

Tables will be flipped if I don't have the option to go full digital.

Now is time to make my own top 10 list of the benefits of cards (they aren't exactly cartridges like NES/SNES/GBA/etc) over discs, though some might overlap with others.

1) Faster to read.
2) No moving parts.
3) Require less power to read.
4) Take up less console volume.
5) Take up less storage volume (I love my 18-slot 3/DS case).
6) Doesn't generate as much heat.
7) Won't require game installation.
8) Faster to swap and launch games.
9) Save RAM on the cards themselves.
10) Silent

These were off the top of my head, and I could go into detail about each point, but right now I can't.

@Titan_Clocker no reason you couldn't have both; cart is just for the slow-net territories. DS and 3DS have been using what amounts to an SD card for many years and it takes up a lot less space than an optical drive. I wouldn't buy carts myself, but I can't say that the time is right to remove the physical media option.

@Titan_Clocker I think the key thing that bothers me about going completely digital is the mere fact that one day, a game is available to purchase, and the next, it has disappeared forever, with no possibility of playing the game (at least legally) ever again. For example, if you check the Nintendo eShop right now, you'll find that you cannot buy Project X Zone 1 anymore. You can redownload it, if you've purchased it thankfully, but you can no longer buy the game. No explanation as far as I know has been given as to why this isn't available anymore, presumably licensing issues. This was only reported on recently, but some people have been saying that the game hasn't been available for a while now.

Thankfully, this game is also available physically. Now, it's possible that this is a rare occurrence, but the mere fact that scenarios like this can occur, is reason enough for me to continue supporting physical for as long as I can.

Digital may be inevitable, but if I can hold it off longer, then I will.

If the cartridge let you play without a connection AND a cartridge purchase also gave you download rights to the game through eshop, seems like everyone would be happy.

Probably wishful thinking, though.

@DonSerrot Aw man, I see your problem. More like heat corrosion by the sound of it then. Like leaving a disc in a window sill or the back-window shelf of your car. Is it not possible to make some relatively cool and dark closet in your home? You could create an insulated cabinet, depending on how precious your remaining (and still working) physical games are to you.

@Titan_Clocker I was talking more from a "this coming generation" perspective. Obviously internet will be a lot better and more stable in 20 to 50 years time, so by then, it's a given, which is exactly why I said that it isn't a good option YET, but it will be.

At least for part of the gaming community, because besides the obvious technical issues, there will still be a lot of gamers, like me, that don't like being at the mercy of companies that can disable all "your" digital games at any time, whereas the physical ones will remain playable till I die and beyond. All my old games still work and the discs and cartridges are kept in mint condition.

And you're welcome. I just wanted to show you that we can have a different opinion but still be polite about it.

As for the flying cars though: that is not going to happen for a LONG time, and I don't mean those ugly planes with a car body that you sometimes see in some techy TV show like on the Discovery Channel. I mean actual real cars with jet engines like in futuristic comics and so on.

In the 1960's they thought we would have those in the then magical year 2000, and now we still don't have them. I think that for the coming decennials, we will see more and more autonomous cars, but flying cars in a broad, commercial sense probably not.

@wiiincarthage I'd like to direct your attention to comment #44 where I addressed that exact point. And enough articles have been written on that urban myth by official channels as well.

@Discostew Hear, hear. Feel free to add all the other good points that you will probably make. +1

Yeah this isn't happening. Cartridge manufacturing prices are many times higher than discs. The only thing cheaper is going 100% digital.

@ThanosReXXX That isn't very likely in my situation. I pretty much live in a closet as is with the only window housing my AC unit. I'm in a small one room building so I have window AC to fight the summer heat and a space heater to fight the winter cold. I also keep the window covered with a blanket to keep the sun from glaring on my computer screen in the afternoon so there's virtually no sunlight in here. Like I said before, dust is a really big problem here. I probably could invest in some kind of disc cleaner to fix most of it, but it'd just be an uphill battle and most of my games at this point are either digital or 3DS games so I'm not too worried about it. It's mostly a problem for my old CDs and DVDs as I've always disliked discs in general because of how easy it is to mess them up. I actually started getting more games once digital was an option.

@WaxxyOne No, not many times. Two to three times at the most, but costs can be reduced on other parts and production trajectories, making the difference almost negligible with the numbers they will be producing.
Empty disc based media is purchased for around 30 cents, and flash ROM cartridges for around $1 or $2 at the most (like with added content such as special chips like in the SNES FX cartridges), depending on various factors, so it really isn't that big of a difference in total.

@DonSerrot Ah, okay. You should of course always go for what best suits your situation and/or liking, so completely understandable.

For starters:
1. Cartridges would be more easily compatible with a portable NX component.
2. Cartridges would make for a lighter and quiter system.
3. Cartridges would still be as versatile as a disc as far as space (we have 1TB SD cards now so they shouldn't be underestimated).
4. Cartridges have potentially faster load times.
5. Cartridges cant be scratched like a disc.
6. Cartridges could potentially be backward compatible with 3DS (and dare I say other Gameboys??).
7. I cant be sure about this one, but it seems like cartridges would be cheaper to produce that a high tech disc drive.

@MasterS7000
I completely understand your concern. However, I think the benefits of digital are worth it IMO

And I can't respond to all of you, but thanks for the response guys 💖

@Randomname19
Storage format has nothing to do with porting games to other consoles. The only difference is hardware coding, and that's not a storage problem. Other than read speed differences, a game will almost always run the same, whether off a physical disk or a digital download on the console hard drive.

