More rumours that NX will be cartridge based.

[Master Disaster]

There's been rumours flying around for a while that NX will use cartridges over optical media, these rumours stem from a statement made by Nintendos flash cart manufacturer. 

 

Well yesterday a guy over at Neogaf made a new discovery about the new Zelda game. Nintendo always patent their cart based titles as video game cartridges and their disc based games as video game discs but in the case of Zelda they patented it as both video game disc and video game cartridge, remember we already know Zelda will come to both the Wii U & NX when it launches. 

Quote

In the final months before the NX is formally unveiled, the once hyperactive rumor mill seems to have ground to a halt. In a way, it’s been a nice change of pace, as most of the rumors that came along turned out to be admitted hoaxes or didn’t have much informational basis to begin with. It’s a combination of those two factors that makes a newly surfaced piece of information about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Nintendo NX a bit more intriguing.

 

NeoGAF user Atheerios, an enterprising trademark detective, noticed something peculiar about Nintendo’s U.S. trademark for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Under the Goods and Services section of the newly filed trademark, both video game discs and video game cartridges are listed. This stands in contrast to all other Wii U software trademarks, where only video game discs are mentioned.

 

Since the new trademark applies to both the Wii U and NX versions of Breath of the Wild, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that “video game cartridges,” in this case, applies to the NX version of the game. Of course, there’s also the chance that it’s just a catch-all approach to this new cross-platform filing, or even simple misdirection.

 

This isn’t the first NX rumor that has hinted at the use of cartridges for Nintendo’s new system. In early May, Micronix – the company that provides Nintendo’s ROM chips, divulged some order information that could also be pointing toward cartridge-based software for the NX.

 

As far as rumors go, you can do a lot worse than hard data from a trademark filing. But until Nintendo reveals anything officially, we’ll continue to call this one speculation.

http://nintendoinquirer.com/blog/2016/06/24/evidence-points-towards-cartridge-based-nx/

 

Considrering Nintendos penchant to gimmicks I'd be inclined to believe this one. Having NX Cart based means instant loading of games which solves a fairly large complaint by console users, load time. Given Nintendo has never supported video or audio playback the lack of these features on a new console likely wouldn't bother Nintendo fans and I can see instant load being a huge selling point, that's assuming Nintendo can get 3rd parties to agree to develop for a Nintendo controlled proprietary flash system. 

[Maslofski]

i just imagine a few usbs glued together

[AresKrieger]

I mean ninetendo never wanted to leave cartridges, they only did so due to the capacity of discs. Also cartridges have held up alot better than discs for me over the years so I would welcome that change if the rumor is true

[xentropa]

They will use 3d nand?

 

Inb4 cartridges become locked to consoles and goodbye to the secondary game market.

[AlexGoesHigh]

Wonder if a 32gb (or even 64gb) flash chip is cheaper that a double layer blue ray disc, if it is that could be the reason.

[IGJoe2192]

Well, if the cartridges are using a form of flash memory, wouldn't it be faster than trying to read crap from a disc? 

[ivan134]

I'm okay with this. Discs need to go the way of the dinosaur. 

[GoodBytes]

The advantages of cartridge are:

• Durability
• Boost confidence in use game market (don't have to worry about damaged or scratch disc that might cause issue during gameplay)
• Speed
• Variable capacity
• Although, VERY unlikely due to the small size they are probably going with, include hardware add-on system like the SNES days, where they added a chip to basic 3D, or other visual 2D accelerated effect, like Mode7)

Disadvantage

• Cost (Third party will not like this)
• Supply issue possible

 

For Nintendo to use cartridges, means that the NX will be mobile component.

[terrytek]

11 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

The advantages of cartridge are:

• Durability
• Boost confidence in use game market (don't have to worry about damaged or scratch disc that might cause issue during gameplay)
• Speed
• Variable capacity
• Although, VERY unlikely due to the small size they are probably doing with, include hardware add-on system like the SNES days.

Disadvantage

• Cost (Third party will not like this)
• Supply issue possible

 

For Nintendo to use cartridges, means that the NX will be mobile component.

so somewhat like a ds replacement?

 

16 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

I'm okay with this. Discs need to go the way of the dinosaur. 

completely disagree. discs should still be a thing, unless you're referring to consoles, then maybe so.

