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TheLastStarFighter on 26 August 2015
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spemanig said:
TheLastStarFighter said:


Discs aren't really the de facto standard anymore.  Digital distribution makes up more and more of the market, and virtually 100% of new titles have at least some and often much of their content delivered over the internet.  This isn't N64 vs PS1 anymore. The media doesn't impact the title in any way, it's just a method to get the game from the developer to the hard drive of the consumer.  The only way media choice would impact third party support is if it restricted the size of the game. In this case, carts could end up being even bigger or more versatile than the discs.


On consoles? Yes, discs are the standard. Is DD superior? Unquestionably. But does it make up more of the market, not even close.

Of course media effects games. It effects cost. If Nintendo brought back carts, either NX games would be universally significantly more expensive, or devs would take a significant loss on every NX game sold compared to identical ports on PS4/XBO. With DD it's the same. Either games get cheaper, or prices stay the same and devs make a larger profit.

That's enough to sway favor on one direction, and that direction is DD.

DD is pushing 30% of the market, by NX's release or soon after I could see it at 50% or more.  So the physical media is only impacting about 50% of sales.  The cost of cards instead of discs would add maybe a dollar or two.  Since Nintendo would realize significant hardware cost savings by removing an optical drive, they could cover the extra media costs for 3rd parties if it was an issue and still come out for the better.

And beyond cost, the media choice has 0 impact for devs beyond having enough capacity, especially since pretty much all games are just transfering to the hard drive now anyway - and is definitely happening in the patent specs by Nintendo recently shown.  If anything, cards could be superior for 3rd parties by allowing additional anti-priacy measures.