@ThanosReXXX

Thanks m8. And I was more so using the flying cars thing as an example, because that invention is mentioned a lot when talking about the future.

And while we are on the topic of it, I've heard that the first flying car should come in the year 2050. Doubt it, because the date for the flying car has been delayed many times. But let's hope it comes before we go to that place in the sky...or that place below, or nowhere, depending on your religious beliefs

@ThanosReXXX

Thanks m8. And I was more so using the flying cars thing as an example, because that invention is mentioned a lot when talking about the future.

And while we are on the topic of it, I've heard that the first flying car should come in the year 2050. Doubt it, because the date for the flying car has been delayed many times. But let's hope it comes before we go to that place in the sky...or that place below, or nowhere, depending on your religious beliefs

@Sean_Aaron I know you can have both, but keeping physical makes things expensive manufacturing wise, and we have the pay for the optical media in our console. So it makes it more expensive for is as well.

@Sean_Aaron I know you can have both, but keeping physical makes things expensive manufacturing wise, and we have the pay for the optical media in our console. So it makes it more expensive for is as well.

A lot of you are saying the same thing to my argument. I understand that you don't own digital games, but physicaledia is gonna die eventually. Nothing we can do about it.

A lot of you are saying the same thing to my argument. I understand that you don't own digital games, but physicaledia is gonna die eventually. Nothing we can do about it.

A lot of you are saying the same thing to my argument. I understand that you don't own digital games, but physicaledia is gonna die eventually. Nothing we can do about it.

A lot of you are saying the same thing to my argument. I understand that you don't own digital games, but physicaledia is gonna die eventually. Nothing we can do about it.

I missed out on the earlier conversation. All that I wanted to say has been said.
Digital downloads do have a cap. Even with that 3TB external HD. It's going to mean that you'll end up buying multiple External HDs, shuffling through which one that game you wanted to play was on.

I love this guy- I want to be friends with him.

Hrmph. Sound rather ironic. Nintendo used carts untill N64 and then used a itty-bitty disk for GameCube. Then they decided to go disk. Now, they want to go crack to cartridges? I see the benefits. For one, when ever I put my Wii u disks in, I'm afraid I'm going to scratch them. My 3DS's carts are pretty durable, however. It'll be interesting to see either way.

Surely hacking a cart game is easier than disk... I suspect pirates would love it, might get more people interested in the NX... Maybe this is Nintendo's marketing plan all along!

Don't really care if the home console uses disk or cards or none, but I want the home console to at least be able to play the next gen handheld games, like the super gameboy or the gameboy player.

As for digital vs physical: I'd probably go full digital if well download speeds across the world get better, there are better discounts for digital downloads, ex: a subscription program where you can save x% off on new games, and you can resell it.

@Titan_Clocker I'll be happy if I live to experience commercial space flight, even if it's only a half hour orbital ride, if plans are to be believed...

@Titan_Clocker P.S. Putting in all those double comments to emphasize your point, I see?

@Williaint Good point. Didn't even think of that one. And with game sizes continuously growing, that could definitely become a thing.

People really need to know the difference between cards and "cart"-ridges. The latter is much faster than both cards and disc, insomuch that most game code runs straight from the cart itself rather than loaded to the system RAM and then ran there, like what is done with cards and discs. This speed is the reason why cartridges back in the day were expensive. Cartridges act more or less like an extension of the system's own RAM, with addressing just like RAM (0x80000000 is where they normally start addressing cart ROM in systems like the GBA). Direct addressing is also how they can run code straight from them.

With the game cards like those for DS and 3DS, the game code has to be loaded into RAM, then it can be executed. Not as fast as cartridges, but certainly faster than discs. Data cannot be accessed directly like with carts, but go through various protocols. Not being as fast as carts grants them to be far cheaper.

It's like comparing DDR3 to eDRAM. eDRAM is extremely fast, runs circles around DDR3, but is far more expensive for so little memory. If 3DS cards were carts with the benefits of carts, then they wouldn't be going for $40 per game. They'd possibly go into the hundreds.

The only two things that worry me about Nintendo using cartridges over discs is the possibility of no backwards compatibility with Wii U if the NX doesn't get a disc drive, and how much space a cartridge can hold. Don't get me wrong, memory cards have gotten capable of holding more data over the years (N64 cart can hold up to 64 mbs compared to 3DS carts that can hold up to 8 GB), but what concerns me is the size of the games. Sure, some games have smaller file sizes, but some games like Xenoblade Chronicles X can be around 22.7 GB, which is more than what any Nintendo cartridge has been able to hold so far. But who knows? This is Nintendo we're talking about. I guess we won't know till the NX is revealed.

The 3DS cartridges are basically just small flash drives, not unsimilar to a USB-drive or SD-card.
I've always been saying that discs are outdated and unreliable and demanded more focus on downloads and flash drives.
So if that rumour should turn out to be true, I would be all for it.

Well, I'd welcome seeing a return to cartridges myself. Other than their documented advantages, it would allow for a sturdy console with cooling fans left as the only moving part - assuming it does not have a mechanical hard disk. I do hope that cartridge storage space or increased production cost would not become issues, as it would be quite tragic for that to wind up as a potential tripping point for the NX.

On the other hand, could see the increased expense factored into a scheme to help push digital distribution, utilizing the increased cost of the cartridge as an excuse to give digital purchases a price advantage over physical. Have to wait and see.