[BuckGup]

Hey it would be really cool if they did use them

[MoonSpot]

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

I mean ninetendo never wanted to leave cartridges, they only did so due to the capacity of discs. Also cartridges have held up alot better than discs for me over the years so I would welcome that change if the rumor is true

Hmm.  I was always under the impression that Nintendo moved to disc because developers jumped off their platform to playstation, discs being what devs wanted/needed.  Square being a big one then that flatout dropped Nintendo citing the medium as the reason.  At least that's more or less what I remember being reported in game magazines 20+ years ago.  Nintendo only adopted discs with the game cube in order to get developers back on their system.  End result is the same, but its a very different journey.  Certainly was one of the things that ended up cementing Nintendo as a kiddie only platform.

 

I've not personally experienced anything to suggest that cartridge is superior to disc, but I don't let others touch my games either.  I do have 2 Jamma B-board cartridges with dead batteries though, but those aren't(weren't) quite console games either.

[AresKrieger]

3 minutes ago, MoonSpot said:

Hmm.  I was always under the impression that Nintendo moved to disc because developers jumped off their platform to playstation, discs being what devs wanted/needed.  Square being a big one then that flatout dropped Nintendo citing the medium as the reason.  At least that's more or less what I remember being reported in game magazines 20+ years ago.  End results the same, but its a very different journey.  Certainly was one of the things that ended up cementing Nintendo as a kiddie only platform.

 

I've not personally experienced anything to suggest that cartridge is superior to disc, but I don't let others touch my games either.  I do have 2 Jamma B-board cartridges with dead batteries though, but those aren't(weren't) quite console games either.

Well yeah the third party support was a major reason, but third party concerns also included capacity since at that time cartridges were well behind disc media in terms of capacity and 3d games use up a lot more data, I'm sure porting wasn't easy either and a factor but I'm not sure oh how the n64 handled cartridge data to speak more on that subject.

[TrigrH]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

The advantages, Disadvantages of cartridge are: 

snip

+ The ability to have a physical updated copy of the game. (unless they make the flash read only RIP)

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

+ The ability to have a physical updated copy of the game. (unless they make the flash read only RIP)

I think its a pretty safe assumption they'll use ROM and have it read only for the actual cart with a seperate flash on the system to hold updates and such. Theres no chance they'll make the carts writeable and include writers with the system.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, AlexGoesHigh said:

Wonder if a 32gb (or even 64gb) flash chip is cheaper that a double layer blue ray disc, if it is that could be the reason.

It's not.

 

1 hour ago, IGJoe2192 said:

Well, if the cartridges are using a form of flash memory, wouldn't it be faster than trying to read crap from a disc? 

That depends on the quality of NAND and the controller. It might be way faster than a Bluray disc, and it might be way slower.

 

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

• Durability
• Boost confidence in use game market (don't have to worry about damaged or scratch disc that might cause issue during gameplay)

This sounds like you listing one benefit twice. I mean, it is more durable and therefore second hand games will be less likely to be damaged.

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Variable capacity

Won't be a benefit to developers, unless they plan to make their game larger than 128GB. For everything else they will just use as little storage as possible, and it will still end up more expensive than a BD. For gaming purposes, it will not matter. Kind of like how the top speed of a Bugatti Veyron being higher than that of a Golf is irrelevant for the soccer mom driving to the grocery store.

 

I would list the ability to write saved games to the cartage as a benefit.

[mjwitz]

I think this is good for nintendo as most of the games systems that have had cartridges did well and they are going back to what has worked for them in the past. As well as with the higher storage of at cartridge there could possibly be a lot of higher resolution textures. We all remember the large download GTA5 had and more games will be getting larger like that.

[suicidalfranco]

if it means slower loading times (which it will cause random access > sequential and flash > optical) add that with Nintendo's ability to not release bugged down games that require a day one update bigger than the game itself and have the cartridge read speed fast enough to render game install pointless, you go big N! you go right there and show the world what consoles are really supposed to be (easy, plug 'n' play, pop in cartridge start immediately playing, instant gratification, done)!

[ThinkWithPortals]

I hope they don't need blown on

[Notional]

 

Considering how cheap a 32GB Micro SD card is today retail, this could definitely be a possibility. As most Nintendo games aren't graphically demanding, most could probably be on a 16GB card at that.

