Nintendo NX: Game cards vs Blu-ray

[Anon_Fire]

This has been turning into an ongoing debate on what the Nintendo NX's medium could be. Rumors have going rampant that the NX could ditch the disc drive in favor of game cards like on 3DS. But, it's also drawn some skepticism that it'll be the N64 all over again. In this day in age, we're at the point where the PS4 and Xbox One can't read all the data on the disc and resorts to mandatory installs which eat up space in the hard drive. Also,


While I do understand that discs are still dirt cheap to make, the disc readers in both consoles aren't fast to read the data stored on the disc. If the NX does use game card like a potential 32GB or 64GB card, there's less moving parts and less wear and tear. Not to mention no mandatory installs.

[blace]

With how cartridges are now they're easy access to information, small out of the way design and is able to store large amounts of information upwards of 64GB, possibly more in the future. Flash drives have already achieved the 128GB of storage some time ago, but that's not too far fetched with the incremental changes we've been seeing. Prices have dropped on them as well since 32GB cards can be bought at $20 instead of the $60 tag it had nearly five years ago. There's the degradation of the moving parts that come with time due to use for optical discs, making it not ideal when attempting to go back and play it at a later date. Only downside to moving away from discs would be the capacity, seeing how Blu-Ray discs can hold as much as 50GB while the supposed trademark filing being made with a company that produces cartridges that only hold upwards of 32GB.

Most of the rumors for the NX come from recent copyright filings that show that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been shown as a trademark and will be distributed as both optical media and cartridge based media. Who knows how valid this is? I know it's been rumored for a long while, about as far back as when the "leaked" images of the NX controller based on an image used in another trademark filing.

[Anon_Fire]

You pretty much nailed it, blace. Yes, you're right that cartridges allow the game information to be accessed instantly, but if Western Third-parties like EA or Ubisoft don't see the benefit of today's game cards, they are obviously over budgeting when it comes to making AAA games. However, could a 64GB card handle a game like GTA5?

[blace]

If the rumors are to be believed, it'll definately be something third party developers will take into consideration when it comes to cost and maximizing their profits. In terms of speed, it'll vary from game to game. Take the Vita, accessing game data from the cartridge can be as lengthy as an optical disc, while the memory card has faster load times. The same is attributed to the 3DS where the data being read from the cartridge is a fair bit slower than the memory storage required for updates.

There will be downsides for having a different storage medium, but if it comes down to just cost, discs are the best way to handle that as they're easier to mass produce than the assembly of a cartridge.

[Anon_Fire]

Maybe so, but eventually it's going to get to the point that the Blu-ray disc on PS4 and Xbox One with all the mandatory installs is going to get repetitive and unnecessary that it will eat up hard drive space. That's why console gamers aren't ready for an all digital only space yet. Not to mention that the PS4/Xbox One are not touted to be like PC's. While I do understand that cost is more reasonable, the problem is how much longer can it last and will there be disc drives fast enough to read 50+ GB Blu-rays.

[blace]

Sony is, more or less, taking a bit of an initiative by allowing the ability to swap out pre-installed hard drives for larger capacity drives. It has happened with the PS3 and currently PS4. Not sure what the case is with Microsoft regarding it other than having the game bought for XB1 be downloadable and playable on PC's with Windows 10 installed. With how fast things are progressing, optical media may phase out much like DVD's have and VHS before that.

May not be the answer to the growing demand for games with higher detail and larger environments, but with how Sony and Microsoft are handling large game sizes with mandatory installs, it will become more than just an inconvenience in the future.

[Anon_Fire]

Well, good luck to Sony if for whatever reason their Neo doesn't support higher capacity hard drives. Games are getting way too big and too expensive for their own good and while 4K may one day become the norm, the third party developers won't have much long to live if it's just about resolution and eye-candy and not worrying to make the games playable and fun. Nintendo's games always look good because of art-style and what they think looks nice. Also, if the Neo or Project Scorpio don't have faster disc readers, the mandatory installs are going to bite Sony and Microsoft hard.

[blace]

That is something that's already happening now actually, some games take the entire day to install just from the disc and aren't even playable until it's finished installing completely. I know that Sony and Microsoft are taking initiatives to get people to buy from their online stores, but they're on the clunky side of being able to manage the menus and the download times when connecting to their servers.

Nintendo gets away with some decisions like having the Wii U running at 720 resolution sizes and leaving out some of the clutter, works out fine, but every so often the game looks muddy with its low resolution textures. Take either Splatoon or Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, both games look fine from afar, but running it on my 42 inch tv, they do look fairly low res and pixelated with the jagged edges from having a low poly count.