Only good reason for me is the instant boot up with no updates needed. Main reason why I still own retro consoles like snes.

@Titan_Clocker See the Xbox One controversy prior to it being released. Actively preventing our soldiers in the military from having access to nice things (like video games) when they go out on missions overseas is a BIG no-no in the USA. Digital only would prevent them from accessing games from everywhere- they can't always download everything, because they don't always have an internet connection. Sometimes, they have to ship physical copies in care packages.

There are many reasons why, but consoles aren't ready for digital only. Only PC and mobile have the infrastructures to handle digital only markets, thus far.

Hey everyone look!! an excuse AAA Publishers can make for not supporting the NX. Unless its a handheld. If its a home console then it needs a disc drive. hopefully, a Blu-ray player.

The time is right to bring carts back! (Well, in the form of cards, not actual carts, but close enough. )

We lose media format backwards compatibility, but we're going to lose the PowerPC/Gecko/Broadway CPU backwards compatibility anyways. Nintendo loves their anti-piracy, so I'm sure they're happy to be done with (easily ripped) discs, too!

@BlastRadius What happens when psn or xbox live shuts down and I need to redownload games? What about if the game companies take the games down, like Konami or Marvel with their games?

@StitchScout Nah, the excuse would be that 3rd parties complain about actually having to do their jobs and ship the game with as few issues as possible onto the card, since the lack of slow loading discs would preclude the excuse of offloading files onto a hard drive to be patched after release.

Yeah, because splitting off to another format from the rest of the industry always works for them.

I don't really care to be honest. Carts, disc, DL, tapes, whatever! Put a game on it, I'll play it. I've been downloading more these days because I don't collect and I don't have space for hundreds of games.....especially with shelves of amiibo, skylanders, disney infinit, and lego!

Honesty whatever is the fastest, cheapest, and can hold the most data is what I'm for.

@Skunkfish "And let's be honest, discs are soooo 1990's, isn't it about time we moved on? And a handheld device was never going to use them..."

cough PSP cough cough

Cartridge has the advantage of faster load times, and discs have the advantage of more space for a much lower cost compared to cartridge, that always has been the dynamic between these 2 data storage mediums. Cartridge has the additional advantages of having no moving parts, meaning it uses less power, and creates less heat and noise, but that is only usually something you need to worry about if you're dealing with a portable device. As I already mentioned however, despite the advantages of cartridge, the simple fact of the matter is discs cost a lot less for a lot more data storage.

@MailOrderNinja 64MB vs 700MB is a vast difference. 1.4GB vs 4.7GB is not as vast, but still damaging. What is happening now is 32GB ROM chips vs 25/50GB discs, yet only the biggest games with lots of FMVs are using anything more than 25GB, so it's not the same problem as it used to be.

@DarkKirby Yet the DS and 3DS has shown that the size of the ROM chip doesn't necessarily affect the cost of the game to consumers. There are 3DS games that use 512MB ROM chips. Others than use 4/8GB ROM chips, but they're all priced the same to the consumer. The actual cost of the chips for Nintendo is not nearly as much for the amount we may find for SD cards, because not only is the tech different (for instance, the game cards are write-once, not rewritable), but also because Nintendo is buying these chips in bulk, and a lot of them.

Gone are the times where discs could hold more data than flash chips.

Downloading and sd cards are all good for me. Can't exactly be putting discs in a handheld, right?
Now, tape, that would be a thing.

@Titan_Clocker I think digital world needs improvement before it can become the only option for consumers. I get some of your points (fast internet, new consoles) but I don't believe those are the main problems. As it stands, you license software from the company, you don't own it. What happens when they turn off the servers? Retro gaming will be finished. People can still play NES games because they physically own them and can play local multiplayer. I don't trust the companies to have the customers interests at heart. Secondly, some companies (like Nintendo) don't offer cross buy so your purchases are system specific. How many times do people want to pay for the same games? That's not very good motivation. Thirdly, you can go on Amazon right now and buy games for half the price as Nintendo sells them for on their e-shop. Fourthly, there would be no trade in market and used games for players. I just don't see digital only being a sensible business model at this time. Who knows, they may get there but right now it's not good enough.

@PlywoodStick They could still just patch after release. Many AAA wouldn't like the fact nintendo would own the cartridges they have to buy. Nintendo could raise the price for no good reason or if they don't like the publisher could go "oh sorry we don't have enough cartridges to fulfill your order." I honestly hope Nintendo plays it safe or this could be the last Nintendo console. Edit: Yes, people have said it could be Nintendo last console for the last couple generations. 3DS is doing fine and has had a good run. Wiiu is a failure, but what if the NX is? Presuming its a home console it would be the second one in a row. I honestly don't think Nintendo shareholders or gamers would give them a third chance. Well unless that third chance is something really, really, really good.

Come on, man... How does Kimishima's statement saying, "NX is a new concept" go along with the latest rumor of "possibly bringing back cartridges"?

When Nintendo and company starts to speak about all things NX then hopefully all of these rumors and speculations can be put to bed already... lol

Everyone says a different media format killed GCN. This doesn't seem like a lesson learned.

The idea of a new cartridge based Nintendo system excites me! If NX is 100% digital though I am done.

i got mixed feelings It could be great, cartridges are more durable, but it could be a bad idea because of third party support.

