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Nintendo Switch uses Cartridges
- Thread starter Captain Smoker
- Start date
Thatoneguy64
Member
Yes, but that 256GB SD card will cost you $80. The question isn't IF cards can get as big as Blu-Rays, but how big developers/Nintendo are willing to go given the cost of cards.
You can buy a spindle of 50 25GB Blu-Rays for $35.
A 16GB SD card will run you $9~ or a 32GB will run you about $12.
There's a HUGE price disparity between discs and cards. Cards are far more expensive. They can get just as big, if not bigger, than discs, but they do so at a major cost that is either eaten by the developer or passed on to the consumer. If games are staying at regular prices, you can expect them not to use very big cards; it wouldn't be prudent to give up that much income to card costs.
SD Cards have gotten cheaper. Totally. They're still not cheap enough to avoid imposing limitations on game size or cost. One of those two has to give.
chrisPjelly
Member
Neat! But I think the better question is; How the fuck are they going to handle harddrives?! Is the dock going to have a storage component of it's own, or are we going to be stuck with a small amount on the tablet itself?
3ds and vita cart only have minimum space for game save. Switch isn't going to have that Much space rewriteable as it would drive up the cost a lot
It's good to have dreams.
If you are getting a game like skyrim you will be looking at loading time
Cards don't solve this problem.
dead souls
Member
Hell, if the Switch gets devs to actually make reasonably sized patches it would be worth its weight in gold.
Patches are out of control this gen.
entremet
Member
As long as Nintendo remains committed to the Japanese market, which is their lifeblood still, I could never see them abandon physical media.
calc84maniac
Member
You have to install PS4 games from the disc for the very reason of making load times shorter, that's not really a valid comparison. Difference in processing power becomes much more relevant at that point.
Pimpbaa
Member
You are going to be very disappointed. Like I already said Vita and 3DS can have very long load times. Switch is going to have much bigger games than either of those systems plus a lot more ram to fill.
Not really. Digital is the future.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
This isn't true and I don't know why some people keep spouting it.
I don't mind not going to an all digital future, but a console should still provide solid options for people who choose that convenience.
Fuck yeah
ignorance, most likely. deriks probably hasn't used vita/3ds much
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Bruh I'm talking about installation, never had an issue with patches being primarily a pc gamer. Installation has no business on a console.
- Having to switch carts to play different games
- Having to bring all of your games with you to a friends house rather than have them digitally on your device
- No memory room for patches, updates or dlc
Sounds cool! It's like 1996 all over again!
tkscz
Member
Cartridges have no load times due to have their own source of memory. Cards are basically storage and don't have the type of memory Carts due. I wish it was using carts, but it isn't.
Umm... is that any different than using discs? You can download and install games to the Switch, hell, you can do it with the Wii U and 3DS, not sure what you're trying to get at. Also, DLC, Patches and updates would go directly on the system and upload to the game as it's being played. You know, how it worked with disc and card based systems of now.
We've been calling it cartridges since the very first gameboy tho.
Pimpbaa
Member
It is a valid comparison because we are talking about game load times.
Burning Justice
the superior princess
I'm all for it if it means I don't have to install games. I hate having to do that on PS4 and Xbox One.
Agreed. At the very least at launch there will be no dock-less option.
Surely, you realize that SSDs and HDDs are faster at loading than SD cards, right?
And both PS4 and Xbox One install games to SSDs or HDDs?
And that both PS4 and Xbox One still have load times?
And that most of Nintendo's first party games get very major patches today, often around release day?
And that even if Nintendo's own first party games didn't have day one patches, there's literally nothing about using carts vs. discs which would change that in either direction?
You really thing 128 won't have an impact on mass production expenses? Personally, I don't think flash prices have dropped quite that much. I expect 32 to be the standard size with 64 for some games, and maybe reach 128 by the end of the gen.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
You realise SD cards exist right
Yeah, I think 32-64GB is fine enough for now. That little pack is quite the fatty, so who knows how beefy they could get though..
Amazon sells 200GB micro SD cards for $74.
