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Soundwave on 31 January 2015
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spemanig said:
DrasticDracon said:

Good points, but even if Nintendo went full digital (which I doubt they'll even do), they'd likely not care enough to include a generous card, no matter how necessary the storage is. They've just dropped the charger in NA, so they aren't afraid to disclude important contents anywhere. Look at the Vita as a wonderful example; it isn't digital, but they still won't include any sort of card! And I believe only certain Vita-branded cards are compatible with it. Companies will cut costs even if the reason seems dumb to the consumer.


There's no way they can have a unified platform without going all digital on at least one of their consoles. They can't have a unified platform with both carts and CDs. Guess which one is going?

The charger isn't the same thing. Bad decision or not, expecting people buying the New 3DS to largely be upgraders is a valid alibi. It's at the end of it's cycle and it's reasonable to come to that conclusion.

They already sell digital download cards at retail. My first 3DS game was Luigi's Mansion, and I was offered a download card instead of a physical cart at gamestop. They're already doing this sort of stuff.

It wouldn't be cutting costs. The NFC cards would basically be a form of amiibo.


Why can't they use carts again? 

The Vita + Vita TV already does this, I can take a Vita cartridge, play it on my Vita, plug that same cartridge into my Vita TV (well Playstation TV) and play the same cartridge on my TV. 

In a couple of years they'll be able to make DS/Vita sized cartridges that are 32GB, the same storage as a Blu-Ray disc, so even if they wanted to port the biggest Wii U title to sell again, it would be no problem to share it between the home version and the portable. 

Removing the cartridge slot is kinda pointless, it doesn't really save any space or cost (whereas ditching the disc drive is huge space savings and a cost savings too). 

Have digital for those who want it, but retail isn't going away and Nintendo is more stubborn about retail than probably most companies. CDs/discs are what are becoming obsolete though, now that carts have caught up to discs in storage space, they are smaller, load faster, and more practical for a fusion platform where the games need to go portable on a moment's notice. 

Also retaining the (by then 12-13 year old) dual screen layout and 3D screen I think isn't really bold. That whole setup just screams "oh hey, remember this thing that used to be popular before smart devices"? It's like seeing a Blackberry phone with a physical keyboard these days, yes a few diehards still chest thump at that layout being superior, but for most people the response is "2005 called, it wants its phone back" and wouldn't be caught dead with such a device. 

The whole DS and Wii brands and layout just need to die. They had a good run, but they just bring an association with Nintendo that their hardware is stuck back from a decade ago. Even if the engine has been overhauled, people aren't excited by it. It's time to move in the 2010s with something fresher than that.