Memory cards...
The future is the past. :P

It's a demographic and minidisc problem. The demographic wasn't there because no one was making games for the GCN because of minidiscs. And because of Nintendo's own first party demographic issues. It's not as simple as one problem with one reason.

They wouldn't have to market 100% towards college students. They'd have to make games that target demographics they aren't targeting. First party, exclusive games. And they'd have to stop gimpin themselfs prematurely every cycle by making some stupid decision that guarantees bad third party support. Because, again, this is a complicated issue with a complicated solution. A digital platform is a clear step in the right direction, but obviously it isn't the only one. Carts are a clear step in the wrong direction and one that 100% is not happening. They wouldn't have to dial back anything. They'd just have to dial up other things and strike a balance.

No one cares what kids games are on a platform. No COD head is crying about the PS4 becoming a haven for japanese otaku games. If there are 1000 games that cater to that western mainstream audience, none of them will care that there's 1000 mario games on the platform too.

No, you do what Apple did. If some people can't live without a physical copy, you tell them to buy something else while the masses jump into the future and leave you behind. There is no argument. You buy the future now with Nintendo/Apple or wait on the competing platforms until they follow suit weed the past out gradually later.

The difference will not be that insignificant. You can talk about buying in bulk all you like, but when the difference between buying a disc and a card at a consumer level is 10:1, it's not going to be 4:1 at a manufacturers level. They are going to feel that 1000% difference in cost, and they are going to laugh at it and ignore it. They wouldn't be hell bent on a digital release. They just wouldn't release for it at all, because once carts are in the fray, it's not a digital platform. It's a physical platform like all the others, only one costs 10x more no manufacture for absolutely no pay off. And if devs have an issue with the primary media to supply games for your platform, they just won't support the playform period. So Nintendo would give a shit, because they'd be getting 0% royalties, because they'd be getting 0% support.

I would want a SanDisk USB drive to save game files on instead of those wittle Flash drive cards jmo

You can save games to a USB drive on the current Wii U as is, so that functionality is pretty much a given for NX if you want it most likely. 

I think Nintendo can get their cards for $1 a pop. That's just the bottom line here, at that price, third parties aren't going to give a shit. It's not like when it was $30 for a N64 cartridge versus 50 cents for a PSX CD and no one had high speed internet, so downloading additional data to a HDD was a non-starter. It's more like 25 cents for the disc versus $1 for the card here. The whole "10x as much!" ratio doesn't mean much when it's going from 10 cents x 10 being $1. Big whoop. 

Nintendo has a very strong reputation as a kids brand, because part in parcel ... they make a lot of kids-friendly games. And they want a kids centric image. It's not by accident or unintentional. How many discussions do you think Sony or MS had about making the PS2 or XBox purple? It probably rhymes with "hero". 

The GameCube didn't have any lack of games either, it has a library of 600+ games, probably about 500 of them are third party titles. 

Quite frankly I'd be fairly thrilled with GameCube level third party support even. The GameCube had Resident Evil exclusivity, a Metal Gear Solid game exclusive, a Final Fantasy game exclusive, an exclusive Tales RPG, Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7 as timed exclusives and pretty much all the main Western multiplats (Madden, FIFA, Timesplitters, Prince of Persia, NBA Street, SSX, Tony Hawk, James Bond, Medal of Honor, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. etc.). 

In hindsight, EA really supported the sh*t out of the GameCube. I don't need Nintendo to supplant Sony to enjoy the games, quite frankly Sony is just a better option for some of the types of games developers like to make like GTA. Combine the 3DS support with the support the Wii U got in its first year from Western pubs and I'd be ok with that too. 

Nintendo can do things like Apple when they have Apple's brand mystique, marketing, monster market and mindshare, fashion chic design, etc. and a product that moves 50-60 million units in *quarter* of a year. When you have success like that, people listen to you and you get the benefit of the doubt when you make industry shaking decisions. 

DD is pushing 30% of the market, by NX's release or soon after I could see it at 50% or more.  So the physical media is only impacting about 50% of sales.  The cost of cards instead of discs would add maybe a dollar or two.  Since Nintendo would realize significant hardware cost savings by removing an optical drive, they could cover the extra media costs for 3rd parties if it was an issue and still come out for the better.

And beyond cost, the media choice has 0 impact for devs beyond having enough capacity, especially since pretty much all games are just transfering to the hard drive now anyway - and is definitely happening in the patent specs by Nintendo recently shown.  If anything, cards could be superior for 3rd parties by allowing additional anti-priacy measures.

Sorry was talking about PS4

Spemanig doesn't see the difference in the music and book industry going digital compared to the gaming industry? Digital books and music would fit tons of content in an 8 GB device, how about CoD? Digital only in music and books has advantages for the consumer that don't exist in video games. The fact that you don't see those advantages is hilarious. What advantages to the consumer exist for digital video games?