As this would make the unit smaller/cheaper than having an optical drive, while providing quieter operation as well as increased speeds, I can definitely see this happening. Good on you Nintendo for once again showing the way.

[Bcat00]

I miss the n64 era, goods times.

 

i've already made up my mind to purchase the nx regardless of how it does because lets be honest, if it flops like the wii u this time around, nintendo will go down!!!

 

as a die hard fan of the n64, i really want then to succeed this time around.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, terrytek said:

so somewhat like a ds replacement?

Based on what we know, it will be a DS + WiiU device. So either:

• A portable system with a plug to connect to a station for second controller and TV output (maybe clock the CPU/GPU faster as well.. maybe)
• Or, a WiiU console design, but the WiiU GamePad is portable like a PSP. So you have a WiiU, and you have PSP in 1 retail box, that are designed to work together.

Second one is, to me, more likely, as it would solve 2 problems:

1. The reduction in gamers market interested in portable console (as the casual gamers are out, as they use their phone for that short trip entertainment)
2. No more game droughts, as the portable games will compliment the lack of non-portable games. This design will also save Nintendo a lot of money by not making 2 version of the same game. 1 game for both units. As now Nintendo is combining the sales of 2 platform as 1, basically, the sales will be so great, that third party devs cannot ignore the console, and will release their games to it, despite paying more for the cartridges.

But of course, all is 100% rumors, and it is speculation at work here.

[GoodBytes]

44 minutes ago, mjwitz said:

I think this is good for nintendo as most of the games systems that have had cartridges did well and they are going back to what has worked for them in the past. As well as with the higher storage of at cartridge there could possibly be a lot of higher resolution textures. We all remember the large download GTA5 had and more games will be getting larger like that.

You are still going to have that, in fact, if publishers cared, it disk would win hands down.

With disk, the publishers can ask to recycle everything, or ask everything back as they ship a new version of the disk, and swamp the disk. Disks doesn't cost much (unless it is a dual/triple layer Blu-Ray). But cartridges, you can't, especially if they use ROM chip. And even if they use 1 ROM chip and 1 writable chip for updates, you think that publishers will go to the trouble in recalling those cartridges and add the patch, even if they haven't printed the box yet? No. Much like disks.

 

[GoodBytes]

42 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

I hope they don't need blown on

Only the original Nintendo Entertainment System NES (not the Famicom, despite identical system/cartridges (most)) you needed to do this, and the problem was actually not the cartridges, but the contact system of the console, due to the way it takes the cartridge in. In fact blowing on the cartridge did nothing but worsen the problem, as while humidity did help in having a better contact with the internal pins, it did however, build rust. That is why Nintendo re-released the console "slim" version (if you want to call it that), refereed as the top loader, which had no longer this issue (unless your game contacts where rusted, due to you blowing on them).

 

Top Loader NES:

(also featured more comfortable controllers, based on the SNES design)

 

Typical NES cartridge inside:

(As you can see, it was mostly empty plastic, but the board side is the same as the Famicom cartridges inside. The exception was the very few games where you would save, it would have a watch battery inside).

[GoodBytes]

39 minutes ago, Notional said:

Considering how cheap a 32GB Micro SD card is today retail, this could definitely be a possibility. As most Nintendo games aren't graphically demanding, most could probably be on a 16GB card at that.

As this would make the unit smaller/cheaper than having an optical drive, while providing quieter operation as well as increased speeds, I can definitely see this happening. Good on you Nintendo for once again showing the way.

Except that videos (cut-scenes) will be nicely compressed compared to over consoles, and textures might get a hit as well. If they go with 16GB.

The 3DS has only 8 GB max in them (then again the game resolution is very low). And it was a complaint when the console was released by devs. The smallest size is 128MB.

So 16GB is possible. At least at launch, and probably introduce 32GB later (or be there, but be very expensive, so Nintendo games might use it, but not third party, unless they see they can sell their games at 70-80$ and the console is a huge success)

[Misanthrope]

Sorry but this is fucking stupid.

 

I'll qualify my statement: Optical media consoles in 2016 would also be kind of stupid as the media should be a back up for offline customers or customers in limited bandwidth situations but the main reason to go cartridge over optical is DRM.

 

Now IF they do a system where you can also get every single game digital only in addition to cartridges then I could be OK with it, still being kind of stupid but still....come we're not in 2003 anymore the push should be for all digital delivery.