If the NX is a hybrid, then cartridges would be ideal as the games can be used in both the home console and the hand held.
It could work something like what the ram cartridge did for the N64. The games could run on the hand held, but, when used in conjunction with the home console you get the full experience. Which is possibly why the rumours of the NX hardware connectivity came out.
Also, Nintendo could make the NX cartridges slightly bigger then the 3DS cartridges, this way they can add extra banks of memory, or even an NX version of the SNES FX chip.

I actually like the idea of cartridges, but I can see the general public seeing it as Nintendo going backwards and shunning the idea of them regardless of the benefits.

I'd like to see the end of noisy, fragile, oversized discs, but not the end of collectible, sellable, swappable, durable physical. A 3ds style cartridge would be perfect.

Digital is nice and convenient, but you're at the mercy of the companies with regards to price and availability (including region locking, deliberate removal, and eventually just switching off the servers). It's be a dark day for consumers if console gaming went digital only, given current attitudes.

full disclosure: about 90℅ of my Wii U/ 3ds stuff is digital.

If the NX has a good amount (100+ GB) of built in storage, I'll just go digital for most games from then on. I would MUCH rather have cartridges than discs for NX though.

I'm all for instant play. PS4/XB1 you can't play the physical game you just bought right away. I never want to see Nintendo follow this format. I'm glad the Wii U allows for instant play as well.

Another benefit is noise. Playing off a disc is noisy, and taking the Wii U for example, just having a disc in the system creates extra noise. I always enjoyed how peaceful it was playing the digital games I have, as I don't sit across the room from the actual Wii U console.

Carts could also cut down on the heat being produced by the console. You can dry your socks over a PS4/X1!

fun fact: a bluray single sides holds 25gb and double obviously 50gb. In this day and age an 32GB cart while more expensive than a disk still a whole lot more reliable and not that pricey. most games I have in my steam list are 20-30 GB installed. Using carts as data storage is the modern way to go these days but my biggest 'fear' is Nintendo doesn't handle this well enough and makes it their bottleneck but in theory it has a lot of potential.

Nintendo is always obsessed in ways to counteract piracy.. ever since the N64... Which was destroyed by Ps1 I might add.

If Nintendo can make cartridges that have enough space for the games and don't add too much to manufacturing costs, they could well be onto something, cartridges have caught up to discs now storage-wise, and carts are near-instant (no seek-time like on a disc)

As for having to blow on the cartridge connectors, i only ever had to do that with NES cartridges, a good 25 years ago, technology has advanced immensely since then, has anybody ever had connector trouble with DS/3DS cartridges?

I said it before and I say it again: I think people are drawing the wrong conclusion from the comment of Macronix' CEO Miin Wu. Every console of Nintendo since the Nintendo 64 (as far as I know) has some form of ROM onboard to for example store the OS. The chances the comments of Miin Wu regarding increasing ROM sales refer to a simultaneous launch of the NX console in Japan, Europe and the US are way likelier than Nintendo launching a console using cartridges. Especially if the rumor of Nintendo's intention to ship 20 million NX consoles in a year turn out to be true. You need to have enough stock to be able to deliver, otherwise we get the same situation as with Wii launch.

Are you kidding me? This would be an astronomically stupid idea. Can't believe no one has pointed out the obvious: Cartridges may be faster, but they would be bad news for third party support on NX. Do you really expect publishers to jump at the opportunity to spend millions more manufacturing cartridges instead of discs? Not to mention the 32GB limit, which automatically disqualifies some AAA games from fitting onto a cartridge at all (Witcher 3, GTA, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, etc). This would require the publisher to make a patch available to fill in the rest of the data, essentially making the cartridge version of the game unplayable without a 10-18GB patch. Sure, we do see day one patches for disc-based games, but the space limit on cartridges would require those patches to be way larger, and different in content from patches you would get on PS4 and Xbox One. That's more time and money just to get the game up and running on a Nintendo platform.

Taken together, it's asking a LOT from third party developers to get them to develop for cartridges. It requires more money, development time, and manpower, which is more than third parties would likely be willing to invest after being burned so badly by Nintendo and its fans in the past. It's just more of Nintendo doing what they've done for the last two decades: forcing developers to jump through hoops to get games running on their system, for no other reason than because they want to be "different." Carts were terrible for third parties in the N64's day, and they would be pretty terrible now.

This website has all the bad qualities I hate about Nintendo.

@NinjaWaddleDee

You could always put a extra copy on a back-up hard drive if you had to.

I'm not sure entirely what you mean when you reference Marvel or Konami, I haven't heard about what happened with them.

Never mind the debate about disc vs cart, I am more concerned that Nintendo needs to include a large enough hard drive (or decent enough expansion capacity) that people can go digital only if they want to. The 8GB hard drive of the original Wii U was a joke.

@Titan_Clocker NOPE, NOPE and HELL NOPE!

@Titan_Clocker You keep saying digital is cheaper, if that is the case why isn't buying digital cheaper?

Rest assured that Nintendo will implement it in the most backwards, cost-cutting and cumbersome way while slapping consumers with an imaginary 'cartridge tax', it will he great. Nintendo-Style.

But if they glue some cheap MMC into a plastic enclosure there is indeed less for Nintendo to mess up than if they try anything fancy. The WiiU showed that their product develop department is about as inept as their market research (8GB, no USB3 etc.).

With amiibo technology the game case it's self could be the cart, buy a game off the shelf and just place the case on the machine. I also heard that carts could in theory have infinite graphic capability. Many of the old games like StarFox for the SNES had extra chips in the game cart that boosts the systems running specs.

