There is nothing really special about a cartridge that separates it from a USB drive. It makes a lot more sense to pack a game into a USB 3.1 drive as the transfer rate will be several magnitudes faster than a Blu-Ray disc. Cost still remains prohibitive, but not at the state it was at 8 years ago. You can get an 8 GB USB drive for incredibly cheap. Not as cheap as a DVD, but close enough to warrant the expense for better playability.
If they were to go this route, I would think they would try to prevent a simple copy like a simple usb would allow. There is an insertion rating issue that would likely come into play. It is doable.
You would think doing everything digitally would be an advantage over shipping physical devices. Then again if I knew what I was doing I would be running a major studio.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
Huh, yeah I'm on board with the cart storage idea. I like that, especially for a Nintendo system as it's very nostalgic! But yeah, I also would like the faster to load/install games thing compared to the now "Console Traditional" DVD/Blu-ray option.
Are there still significant benefits to cartridges (besides durability)?
Good question. I think for a developer and publisher the piracy issue is a factor? It seems it would be harder to pirate a cart than a disc. Perhaps the speed the machine accesses the gaming info as well. If I remember right Carts, though expensive for their time, where faster than discs. Now carts could be based around flash memory and hold even more data than a disc could. Even a Blu-Ray disc. Not sure if that is the case or not though. I will allow more informed readers enlighten us
This was my thought on it as well. At first I was like, ew cartridges, but after thinking, a flash based solution would be far and away the better media choice as far as speed goes for access and load times. It might also require less data being stored on the internal hard drive as well if not eliminate it completely, reducing the rate of failure of the system. Piracy will be a concern either way, but with flash based cartridges, you get proprietary formatting on the cartridge itself, plus encryption of the data itself. It might not turn out to be a bad way of doing things.
Weren't cartridges limited by a battery inside that would render the game obsolete when the battery died? Maybe they corrected that since old ds games can still be played very well on 3ds without that longevity issue. Maybe that was just in the NES/SNES/older era. Im OK with cartridges as long as NX plays WiiU games or they port that library to NX (physically, not virtual console).
EDIT: Or maybe that OP screenshot refers to Zelda potentially making its way to 3DS?
Comments
Are there still significant benefits to cartridges (besides durability)?
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
You would think doing everything digitally would be an advantage over shipping physical devices. Then again if I knew what I was doing I would be running a major studio.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
EDIT: Or maybe that OP screenshot refers to Zelda potentially making its way to 3DS?