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robzo100 on 24 February 2011
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TomaTito said:
robzo100 said:

One disadvantage of using physical media is that you use up a very large amount of space when it comes to the size of a console.  Apple clearly is looking in that direction as well being that portability in size is very important for them.  They ditched the Disk drive for their Mac Book Airs.  It may be a sign of things to come for their other doodads.

Nintendo has always tried to have their consoles be small and mobile.  Gamecube had a handle for transportation and was very light.  And Wii is a tiny baby as well.  Also, how will Wii compete if their competitors go digital?  They'll be able to charge much less.

Do you know what size we are talking concerning solid state media? The next console could be even smaller since it doesn't need to be the size of a disc.

The thing is a physical media will be needed in the near future for the transition to cloud computing. I've had these past two years a laptop similar to the macbook air (no dvd-rom), but I've been using both internet and flash media to cover that need. The future is moving away from moving media; be it CDs, DVDs, HardDisks and into the SSD, where media will be accessed quickly via streams or downloads.

My bad, I was talking just about "moving media."  Of course that's a new term for me as I'm not as fluent in this kind of subject.  But yeah if solid state is that small, and it's the better and more affordable option, then console size wouldn't be an issue.

As far as Nintendo goes, I don't think they are concerned with something like the ability to play dvds or blu ray so I guess that negative of not supplying a dvd drive wouldn't apply to their plan.  One issue though is that a dvd sized game, or even the old N64 cartridges, felt way more like a game than a small little 1X1 inch square.

I mean one of the reasons I am against digital media is because it cognitively affects how people view their video game library, or a potentual purchase.  It is not reverred as much and is looked at as something not worthy of playing as much (for the spontaneous gamer who is new to gaming).  And that can be solved with physical media, but a 1X1 inch square is almost just as degrading.  It works well for a small handheld, but for a console I want something that is big and I can hold in two hands.

If I am going to the store to buy a tiny square, it might as well be digital.  But I guess that is a solvable issue since they can always make it bigger by adding casing/fluff.