@BlastRadius Konami removed PT from the psn, and Marvel removed their games from online services. You can no longer download or redownload those games.

@YeshaYahu5417 I think that like many opposed to this, you're thinking about cartridges like we had on NES, SNES and N64, but you need to think of 3DS cartridges, or rather: carts.

Those are now made with a maximum storage space of 8GB, but can very easily be upgraded to 32GB or 64GB if necessary, and that can be done for relatively low costs.

3DS carts also don't have the same issues that the old cartridges had, so if Nintendo is going to go that route, then it certainly wouldn't be bad or backwards. It would actually make for a much more durable console and/or handheld.

@freaksloan Digital would be cheaper if people were willing to let go of their obsession with physical copies of games. Just look at Steam. The digital storefront and the lack of manufacturing costs allows Valve to offer games at extremely low prices. It's a fact that digital games are cheaper to make, so they can be sold for cheaper prices.

There are a lot of reasons console manufacturers have yet to follow suit, and it's a more tangled web than we realize. It's partially because we refuse to let a robust digital storefront emerge. Physical retail still accounts for a huge portion of console game sales. We stubbornly will not let go of buying disc-based games, so publishers still have to cover the excessive costs of printing millions of physical copies, and they also have to cover the potential profit loss they endure from people buying games second-hand. If people just sucked it up and bought digital games over physical ones, then prices per game would drop significantly, and publishers could offer more significant and frequent discounts. Steam is a good example of a marketplace where this is the case.

You could also say it's because retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, etc. profit from physical game sales and can strong-arm the console manufacturers/publishers. Think about it: what's the one thing you always have to buy physically, no matter what? The console. If Sony were to come out and say, "We're going all digital from now on," Wal-Mart could just as easily say, "Oh, you're going to cut into our profits? Well then we want a bigger portion of your console revenue, or we're not going to sell your console at all."

You see what I'm saying? Digital storefronts on consoles are not ideal right now (though they're getting significantly better with flash sales and the like), but digital is obviously cheaper and would allow games to drop significantly in price.

@FlaygletheBagel There is no magical 32GB limit on game carts (not cartridges, but that is also slightly the fault of the article's writer), and they aren't that much more expensive to manufacture either, like so many people seem to think.

I can understand and respect people wanting to have all their games and services digital-only, but it would be nice if the digital-only fans could also understand our point of view and neither of these points of view are bad by default, just different. Like so many opinions...

No need to call things or people stupid or backwards if we don't all want to jump on the same bandwagon and "get with the program".
People like me and @Discostew bring up a lot of good points as to why carts for NX games could be a good thing, and maybe if those points that are reasons of concern in going digital-only to us are addressed, then more of us would be persuaded to go that route. For me personally the most important objection I have is not being able to play the games I've bought anymore if the publisher or console manufacturer decides to pull the plug or ban the game from the console via some online update/patch somewhere in the distant future.

I want my games to last a lifetime, so that anytime I wish to grab one of my old consoles out of the closet to play a classic game again it will still work, just like I am able to do with all of my older consoles today...

And FYI: I do actually own quite a few digital games, but mostly VC or Xbox Live Arcade games, because those are small, simple games that I won't really miss when the service will be discontinued. And some triple A games, but not that many.

I do agree with you that Steam shows that it can be done right, but I feel PC gaming is an entirely different demographic with a completely different mindset compared to console-only gamers, and I also understand the need to have, or at least feel more ownership of the games they buy, and if anything, physical copies of games will do just that...

@Daemonite Like others, you are wrongfully thinking about older cartridges, while you should be thinking of 3DS-like carts, only with higher capacities, obviously. That is anything but backwards, so no need for despair just yet.

And besides, this is only a rumor for now, so maybe there's no need for people to get all worked up about this in the first place.

@ThanosReXXX
That's logical. I was thinking that after I posted. That's very possible actually.

But still a rumor nonetheless

It's ok to use cartridges back with a high data storage(remember nintendo 64); Blu-ray type discs transfer data is so slow(just play watchdogs or xenoblade chronicles x without install data), and with that console storage could't be a problem. And, no one teaches Nintendo how to make cartrigdes...

@YeshaYahu5417 Absolutely true, so we're only theorizing here about those potential benefits, but the people opposed to this on the other hand are already gathering their torches and pitchforks to march up to Nintendo HQ and ask them what the hell has gotten into them...

People need to calm down and realize it is indeed nothing but a rumor.

I would love cartridges, anyways it is better than disc.

@ThanosReXXX
Right...
I'm waiting for Nintendo to speak about it.

@YeshaYahu5417 Yeah, that would be good. I'm kinda hoping that they will at least release some info on NX in the months following the E3. Maybe I'm wrong, but it would be the smart thing to do.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the rationale! I did not intend to communicate that people who disagreed with me were stupid or backwards. I merely was trying to express my own opinion that reverting to cartridges would be a very shortsighted choice for Nintendo, a company that needs to win back the graces of third parties, not neglectfully push them away by choosing an uncommon, expensive format for the sake of being "different."

As far as the digital argument, I own a mixture of physical and digital games, so I'm part of the problem too - really what I was trying to express is that there is a gridlock going on that prevents digital games from being a reasonable alternative to physical in the console space. Consumers don't buy digital very much so there's little impetus to go all-digital, and retailers have a fair amount of power in the equation that prevents that from happening too.

