Cartridges -> disk -> Cartridges come back??

[WilliamWatts]

dharh said:

WilliamWatts said:

Actually its misleading to think of price per GB as game assets aren't exactly scaling much beyond 10-12GB as full motion video isn't required anymore except to hide loading which isn't really needed with flash and not many games will need more than 10GB within the first 2 years of a generation as they are generally just upscaled current generation projects. Comparing say Blu Ray 50GB and expecting the same size flash is just phrasing the problem in a way that will always favour optical drives without any bearing on the reality of the situation.

Also people should remember that flash can be both cheaper and more expensive as a distribution medium. Its cheaper in the sense that if people load up a quick flash cartridge 300MB/S = 8GB in 30s they can simply use kiosks and charge less for this content which cannot be traded or sold, say $50-55 and can also be rented with any stipulations the console maker and publisher agree to such as 7 days or one complete playthrough whichever comes first.

The loading you experience with a console is the time it takes to actually play the game. People say that Uncharted 2 is an example of a load free optical drive game which doesn't require an install. However theres absolutely no backtracking and the time it takes to start is greater than a minute. Furthermore theres no incentive to further punish a player who dies with a time delay as well. I remember an interview from the makers of Forza 3 that when people die/lose its the time they turn off the console. There is no such punishment with a flash cartridge based game.

I highly doubt they are going to go for kiosks. It will be either DD and/or rom carts, just like previous gens that had carts. What would be the benefit aside from faster loading times? The cons on the other hand are quite high. Using writable carts means no 'physical' medium in the traditional sense. Who cares about a cart that can get overwritten on a whim? The costs for a single game can be double what we pay for a single game. Cart + buying the game from a kiosk? No thanks.

The thing about optical drives vs carts in the past is that discs gave developers more options. More space, cost less. Not all game developers need 25-50 GB that a BRD might provide, but some might. If a developer _wants_ to create an epic large game, they can't with carts. And no multiple cart games would be way too costly: $100+ per game.

A properly designed console and game can limit the amount of load times with discs based games.

Consoles these days need HDDs anyway. My Fallout 3 save folder has 100+ save files. I've got tons of movies and downloaded games. I cant imagine how any of this would be possible with the limited space options provided by the Wii or even a rom-cart based system that eschewed a HDD.

Aside from faster loading times? Easier storage, unbreakable, quiet, reliable, smaller console. Oh and cartridges would allow for BOTH direct purchase of a ready made unit and direct download onto a rewriteable cartridge.

A developer can make an epic long game with 3GB if you take Borderlands for an example. I don't exactly see where they need 25GB if they aren't padding for loading speed or using lossless 7.1 sound with 5 different language tracks and even then they usually don't take up more than 10GB. Looking at the Xbox 360 install charts most games don't even hit the 6.8GB limit and considering a normal distribution very few would go over 8GB if they could. The only exception would be the 'epic' JRPGs and the only thing epic about them is their extensive use of FMV.

A properly designed console and game at this point is Optical drive + mechanical HDD, which is about a third of the bill of materials for a $250 console. Consoles need gigs of space, but they don't 'need' much more than 10's of GB.