"NGP: the 10 questions nobody’s asking" from some blog

[zarx]

HappySqurriel said:

zarx said:

HappySqurriel said:

Just on #3 ...

Based on what I know about cartridge sizes on the DS, I would expect most early NGP games to be on 1GB or 2GB flash cards; and until late in the generation, few games will be released on 8GB or 16GB discs. This shouldn't be too much of a problem because most HD console games are delivered on the XBox 360's DVD based disc, and I suspect there will be few NGP games which are as ambitious as most HD games; primarily because I doubt developers will be willing to devote the budget to develop HD console games on a portable system.

considering PSP games are already up to 1.8 GB and the level of visuals the NGP can deliver 2-4 GB to start quickly uping to 8GB as games have more development time etc and by the end of it's life 16GB will be common with the odd 32GB monster from someone like Kojima or a final fantasy game with hours of pre rendered video lol

My thought is just how these cartridges will impact game costs ... At 1GB to 2GB today, you could probably deliver a game at a very similar price to selling it on an optical disc; as the size of the disc increases the costs rapidly increase, and you would (probably) need to charge $10 to $15 more for an 8GB game, or $30 more for a 16GB game.

is there any doubt that NGP games will retail for $50-60? The price of flash memory is still dropping and I just don't see retail games with 4-5 times the level of assets (textures, geometry, video etc) being smaller than PSP games bing smaller than 2GB unless they are really lacking in content, not to mention anything under a GB will be download only IMO. And your prices aren't really accurate if SONY are manufacturing their own carts (they probably will) with 16GB SD carts retailing at $50 the actual cost if you aren't paying SD card royalties and manufacturing in high quantities will probably be well under $20 for publishers (still high but dropping quite rapidly) and I don't see games that big for a couple years at least. There are some developments in flash memory on the horizon promise vastly cheaper flash memory in the coming years and massive increases in capacity. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/1610755/hp-memristors-semiconductors-chips-memory-science-flash-ram-physics-electronics

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9183066/Nanocrystal_conductors_using_dirt_cheap_material_promise_massive_3_D_storage

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/flash-error-correction-chip/