And I also understand the need for longevity in games too; the problem is that with most games coming out being so intimately tied to the Internet, games are pretty much temporary on arrival anyway. The 2015 Need for Speed, for example, is only as playable as its servers are functioning. The moment EA pulls the plug on the game's servers, the entire game is useless. Or the moment Infinity Ward/Activision decides to pull the plug on Call of Duty 4's servers, a huge chunk of that game will suddenly be missing. It's the unfortunate nature of games now that parts of them will only be usable for so long. And if this is the case, digital game downloads would be far from the worst thing to happen to longevity of games. In fact, it can even improve a game's longevity because it can digitally preserve games that would otherwise be lost. Even NES and GB cartridges are slowly becoming more unusable thanks to expiring batteries in the carts. But thanks to emulation and the digitization of those games, they are still fully playable.

I would love Nintendo too use cartridges I still want my physical purchases plus would take up less space if in 3DS style packaging.

@FlaygletheBagel You're welcome, and thanks for replying in kind. And you bring up a very good point of digital: preservation of the older library. I do have to say that I think that this works perfectly for older systems, like with downloading ROMs and so on, but these games themselves do not rely on online services to be played once they are downloaded to your computer/laptop/smartphone/console, whereas current titles will probably not have that advantage, because like you say, such a big part of modern games is focused towards online.

Mostly so with multiplayer games, but they could preserve single player functionality and to take a personal example: I can still play all single player content of my old original Xbox games on my Xbox360, without some party using some patch or update to block that as well.

Never been much of an online gamer, except for bouts of Halo, Call of Duty and Gears of Wars with some close friends, but other than that, I won't miss any of it. When you've grown up with the majority of your consoles being offline, it really isn't that big of an issue. But that is of course just my personal view.

Now with the Xbox One and PS4 there are a lot of rumors going on that not only will they be able to pull the plug on the online part of a game whenever they want, but because of the consoles frequently sending and receiving data and monitoring you whenever you are playing, they could also block/disable that part of the game that could easily remain playable without any online support or functionalities. Just take a Call of Duty game for example: what if I would want to play the single player campaign of Black Ops 3 again, somewhere around 2025 or 2030? Will that still be possible, or will I get a pop-up message saying this game should be removed from my hard drive because it is no longer supported? Or even worse: Microsoft/Sony simply sends a signal to the console to remove the game from your hard drive automatically...

That is the ugly image that I can see happening, and I don't like it one bit. Not at all...

With my physical copy, I could just switch on my console without it being connected to the internet and the single player game would run just fine. It's quite a big thing for a lot of people to relinquish that kind of control/ownership to the companies that provide them with their consoles and games.

Obviously it is partially only imaginary control, but because it's tangible and there, it just makes you feel more secure about using stuff that you paid your hard-earned money for...

@KingofSaiyanZ Sorry to say but that comment makes no sense at all. Current generation flash ROMs/carts are easily able to run HD content, and in many cases even WAY faster and far more reliable than optical drives, so that's an assumption you simply can't make. Maybe you would have thought of that yourself if you had just taken a moment to stop and think about that for a while, before commenting...

Cartridge is harder to pirate. That's the reason. The NX cartridges will most likely use enhanced encryption to avoid getting the rom dumped.

I completely agree. That's the reason I came back to collecting games instead pirating them, the 3DS and DS cartridges are pretty well built and worth every cent. I don't play my SNES anymore because either the cartridges do not work (many have reading problems) or because you don't find controllers in a good shape anymore. But my discs? Most didn't even last a decade.

@Discostew I'm not worried about the space as much as the cost and not being the industry standard so it's another hoop the dev has to jump through I assume. (Keep in mind I don't make games and only have a general idea of the process of lasering discs or loading cartridge with game.)

@KingofSaiyanZ Decent of you. However, I also put a little blame on the (maybe in Britain?) interchangeable use of the word cartridge as opposed to carts, which is what the 3DS is using, so maybe that is also what sparked the whole: "oh no, we shouldn't go back to the 80's" sentiment, while nobody here is giving a second thought about how these carts work perfectly well in their handhelds and they seem to have no problem with that at all.

@Daemonite same goes for you too. It has nothing whatsoever to do with fanboyism, well at least as far as I am concerned; can't speak for others. I can simply see a lot of benefits of 3DS-like carts with a higher capacity. It's fast, reliable, doesn't have to cost more than retail games cost now, even in 64GB formats and if the NX is indeed a hybrid system, these carts could be used in both the portable device and the home console version of it, so I don't really see the issue or why people need to be so upset about it. More so since it is only a rumor in the first place, so maybe people are ranting and raving over nothing...

@MailOrderNinja Putting a game on a cart is no more difficult than copying content to a USB stick/flash drive. Just think of the illegal flash carts for the DS/DSi. Even a child can do it.
And burning discs is equally easy, so the only true difference is in manufacturing cost, since optical media is slightly cheaper. (think 35 - 50 cents for a Blu-ray and around a $1 for a flash cart, bulk purchasing prices)

I guess the one thing I would miss if carts replaced discs is the art on the object itself. Splatoon's printed art on the shiny rounded disc looks great, and wouldn't be half as nice if it was just a small printed sticker on a tile of grey plastic...

@NinjaWaddleDee

Ah. Well that is unfortunate, but I think as the idea is more commonplace it'll get better.

@BlastRadius We will see I suppose. If they can lower the prices compared to retail, then I think they will be on to something.

