Here is an article about how movies are beginning to be released on flash carts....

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/11/06/kingston_flash_movies/

System manufacturers should take a look at this for next-gen systems, especially Nintendo since they aren't trying to do the media center thing.  Imagine the benefits.

Portability, Durability, could use proprietary casing and encryption to cut down on piracy, insanely fast loading speeds in relation to the snail's pace that is Blu-Ray.  The minor price premium would be worth it.

I have had it with bad optics in gaming systems.  It's time that FLASH takes the field, and Nintendo is just the company to do that.

Carts forever!

I smell Piracy ......

piracy bad, very bad.

And in your strange world, if Blu-Ray drives were 10 times faster, the movies would be ..... 10 times shorter or what? The speed of the drive is chosen to match the bandwidth required. And the minor premium for a 50G Blu-Ray disk and a 50G memory card is not so minor..

blu ray drives are now faster.

I dont know, I think Nintendo will go with mini-blu rays for the next console, like how they did mini-DVD's for the Gcube

Yes, flash memory are many many times faster than anything on the disc media (USB3 is 2.8 gigabits, it lods windows vista in 23 seconds). As such I hope it takes over as fast as possible, they are far more reliable.

As for people who complain about prices, yes they are, but I also cn ge a 1 gig drive for cents. Give it time and it will be like the floppy vs. the CD. It's the next step in portability speed and reliability.

For those saying piracy, please re-read the post. I am not suggesting use of standard CF, MS, SD cards (etc.). I am suggesting use of flash chips in a proprietary casing and encrypted.

For those saying that Blu-ray is faster, no they most certainly are not. Find me a BR disc that has 4 nanosecond access time and high throughput and we'll talk.

@ drkohler... nice troll post. Reading and comprehension FTW! The faster access time is better for GAMES. I said nothing about movies. The link only showed that it was possible (and being considered for movies).

Furthermore, not all games need 50GB of space, so your point is moot, AND by the time next gen systems come out, 64GB flash units will be significantly cheaper than they are now. Please re-read the article and my post. Also, "in your strange world" it is aparently acceptable to bash a post without proper comprehension just because it posits a contrary thought... welcome to the internet.

and I can build a custom reader in about a few hours and come up with soldering hacks in a month or less for bypassing protection, not to mention there are guys much better than I am at that type of thing.

I'll admit that it's something I'd considered as a possibility, especially as I checked the price on USB pen drives. I don't see it happening for this immediately coming gen, but another gen out is a distinct chance. Even if digital distro starts taking off, I can see it going to a kiosk for print-on-demand games. I see the game store selling you the blank cartridge for some price, say, $40, and you can get any game from the kiosk onto said cart. Older games could even be given a special deal where a store could sell you said blank cart for $20, on the stipulation that you have to use it on a specific kiosk with older games, allowing for prices to drop.

And yeah, if digital falls flat or still isn't going off yet, then carts do offer quite a few benefits. I can't help but laugh at how its the cart-based systems that are durable as tanks...