Prediction: "Cartridges" will return for the Nintendo home console

[Arkaign]

Okay people : a quick lesson for those who are somewhat uninformed on the subject of what makes cartridges tick!

(1)- I see a lot of people try to equate cost by using SD or other flash memory media as a reference point. This is exceedingly inaccurate, because flash memory is inherently different than :

(2)- Mask Roms. This is what read-only mass-produced games are normally placed on with regards to video game console carts, be they old home consoles or handhelds. The process goes like this :

First, the games exist entirely in a dev system on a hard drive.
Then, the early prototypes are put onto EEPROM or other reprogrammable storage and tested on the target console or device
Last, when the greenlight is given, a mask rom master is made, and the entire run of carts is created using photo-lithography

Mask Roms are exceedingly cheap by volume. The master is very expensive to create compared to a single SD card or the like, but the further copies are minimal. Thing of it in simplified terms of an engraved plate that is used over and over on cheap regular paper to create high-quality prints.

Whereas a 32GB or 64GB SD re-writable media might cost in the $$ range, a mask rom product in a medium-yield mid-size production number event is in the pennies range instead. The PCB and cart package itself along with the label and box easily equals the cost of the mask rom, or exceeds it. The other big advantage to mask rom products is durability. Where an EEPROM or flash memory device by nature degrades over time in a fairly aggressive manner by comparison, a mask rom can expect a very long lifespan, and a much tougher resistance to heat/cold/humidity conditions. As a non-rewritable etched piece of matter, it's non-volatile in nature. Its zeros and ones are hard engraved forever, or as long as the physical materials it exists on stays cohesive. In the right conditions, its entirely feasible that a mask-rom in it's little surface-mount package could exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. The other components on the cart assembly would degrade more rapidly. Plastic by oxidation, metallic contacts by rust, paper and ink on the label chemically unbonding and being leeched by humidity, etc.

The reason that CD and then DVD replaced carts wasn't purely cost, it was technology itself. Technology has moved a long, LONG way since those optical standards were created. A return to carts for a physical media is actually pretty nice as an idea. Load times could be hugely improved, capacity would exceed non-specialty BD discs, and size (think a DS cart size) would be more convenient than a 5.25" or even Gamecube-size optical disc.