@ThanosReXXX

No, I wasn't replying twice. Nintendo Life keeps sending them twice. I don't know why

@PlywoodStick

The military thing is a good point. Do you remember the rumor about the nx having a optical and digital only model? I think that👌 would be helpful. I'd like to get a cheaper console in exchange of optical media.

As for the Xbox one, 2013 was way top early to drop optical media. WiFi speeds were still very slow in many places of the world, and that still stands today. But that's gonna be sorted out eventually, right? We won't need optical media 50 years from now.

@Titan_Clocker Hey man, no stress: I was just pulling your leg.
But having said that, I have also experienced this "bug" (don't know if it actually is) myself and it happens when you either double click "Reply" or reload the page if it hangs. Either way, you have more than a few double comments. I always delete the doubles when this happens.

@freaksloan

The reason why I say digital is cheaperbis that if consoles were gigital only, with no optical media, we wouldn't have to pay extra for the disc drive in our consoles.

Not to mention that making a game available to download is obviously much cheaper than burning the games into discs. The only reason why companies make digital games the same price beacus they know they can make even more profit, and the consumer can't do anything about it.

Also, repeating "nope" isn't going to change my mind. That's a very weak debate strategy.

@ThanosReXXX

Yeah, I think I double clicked them.

@Semudara

Were you seriously triggered by my comment? All I did was state my opinion on the matter, and state that although I understand why you guys like physical media, you can't avoid the future. I never called anyone foolish.

@Titan_Clocker Two things about the points you made to @freaksloan: the difference in price between no drive or a cartridge slot in a console is negligible, since that has no moving parts either (except for a little spring switch to either hold or eject the cartridge.)

And I think you underestimate server maintenance cost. Either way, the game has to be copied from and to media, and on paper (as in financially) it doesn't matter too much if it is from server to console or from master server to removable media. There are indeed extra costs involved in putting games on optical discs or cartridges, but server maintenance also represents a number of costs, and contrary to the one time manufacturing costs of removable media, server maintenance costs are continuous for as long as a game needs to be available, so bottom line is that it is more about convenience than cost.

I think we'll all be going fully digital in the console generation coming after the NX/PS5/Xbox Two, if we're even going to see any more actual consoles after this upcoming generation, because that is still up for debate, considering both Sony's and Microsoft's comments on the matter.

Perhaps Nintendo will be the only console manufacturer left in two generations and the other two will just turn into streaming services, with the name in label only but not in a physical box...

@ThanosReXXX

I don't wanna spend any more time on this subject. Long story short:

I prefer digital, a lot of you prefer physical, and so many people feel the need to get extremely defensive over something so little.

However, physical isn't gonna last forever, digital will soon be our only option. Nothing we can do about it. Nothing. Other than forget about physical and move on.

@Titan_Clocker Sorry but I think you confuse me with some of the others. I actually agree with you, I'm only saying it is not going to happen YET, and I was trying to have a polite conversation with you, especially since your first comment on this topic was going on about being attacked and what not for stating your opinion and I wanted to show you that opinions can also differ in a polite manner without all the hate that is so common on internet forums.

I have been polite all the time and right now I'm going above and beyond for reasons I myself don't even understand, since I don't have to answer to any anonymous person on the internet, let alone one who is WAY younger than me (I'm 46), so if any respect should be shown, it is actually the other way around, young man.

But I did it anyway, because you came across as a decent person. But now all of a sudden you can't take a little criticism? And to be clear: most of that came from others, not from me.

Peace out.

I would love a cartridge system, mass produced it wouldn't be that expensive and I fear for how long the original disc drives will run in all my systems. Playing a horror game in the dark at night then boom, the disc drive starts making noise to take you out of the moment.

And some games from ED on gamecube and bloodborne(I don't have many disc games on PS4, this is the worse so far for it) on PS4 sound like the drive is trying to murder the gamedisc at somepoints.

I wonder how updates and dlc would be handled though? Would all cartridges have so many gb free set aside for such things or would the nx have limited room in eternal hd or flash? I would much rather it on the cartridge.

@Titan_Clocker Glad to see someone else who is thinking ahead. I've moved completely to digital over the past year and have no regrets. It's more efficient, less clutter, and no dealing with scratches or wear of any kind. It IS the future... Just a matter of when, not if.

Not everyone is taking to the transition so easily, so the defensiveness can be expected.

I wouldn't mind cartridges, or "game cards," if you prefer to call them that, but I actually like to buy digitally for convenience (and you get your faster load times too!). I think Titan_Clocker's right that digital will become an increasingly popular and viable option for console video games. My hope is that Nintendo will implement some digital lending system so that I can share my digital games with friends, that would be wonderful; but, for now, I'm fine with the convenience of not having to switch discs or cartridges and having no way to lose or damage my games.

I love the idea of cartridges coming back. If the cartridge had a (soldered) microsd card on it for storage you could store more game data then a disk but have a cartridge form. 4, 8 , and 16 gb microsd cards are cheap as hell to make.

@Dakt I'm anything but pro Nintendo anymore on the console side wasting my money kind of on Wii and definitely on Wii U — the first Nintendo console I ever sold off in disgust. That said, no they're not out of their mind with cartridges. Don't think NES or N64 with it, think 3DS cartridges (cards) instead. Those things can hold a lot of data, I believe 8GB in size. Sure that's perhaps a laugh compared to blu-ray but think bigger.