Games will be large, but I don't think most will get as large as the biggest PS4/XB1 games due to the Switch having less RAM, which means some textures will have a lowered resolution, which in turn reduces the game's footprint.
The dock also has some visible ports, so it's likely going to support external HDDs where you can "stash" games for playing on the TV.
Well, PS4 has a much faster processor and more RAM. You're comparing apples to oranges.
Given identical specs other than loading from flash memory or from a disc, it's flash all day everyday. Carts just win.
If you're talking about just Nintendo games, then sure. Or rather, then maybe.
calc84maniac
Member
But if we're comparing to running from a disc, it's not valid. Are we arguing about internal hard drive speeds vs Flash memory speeds here?
NeOak
Member
Games aren't coming on RAM sticks lol
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
I think right now you can produce cards 4x the size of a Bluray, I mean if we can do like 500gig in an SD card I don't think this should be particularly difficult. Also skyrim is a tiny game, the OG release was like barely 5gigs. I am guessing the remaster will barely push 12gigs.
What I am curious about is how data storage will be done, will save data get stored on consoles or the card? What about patches? What about DLC? That stuff could be really cool if it went straight to the cart and only had to authorize via NNID once. It would make worrying about storage almost unnecessary unless you're going digital.
They are excited because the cartridge was always a superior format.
They are nearly indestructible, can just be tossed in a bag or pocket without worrying about scratching them, and USUALLY have much faster load times. They can even have built-in storage, reducing (or even eliminating) the need for memory cards.
Plus it leads to quieter consoles... my Wii-U sounds like a Jet blasting off when the optical drive starts spinning (it was so annoying, I actually switched to digital to avoid it).
So, this was discussed a lot in the past and well, no more CDs, the Switch uses cartridges!
(First image / second row)
So I guess all the patents of detachable controllers finally make sense.
While it looks a little complicated at first glance it sure looks interesting.
Those carts look even smaller than the DS and 3DS carts, but CARTS RETURN!
PrinnyBomb
Member
Amazed they're using carts, really hoping it doesn't backfire on them because I much prefer it to discs
EDIT: oh snap I'm not a junior anymore
EDIT: oh snap I'm not a junior anymore
El Sabroso
Member
should be good if dock offers additional storage, and console unit has limited internal, so you can move games between dock's storage and console's storage to decide which games you can bring on the system when traveling or not being at home at all
Principate
Saint Titanfall
If these are 128gb cards like it looks like, I'm not even sure of the words to describe a developer that would actually do such a thing especially with the likely minimal in built memory.
friskykillface
Banned
How can that new Zelda game fit on that tiny tiny cart
0_o
0_o
Now that I think of it, where's the NFC reader, amiibo compatibility was confirmed but I don't see a NFC reader, maybe on a side of the console?
The thing will likely have USB ports, so there's that.
The thing will likely have USB ports, so there's that.
sixteen-bit
Member
isn't modern tech amazing?
I'm guessing that's what the two rectangular holes on the side of the dock are.
sixteen-bit
Member
Can these carts have expansion chips and co-processors like SNES games did?
Oye. There is so much bad information in this thread.
Lets step back - cartridges, as many are describing in this thread, dont exist anymore. Talking about the "no loading, fast access, expensive" storage mediums people keep bringing up. They work by physically addressing a eeprom, meaning tou have direct lines running from the console to every bit of digital (not analog) information on the cartridge. If I want to access, say, level 2 in mario, I point to address 0xblahblahblah and directly read it off the cart. The reason access is so fast, is because the area I am accessing is always addressed physically.
This is not how cd roms work. The reason cd roms are slow is because they are not directly addressed. Rather, you need to optically read data off the disc into a region of directly addressed physical memory called a cache to access it. The size of this cache is way, way smaller than the total size of the disc, and thus you must access all data in chunks. The time to read this data into cache is called loading time.
The way flash cards work - and ds games, and 3ds games, and assuredly switch games - is just like a cd rom. They have a small amount of cache on the card that is directly addressed that have lines running to a larger storage of flash memory that is accessed in chunks. To access the entire card, you need to load and unload in chunks, just like on a cdrom.
These do not mean "no loading."