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

[DanneSandin]

RolStoppable said:

Mnementh said:

That's exactly the reason. And do you disagree, seeing what they have done with the WiiU after they had the Wii before?

I don't disagree that Nintendo has been stupid regarding the eighth generation, but I disagree with your assumption that Nintendo will be in a perpetual state of stupidity. I do so on the grounds of what Iwata has hinted at since early 2014, and that is that there have been serious efforts to change the thinking within the company.

DanneSandin said:

There's just on thing that a bit of a pain in the ass though: you'll have to download EVERYTHING twice; once for your HC and once for your HH. Downloading patches twice, downloading DLC's twice... that's a bit cumpersome. Hopefully Nintendo will implement some sort of "Automatically download this content for ALL your NNID connected devices at the same time". That way you can download the DLC on your HC and the same content will get installed on your HH at the same time when it's in sleep mode. The second problem then becomes available space in the HH device: that shit's gonna get filled crazy fast! It'll be hugely expansive to have loads of DLC on your HH, or if not hugely expansive you'll probably need quite a few more extra SD-cards to save all that content on, which will become annoying when you have to swtch cards all the time depending on what games you play

The Wii U can already perform downloads during standby, so it shouldn't be a problem to implement an option to download to all NNID-connected devices in the future. Since the plans for the upcoming unified account system are to extend the reach of the NNID beyond dedicated Nintendo hardware, it's a realistic possibility that users will be able to purchase digital games and DLC for dedicated hardware through a PC or smart device and choose which of their dedicated hardware will receive a download.

Download sizes of DLC are rarely bigger than a few hundred MB and the 3DS already supports 32GB SD cards. The next handheld should be able to support 128GB SD cards for additional storage and it's up in the air how much internal storage the system will offer (the 3DS has 2GB of internal storage that is reserved for the OS and DSiWare games). Space should only be an issue for people who buy an obscene amount of digital games and DLC.

I think that your response to me actually ties in to the response to Mnementh as well; Nintendo HAS been stupid - on more than one occassion, it's not really a given that you will be able to buy a game from your smart phone and have it downloaded on both your HC and HH. Come on, it's Nintendo we're talking about. They've been lagging behind in online infrastructure since the early 00's - at least. I seriously hope you're right that Nintendo are shaking things up within the company and trying to make an effort to catch up to the competition, but Nintendo is Nintendo.

With digital games becoming more and more prominent, and Nintendo themselves are releasing specific eShop games and pushing digital, I wonder if 2 GB of internal storage plus 128GB SD-cards will be enough... Just look at XCX; that's 20GB right there. One game. You can fit about 6-7 of those games on a 128 GB card, and that's not all that much really. I'd manage very well with that "limited" space, but others won't