They've been nose deep in this Android development stuff, they don't want to show off NintendOS which I think is because it's an android re-skin like FireOS. What if this NX is a microconsole much like the very beefy Nvidia Shield console? That thing can outperform the PS3 in quality output and the downloads in general don't get over 3GB in size on the higher end stuff. That's under the 8GB 3DS cap. Perhaps that's what this is, a hybrid Android system. It's said it's insanely easy to make stuff for, and even as easy to carry game data from other formats so almost no work is needed at all. Again, smells like Android variant code speak to me. In that case a cartridge makes sense. Also if the truth of it being both a handheld or a handheld+console (2 or a dock) that would make sense as well.

I'm not on their side anymore, bitter and burned with the wallet and I'm on a budget. But I could see something like that being well supported because even lazy developers could shovel their junk at little to no cost. Only the true double talking haters who wouldn't make a game anyway would avoid easy money like that.

@KingofSaiyanZ
Lol. That's what you get on fansites. The NX can have 1gb of slow ram and games can cost $100.00, fans will still bow down and worship.

Seriously though, developers will have to buy these cartridges from Nintendo as they will obviously be propriety.
Ain't going to happen. Developers have proven over and over again that they DO NOT need Nintendo. This sounds like the N64 all over again.

If Nintendo go cartridge then they have totally given up on third parties so don't really care any more.

@Hotfusion This applies to all fanboys though, not just those for Nintendo.

Besides, why are people looking at the past as the only comparison, when the present already does many things already mentioned that doesn't have the problems of the past. I mean, the 3DS is a thing, remember? It uses cards up to 8GB.

Also, not sure what your point is about 3rd-parties having to buy the cards from Nintendo. All 3rd-parties have to buy the media from the console manufacturers, or to be specific, the publishers for the games do. Do you think the PS4/XB1/U discs are just regular BR discs that you can pick up as your local store? Here's a video about the manufacturing of PSone discs.

https://youtu.be/L6ek2bKW22A

@Dakt if you knew anything about storage mediums you would under stand that this rumor doesn't need a positive spin because in actuality a cartridge system like that of the 3DS is in every way better than a disc based system.

As someone whose N3DS was recently borrowed by his dog, who managed to remove the Fire Emblem cartridge and chew on it, I am entirely for this. If that had have been a disc I'd be down a copy of a game that is strangely difficult to find here in Ireland.

@Titan_Clocker the problem is that going digital only would completely alienate quite a significant number of people. A good maybe 50% of Ireland has no access to broadband, I'm sure other larger countries must have similar situations to.

Furthermore, in the case of digital purchases you pay for date that's stored on your device... If my device breaks or is stolen, if I forget my password, if in ten years I want t go revisit my old games... What happens then? They sort of aren't there any more... Potentially, at least.
I also like having physical copies in general. If I'm paying for something, it's for the object. If everything goes digital, I'll become a pirate and to be honest I don't really want to develop metaphorical sea-legs in terms or the morality of software purchasing.

Oh, cartridges are really cool too and I miss blowing on every game I own and no loading times.

@HyruleHero Bluray can hold upt to 50 gb on a dual layer and 128 GB of flash memory is not that expensive.

I LOVE the idea of the NX using cartridges in one form or another! The prospect of this has me more excited than any other rumor I've heard so far about Nintendo's new console. I'll admit, disc based games were cool when they first came out. They also definitely had some key advantages over carts, but a modern cart could potentially negate those advantages. Not only that, but they would have faster load times and less of a chance of being damaged by careless kids.

On a side note, I know it's pretty much inevitable, but I'm not a big fan of the current trend of everything going completely digital. For me personally, a digital version of a game has far less perceived value than a physical copy of a game whether it be disc or cart. I understand the convenience of going digital for a lot of people, but I dread the day when I'll no longer be able to purchase a physical copy of a new game.

This is the dumbest rumor so far (unless its a handheld, then it may make sense).

I can also make rumors like that: Someone I know said NX also supports vinyl, so the games get also released on vinyl!!

I wish this video wasn't such a farce. I am a strong believer in cartridges over discs and this video just made it seem like a big fat joke. Here's my list of reasons cartridges are better than discs since Alex doesn't see it fit to actually prepare a compelling argument beyond 'they taste better'.
1, Carts are faster/ less loading time.
2, Carts are more collectible than disks.
3. Carts are more resistant to physical damage.
4. Carts are much harder to pirate than discs.
5. Carts have been modified in the past with additional chips that boost the hardware's capabilities.
6. Carts can be many different shapes and sizes and leave a unique footprint for the system. After all you can easily determine an NES game from a N64 game just based on the silhouette.
7. These days cartridges can be literally the size of a micro SD card, able to snugly fit your entire game library into your pocket.
8. END LABELS!
9. Your child will have a tough time mucking up the contacts with peanut butter and jelly hands, especially compared to discs.
10. Cartridges require no moving parts in your console which means less possible hardware malfunctions.
And 11. Game art just looks cooler on a cartridge than it does on a disc.

You can argue that digital is the way to go, and that is very true aside from the astronomical amount of on board storage required these days since many games can be well into and over 50 Gigs. I'm also an old man and prefer to actually 'own' my own copy of the game instead of a license to download the game for as long as I have internet access and the servers are operating. But that's just my 2 cents.

If they could make a cartridge capable of producing fully-detailed HD graphics and sound, without charging people their firstborn for it, that would be cool. I miss the days where you didn't have to panic about your game getting scratched, because the circuits were protected by the casing. Also, no more loading times; have the system and the cartridge sync up from the very beginning.