Nuvendil said:
Pokemon is very powerful, but seeing as how Nintendo was so bad at marketing Wii U it took literally 2 years before the entire gaming audience to even know it was a new machine, I don't think it would have helped as much as you think. Wii U's marketing was spectacularly bad. As for cartridge issues, first off, I know it is a console. Been saying that the whole time. Second of all, I don't think 16GB = same as a blueray. I think it's just the starting base model so to speak. I would say 32 GB would be where it would probably fall. And I think 64GB will be available. How this impacts things depends on Nintendo's deals to get these things made, they have considerable connections in the card making industry obviously. Also, a sizable portion of games on the PS4 and Xbone would fit on 32GB, and nearly all would fit on a 64GB. In fact, 99% of the games outside those sizes are litterally one easy step away from fitting: compressing their freaking audio. It's a step for devs, but one they should be taking anyway because a 6 hour shooter with 15 online maps and a soundtrack of about 15 being six times the size of Skyrim is nothing sort of a demonstration of naked, giggling contempt for the customer who has to deal with that data management nonsense. It will be interesting to see how it goes. And no, I don't think the issue is *nearly* as bad as N64 days where 90% of 3rd party games literally couldn't fit, although it could be an issue. And I stand by my prediction from years ago, cartridges or cards are going to eventually be the standard physical medium. Physical isn't going anywhere and consoles can't keep chasing PC-ness, it's a war of atrition they cannot win. Convenience will be the future if consoles have one. I do wonder though as you if this is too soon, so it could be a problem. We'll see in about six or seven months. One posibility is Nintendo will absorb some of those costs for 64GB cards early on until the price falls some more, really depends on how much Nintendo really wants those 3rd parties. I am well aware that these sources have proven decently reliable, but I also know how massive companies work: compartmentalization. Very few individuals know everything, so the source could know one thing and not know numerous other things. Which is why I take the these rumors, go "hmm, interesting", evaluate their plausibility, and then move on with my date and wait to see what happens. |
Yeah, time will tell. I just look at the 16GB rumor, and it makes too much sense not to be true. I do think that 16GB will equal $60 break-even point, and that's a huge issue. It makes sense looking at the pricing for 3DS carts and factoring in prices going down a bit over the years. 16GB seems like where $60 would be at right now if 4GB landed publishers at $50 just a few years back.
If the standard really is 32GB, which we have less reason to believe than 16GB rn, that's more salvagable. My concern is the price scaling specifically, so that would mean that 64GB carts would cost less for publishers than they would other wise. It's still a major issue because no matter how cheap they are, they'll always be more expensive than disks, but maybe the Switch's success will brute force them into submission there. I doubt it, but who knows.
And I stand by my prediction that physical will be gone from video games in 10 years. Maybe five. Switch messed everything up.
