I think it would be excellent. They hold more than discs, read speeds are faster and I don't even use the bluray feature on my consoles. Not to mention the console would probably be smaller and lighter without a disc drive.

On one hand, I like having smaller boxes since my house really isn't that big, but on the other, I fear for higher game prices.

That, and I don't have much confidence in how well 3DS cartridges hold up. I've dropped quite a few, and I can definitely feel some internals shaking inside.

It would be stupid and prematurely kill third party support because of how expensive they'd be compared to the competition using disks. No sane developer would support it. So I'd be pissed. But there's no chance in hell that's happening, so all is well.

Read speeds won't be faster. While there are fast cards around, those are quite expensive. Not something Nintendo would consider for distributing games. They will instead choose cheap cards. They reach read speed of about 9 MB/s. The Ps4 Blu-Ray Drive with it's 6x speed reaches 27 MB/s, so three times faster. I also don't think that they will bring cards bigger than 32 GB. It might look cheap in the store, but if you're about to use that for millions and millions of copies, it makes a big difference if the medium costs you 0.10 $ or 2.50 $.

Access speeds will be considerably faster, and the read speed on the PS4's BluRay is irrelevant, its not running off the disc. You don't need to install to HDD with flash memory since you're not using a dead-end data format like laser discs. You have to factor in the loss in costs of development in removing the BluRay player which is tens of dollars per unit vs. saving a few cents on enormous bulk orders which can be negotiated.

They're not much more expensive in bulk order per gig. If Nintendo went this route, they (and third parties) wouldn't have to pay BluRay royalties, have a BluRay player (moving parts, expensive in general), and could offer potential pricing discounts on bulk flash prints for their partners since Nintendo would be saving a lot of money per console.

I think it would scale well, if they turned to flash based cards. They have used it for years on their handheld consoles. Mass production means cheaper and better for negotiating better quality cards.
Using cards also means the console has less mechanical stuff (no disc drive), and that means less noise.

I think its the next logical step in console evolution. The more extreme evolution would be only digital sales, but that would alienate to many customers in my opinion, and I think it would be to soon for that.

And lets face it, Nintendo has never made consoles that outperform competitors in pure speed and muscle. Which also makes card based games logical for Nintendo, since they apparently arent faster than discs.

I don't see the point. I personally prefer discs over memory cards.

I'd be happy. Digital sucks donkey dicks.

It wont, the patent application clearly shows they intend to use only memory cards and external hard drive support.
The lack of optical drive and Nintendos recent moves towards mobile suggests to me that itll end up being an android based home console with downloadable only titles.

Name me one dedicated gaming device that was digital only that even sniffed success. It's never happened and for good reason.

There was poll recently conducted where it showed that 78% of core gamers prefer physical media. That number is not going to change any time soon and I'm positive Nintendo and everyone else knows this. It would be suicide, plain and simple.