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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - How do you feel about the Switch using cartridges?

Louie on 21 October 2016

It's funny how people voice their "concerns" now over cards. Nintendo has been using these things for handhelds all the time. Did we ever have any problems with game prices, storage limitations or load times? Were they ever less durable than blu-rays? No. And it's gonna stay that way.

I have this suspicion that a lot of the people who are "concerned" now are not going to buy the console anway.



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Cobretti2 on 21 October 2016

i have always loved them over cd and then installs to hdds.

i wish one day for them to be a hybrid in a future gen where there is the core read only section for the core release game so like 50gb or whtever then a further say 20gb for addons and patches.



 

 

hunter_alien on 21 October 2016
Pemalite said:
hunter_alien said:

Well they can actually have a negative size, and that is the small storage space (see the N64). I always liked my CGI movies as good as they can be and flawless audio + full voice acting. But if Nintendo can make a 32gb card with trully fast speeds, it could be more of a win.

Blu Ray is about 25Gb per layer, most discs are dual-layer discs.

NAND Flash has been affordable at 64Gb levels for some time, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect high quality CGI, Great Audio and Full Voice Acting in games.

Today's solid state memory isn't representative of the Nintendo 64 era, Moore's law is a wonderful thing.

mountaindewslave said:

its a portable home console, 2-1 combo. That's enough value in itself. You throw a blueray player in with something like this and suddenly its going to boost the costs gigantically. anyone who wants a blue ray player or a 4K player already has one anyway 

Well. It also opens up the ability for Nintendo to include a 4k Blu-Ray attachment for the Dock or include a 4k Blu-Ray player in the dock itself at a later date for a higher price.
The SoC likely has the dedicated decode blocks to handle 4k.

Wyrdness said:

Don't even bank on that tbh, I'm pretty sure Nintendo would have needed to cut costs (as well as bring the price down) somewhere for such a platform especially partnering with Nvidia, I can see it being more like 64GB with external support.

Agreed. Having 100's of Gigabytes of storage on the device itself isn't a cost effective approach, Nintendo will likely wish to be profitable first thing out the gate.

trunkswd said:

How big are Nintendo games on the Wii U? 10GB? I'm used to the Xbox One and PS4 where games are 50GB.

There are a few games which are treading to almost 100Gb on the Xbox One... It's nuts! And they keep getting bigger with every update.

bonzobanana said:

In the past Nintendo said  to publishers they must pay for something like 50,000 cartridge units minimum and it was a serious investment for publishers so they only released top games that they were sure to sell. I don't know the arrangement now but if its similar it makes it more likely to reduce support. I'm sure smaller developers will keep to online downloads.

It won't be cheaper than discs  but lets face it its the only realistic option for a tablet design.


Today is very different from the cartridges of old. They are larger and cheaper to manufacture.

Plus, the Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS haven't had to deal with such logistical issues either.


Vertigo-X said:

I think it's a given that it will support external storage of some kind through the USB slots on the side. At the very least, you should be able to have a healthy library at your home.

Should have MicroSD.

64 GB would be amazing. Even a 32 gig card. The issue is that as more as you increase the size, your profits drop. Nintendo might push a multi-size approach here, but then we will see compromise budget wise. As cheap as they got, making a 64 card just for games is still way more expensive than simply pushing it out on BR. And if they choose an even lower size, then yes we will have yet another CD vs Cartridge, 5th gen issue on our hand.



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WagnerPaiva on 21 October 2016

I love it. and it is not like clunky NES-N64 carts, it is more like flash memory, which are very cheap.

Do not trust the old documentaries and magazines that praised optical media 20 years ago, everything CHANGED.

Now optical is no longer the most eficient, neither the most durable.

Even here in Brazil you can get 64GB memory flash for like 3 or 5 bucks, and it is much more reliable than a disck, that demandas optical machinery to read and everything. It is a great idea.



My grammar errors are justified by the fact that I am a brazilian living in Brazil. I am also very stupid.

superchunk on 21 October 2016
hunter_alien said:
superchunk said:
Carts literally have no negative side to a consumer. How could anyone see this as something other than awesome?

Well they can actually have a negative size, and that is the small storage space (see the N64). I always liked my CGI movies as good as they can be and flawless audio + full voice acting. But if Nintendo can make a 32gb card with trully fast speeds, it could be more of a win.

Cart sizes have not been a issue for quite some time now. A 50GB cart raw cost is more than a disc, sure, but it is a minor difference now and that cost won't impact consumers. Game prices will remain similar to now. Meanwhile, we gain all the benefits of this fast, stable, low power memory as compared to disc technologies.



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Mystro-Sama on 21 October 2016
JRPGfan said:
I love cartridges :)

The faster access speeds potential could mean we wont need to install games anymore.
That would be one hellva nice benefit.

That idea has me stoked.



Naum on 21 October 2016

The only peole finding this as a negative is a certain kind of gamer.... they are out in full force now trying to downplay everything Nintendo right now.



If it isn't turnbased it isn't worth playing   (mostly)

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For Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritūs Sancti. -----The Boondock Saints

StarOcean on 21 October 2016

Good. Discs were one of the worst things to happen to gaming



sc94597 on 21 October 2016

I hate discs and large boxes. I will happy to have carts.



COKTOE on 21 October 2016

I like it. I'm embracing this as a handheld, in spite of the Nintendo company line.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."