By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Prediction: "Cartridges" will return for the Nintendo home console

DanneSandin on 21 May 2015
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



I'm on Twitter @DanneSandin!

Furthermore, I think VGChartz should add a "Like"-button.

Around the Network
homer on 21 May 2015

It's going to come down to price. The thought of buying one cartridge and being able to play it on two devices sounds nice, but if having a bluray drive and producing blurays is cheaper, Nintendo will have a bluray drive in the NX console. Cross compatibility for all games can be accomplished by other means anyways. For example, a free digital copy for the other device could be included in every new physical purchase of a game. A NX cartridge player isn't out of the question either.

Ultimately, any potential advantage to using the same medium for both systems is a distant second to price.



"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." -My good friend Mark Aurelius

fleischr on 21 May 2015

I like it!

If they do bring the cartridge back, they should bring back Paul Rudd to do the commercials!



I predict NX launches in 2017 - not 2016

Pavolink on 21 May 2015

Interesting theory, althought I expect them to push even more the online channel.



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


sales2099 on 21 May 2015

Nintendo is a tad out-of-touch with the consumer. So your theory makes a lot of sense ;)



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

Around the Network
zorg1000 on 21 May 2015

GBA game cards could go up to 32mb

DS game cards could go up to 512mb

3DS game cards can go up to 8gb

16x improvement each generation so the next handled game cards could potentially go up to 128gb



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

DanneSandin on 21 May 2015
RolStoppable said:

 

DanneSandin said:

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

If you want to know where Nintendo is going, then you have to listen to what they say instead of looking at the current market performance. If you focus on the latter, then yes, it looks like Nintendo has absolutely no clue. But it's a mistake to do that.

I didn't suggest 2GB of internal storage for the next handheld, I pointed out what the 3DS has. The next handheld will definitely offer more internal storage, plus 128GB SD cards don't have to be the limit as storage capacities improve over time. XCX is an exception for game sizes, not the rule. If you run worst-case-scenarios for the Xbox One and PS4, then these systems can't store more than ten games either. But we don't hear much about that being a problem.

They've talked the talk before but didn't walk the walk, if you know what I mean. Nintendo is really good and making things SOUND good, but then they don't deliver. I'd almost say it's naive to think Nintendo won't fuck up certain things about the NX/Fusion, but of course we don't know yet what those things could be right now.

Naw, I know you didn't mean that. All I'm saying is that you can't have all that much storage in a HH console, and that's why it might be a good idea to have that extra storage for patches and DLC on the actual game-card.

XCX might be the exception NOW for NINTENDO games, but I also think it's an indication of where game sizes are going. Just take a look at Bloodborne's download size; 41GB. It it only goes to show that certain games will need much bigger SD-cards. And I think the PS4/XB1 isn't the same things since they're stationary and you can easily hook up an external HDD with 1TB to them... that doesn't quitre work with a HH



I'm on Twitter @DanneSandin!

Furthermore, I think VGChartz should add a "Like"-button.

kayoss on 21 May 2015
RolStoppable said:
Platina said:
I'd like to see the return of cartridges too.. Faster loading times, smaller console size, etc..

But this move would be highly unlikely and would probably alienate even more 3rd part devs

You aren't Patrick Star, so you shouldn't live under a rock. Newsflash: Third party support can't get worse for a Nintendo home console anymore.

>

They can have a range of sizes and hardly any games would need as much as 32GB. In a lot of cases, 8GB or even 4GB would be sufficient.


If you're talking about media format for a console, 32gb is not sufficient enough. If you're talking about media format for a handheld then 32gb is more than enough.  Remember, a console have a life span of 6-10 years. You need to think about the progression of games and technology throughout that life span. Games developers are going after 1080p resolution this mean that you will need a format that can handle the capacity especially first party games. If you look at Sony first party games, the games are now are clocking in at 30-50gb. 

Games will get bigger through the life span of a console, this means that you will need a format that can handle that growth. By limiting yourself to 32gb max format, you will run into issue in the long run. A good example of this is the Xbox 360. They opted to go the DVD format, but near the end of its life spans, games for the xbox 360 are coming in multiple discs. If Nintendo go with a small format, they will be in the same situation as the xbox 360.



theprof00 on 21 May 2015

I think rather we are going to be seeing micro SD cards and downloadable games. I'm expecting a full mobile based console, one that can keep up with their mobile releases without having to rely on ports to the 3ds.



archer9234 on 21 May 2015
Yerm said:
i like this, i like it a lot, but lets push out "Nintendo" from the main focus. what about consoles in general and how it could actually be a huge benefit for everyone.---

-even MicroSD cards can hold up to 128GB of storage, and that dwarfs GTA V's 60 gig size.

-cartridges returning would mean no longer needing Hard Drive space for save files or to download data from multidisk games. imagine popping GTA V into a PC and playing it immediated with no downloads?

-i dont think single cartridges for multiple devices is possible, but price cuts for the little guys are definitely a go. maybe we could go back to the $50/$30 price range opposed to todays $60/$40...

What about patches? If a game has to keep being patched. And only a certain amount of memory is in the game. They can't do it. What about DLC? Halo's MCC patch was 20GB. So really the SD card alike would need to be 100GB. Than DLC has no place to be installed. You're forgetting the cost of a 128GB SD card. It's the sole reason why we still use discs today. Or BD would be SD cards too. The card alone would be 90%+ of the cost of the game. Games costs would have to rise to compensate for the cuts needed for the company and retailers.