| zarx said: well technically you do need new hardware for bigger cards SDHC maxes out at 32GB and SDXC was only introduced in 2009. And I can't see the PS4 supporting anything less than 100GB BDXL dics which really would be more than enough for the next 10 years unless devs start using 4k cutscenes or something. I actually see pre rendering cutscenes becoming less common next gen as ingame graphics reach such high levels it really shouldn't be needed unless they skimp on RAM and they still need them to cover loading. And really without HD video games bigger than even 50GB would cost an astronomical amount to make especially with modern compression and procedural ellements. Especially as digital distrobution becomes more prevelent even on high speed broadband downloading 50GB+ games is not really practical any time soon for most of the world. There are advantages to flash media, but I just don't see it being cost effective for next generation. And as modern consoles are now media hubs and I think that blu-ray playback will be a big enough reason to go with that in adition to the cheaper media. |
While it is true that SDHC maxes out at 32 GB, it must be noted that that standard is a standard - hence why I spoke of a proprietary variation. SDXC is set to max out at 2 TB... but the main reason for that is that the standard calls for a FAT32 file system, which itself maxes out at 2 TB. Essentially, SDXC is now safe for a good 10 years, so if it were used now, that would give it plenty of life.
As for PS4 using BDXL... at this point in time, I couldn't find a BDXL for less than $130 (standard price) or $90 (discounted) on Amazon. Based on your assertion regarding SDXC prices, the PS4 using BDXL would be absurdly expensive. And because they're both non-standard (as in, most bluray players won't read them - the vast majority of home bluray players won't be able to be updated for them) and only a small improvement on regular BluRay (as in, only 2x the space), it's likely that manufacturing costs won't be coming down anywhere near as quickly as the BluRay manufacturing costs will have (I'm referring to early reductions in costs - I'm assuming that the expensiveness of them at the moment is due to the lack of factories capable of manufacturing them). Basically, as hard as it was to get people to move from DVD to BluRay, it's going to be 10x as hard to get them to move to BDXL, and that means mass production will be difficult.
On the other hand, a variant of SDXC would be able to be created without much hassle.
Mind you, I don't see why they couldn't just do both, really - use BluRay (or BDXL, where needed) primarily earlier on, with an SD-based card technology ready for use later on. Best of both worlds. Since SD card readers are trivial to add (compared with a BluRay drive), and relatively cheap, it wouldn't put much of a dent in the cost of the system to manufacture. This also gives it the ability to act as a BluRay media player.
Not to mention that it would open up the ability to use both of them simultaneously, thereby eliminating the need for disc-switching much of the time without needing an expensive card size.
