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

[exdeath]

Cobretti2 said:

I want a cart hybrid that gives u read only and write space.

So 64gb for games and maybe 32gb for write, that way the stupid save files and game patches and DLC can go on that cart and you can play it on any console.

It would solve the HDD space issue also and having to backup all that junk.

It would also solve the need to install a buggy game straight away to download the patches in ensure you have them before they are taken down from the server.

Writeable storage is alot more costly than a mask ROM.  There is a huge markup and premium for something that is indefinitely reuseable or can be erased and repurposed.  Remember when CD-Rs first came out they were 10x more expensive than a press molded disc.  Same reason the latest greatest capacity SDXC cost 10x more than the next size down instead of double.  Not because they cost more to make either. They don't. Writeable memory is always going to have a "usefulness tax" on it regardless it's actual production cost.

 

64 GB mask rom with like 512k of serial Flash would be doable.   Back in the day RAM size was limited to the amount of address space dictated in the memory map of the cartridge and # of A/D lines assigned, but with a serial bus protocol you have no such limitation and could use as big or small a Flash as required.