Nintendo’s New NX Console to Go Retro With Videogame Cartridges

TOKYO— Nintendo Co. plans to adopt cartridges for its next-generation videogame console, people familiar with the matter said, a step that might prompt a reassessment of the old-school format.

The industry prefers optical discs when physically distributing game software because the discs can store large amounts of data and the cost per unit is low. Major game systems including Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One and Nintendo’s own Wii U use discs.

However, chip-based cartridges are garnering renewed attention thanks to fierce competition among semiconductor makers including Samsung Electronics Co. andToshiba Corp. to develop flash memory that can pack more data onto small chips at a lower cost.

Industry watchers said cartridges were a reasonable choice for Nintendo’s next-generation system, code-named NX, because the company targets a wider range of consumers than Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo’s core fans include small children, who might scratch discs but find cartridges tougher to damage. Cartridges also allow games to load faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced faster than discs, they said.

They are “no doubt today’s best format to physically distribute games,” said Atsushi Osanai, a former Sony employee who is now a visiting fellow at Harvard University.

A Nintendo spokesman declined to comment on whether the NX would use cartridges. The company has been tight-lipped about the system beyond saying that it would be unveiled by the end of this year. Analysts have said an announcement could come ahead of the Tokyo Game Show, which begins Sept. 15.

People familiar with the matter said earlier that the system would likely be usable both as a console with a television set and as a hand-held device that can be used on the go. Adopting a cartridge should help keep the device small for portability, the people said.

Nintendo’s popular hand-held 3DS device uses cartridges that are roughly the size of a large postage stamp.

The company has been tight-lipped about the system beyond saying that it would be unveiled by the end of this year. Analysts have said an announcement could come ahead of the Tokyo Game Show, which begins Sept. 15.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nintendos-new-nx-console-to-go-retro-with-videogame-cartridges-1472811942

Cartridges are awesome, they last forever.

If this means we wont have to install games onto our HDD to play them, then thats fantastic.
Nintendo wont have to ship the NX with a huge hard disk, so it ll help them too.

Im all for Cartridges makeing a comeback.

I like the idea of using cartridges. With the ability to write data to them it would be awesome if DLC and patches could be stored on the cart directly and not on the system.

Well, for what it's worth the latest (slightly nonsensical) leak from lets play videogames included a cartrige slot on their drawing. Also, we've heard this rumor floating around multiple times now, so it might be happening.

It's going to be interesting to go back to carts after all these years!

Not just only that, but if look at last few Nintendo consoles, Wii and GC, only thing that broke but time was optical drive, now without optical drive NX can basicly be unbreakable. :)

The fan on my gamecub broke once, but it was an easy and cheap repair. Hopefuly the NX will ditch moving parts.

The only issue with cartridges is space. However, if NX is, like the last rumors say, a handheld, I doubt they need more than 32gb, no matter how big the gam in question is. So, cartridges are a win-win situation.

I wonder how patches and updates would work. Plus DLC might be an issue.

Games can still recieve patches and updates and DLC. The 3DS had those, you just store the data on some time of storage.