LordRaptor
Member
Theres no indication of SSDs becoming standard out of the box storage on consoles anytime soon
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Nintendo Switch uses Cartridges
- Thread starter Captain Smoker
- Start date
Theres no indication of SSDs becoming standard out of the box storage on consoles anytime soon
EatinOlives
Member
There's a bunch of recent games that are pushing 40-50 gigs.
Salty Hippo
Member
Don't cards make a system easier to hack? Should Nintendo be worried about piracy?
RoadHazard
Gold Member
.
And then more than that with patches and content updates installed. Which wouldn't affect the game cards of course, but where do we store that stuff if this thing had no HDD but just a small-ish flash memory? Like I said, full-fledged current-gen ports seem unlikely on the Switch. Which I guess they are anyway due to the low performance it's bound to have compared even to the XBO.
The rumors have said 32GB or 16-32GB. No rumor has stated 16GB max.
Wasn't it because of uncompressed audio in every language and / or uncompressed textures? The only reason they're that big is because they can be. I'm sure Nintendo / Nvidia has compression in mind.
360 patches used to be limited to what, 5 megs? It would analyze and only send the differences, through. I have no idea what the hell devs are actually sending to the console, why would you require the player to redownload a ton of assets for a patch that doesn't add content? Companies are just taking broadband and cheap storage for granted nowadays, which, in my opinion, is incredibly disrespectful to players.
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
There are flash drives out there with more space than XBone discs
Interesting. Do you have any idea on what the read speeds are like on that ROM?
Their site lists this. However the 32 I/O suggests a parallel interface, meaning that it also needs a controller to make it show up as a block device and convert it into a serial bus, though I suppose they may offer a custom package that integrates both memory and controller on the same die.
TLZ
Banned
That's not even confirmed apparently :/
orthodoxy1095
Banned
There's a difference between using an open format like a Blu-Ray or SD and using some wasteful exclusive garbage like a Vita Card.
Lupin the Third
Member
I would hardly call the Blu-ray Disc format "open" but it is probably easier to get a license to produce Blu-rays than it is to develop for and order Nintendo Switch or 3DS Game Cards, I guess?
What's so wasteful about them? It's not like you can erase the contents of an unwanted Xbox One game Blu-ray and repurpose the disc. I guess the cart's PCBs might be a little harder to recycle... maybe?
MikeE21286
Member
I think they're gonna have to charge $60 since they're combining their handheldd and console business.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
On this point, I gave a spare blu-ray to my Two year old. Three months of playing frisbee with it, it was a bit dirty, but no major scratches (or any really) and once cleaned played fine. I was actually pretty impressed.
My guess is $40-$60 for most AA-AAA titles, with most of the bigger titles being $60. Smaller titles $20 and below.
Serious question, will using cartridges discourage 3rd party devs in any way? How much can you fit on one of those cartridges as opposed to a blu-ray disc? Will the Switch version of 3rd party games have to be 'gimped' in any way to fit, and/or will 3rd party devs choose not to support it perhaps?
Exactly. Weren't there 1TB SDXC (?) capacity cards unveiled not that long ago?
Theyre probably not far from being cheaper than a Vita 64GB card once they become more widely produced. (I realise they are expensive now)
Nintendo has always used a proprietary game card on their handhelds, I don't see it changing for this.
Type_Raver
Member
Carts/SD cards have faster transfer speeds than optical, meet and exceed optical storage capacity and theres no need to intsall a game to a hdd since the cards tx speeds are greater than optic.
Only hope there is write capacity on the carts for updates and DLC, otherwise then you will only need a hdd.
Edit:
In addition, if games are to be played on the go then you will need space on the handheld unit itself for dlc and updates. So either writable space on the game cart, or an sd card slot for this content.
Otherwise hotswapping from docked to Go mode wont work if the dlc/updates are on a local hdd in/plugged in the dock only.
Only hope there is write capacity on the carts for updates and DLC, otherwise then you will only need a hdd.
Edit:
In addition, if games are to be played on the go then you will need space on the handheld unit itself for dlc and updates. So either writable space on the game cart, or an sd card slot for this content.
Otherwise hotswapping from docked to Go mode wont work if the dlc/updates are on a local hdd in/plugged in the dock only.
What sizes it can support doesnt matter. Its the sizes that developers are willing to pay for. iirc the 3DS could support 8GB games but the vast majority of games were ~1GB or less because thats all developers had the budget for.
Louis Cyphre
Banned
I don't see how cartridges can be cost effective at all. How much do they pay per Blu-ray disk, a dollar?
I myself miss the old cartridges but because of the ratio of size/cost per GB that has to be passed onto the consumer one way or another. Unless there is some magical way to compress a 40GB game down substantially to a cartridge. Don't Blu-ray disks get bloated in size because of how the data needs to be accessed?
I myself miss the old cartridges but because of the ratio of size/cost per GB that has to be passed onto the consumer one way or another. Unless there is some magical way to compress a 40GB game down substantially to a cartridge. Don't Blu-ray disks get bloated in size because of how the data needs to be accessed?
shira
Member
It's unknown how patches will work.
If you have a 1GB patch will that patch be on the Switch memory or the cartridge.
Also cartridges cost more. Nintendo takes a cut.
Switches will probably have shit for storage (Maybe you can use SD card) so if you have a big game cartridges are probably the main solution.
NurseRedHeart
Member
I don't mind too much eitherway though this does mean the game cases will be much smaller and more can be displayed on a shelf.
NOLA_Gaffer
Banned
Optical media and portable systems don't really get along though...it's not like they had a choice here.
They can and they will
They should call them tapes
Patch will use system, having that much rewritable space on a cart will drive up the cost by a lot.
Let this be a third generation of cases with the DS case dimensions. Doesn't work as well for home console people but would look fantastic for us primarily portable ones =p
When the Cart rumour first dropped a gaffer pointed out that using carts over Disks would save greatly on packaging and transport costs.
That will help keeping the profit margains high. It will obviously cost more then bluray but not unreasonably more.
Its also worth noting that samsung has 512GB SD cards with SSD read/ write speeds. They are far too pricy for the regular consumer. However for the wealthy customer they are just as good as having a full sise SSD.
That will help keeping the profit margains high. It will obviously cost more then bluray but not unreasonably more.
Its also worth noting that samsung has 512GB SD cards with SSD read/ write speeds. They are far too pricy for the regular consumer. However for the wealthy customer they are just as good as having a full sise SSD.
UnemployedVillain
Member
Or maybe games were small because it was a 400x240 screen and assets, which take up the most space, could fit in around 1GB. I very much doubt it had much to do with budget.
Also because it's all the developers needed...
sandkiller
Member
Really?
If I have to guess it's because Nintendo will take part in the game cards manufacturing process and will take a cut from that on top of the usual "game on our console" license cut, Nintendo having good time. Also there's no way the games are going to cost lower than $60 outside of the smaller AA market which almost doesn't exist anymore and Indie.
Ovek
7Member7
It's cool and all having carts back in a home -first- console and but I do wonder if the "dock" has a cart slot for easy swapping... It would be pain in the fucking ass if you have to fiddle with the cart cover flap eject the cart (I'm assuming you eject it like sd cards) on the "tablet" in its dock just to swap games.
D
Deleted member 20920
Unconfirmed Member
I haven't look closely at the released pictures yet but if they're smary it should be on the top of the console to make it accessible.
Anyway. The only downside I see is that carts seems to requre longer leadtime and possibly more upfront cost for devs, making restock of high selling games more difficult.
When the rumour came, didn't someone calculate that the cost increase is actually negligible?
Gavin Darklighter
Banned
Wouldn't it be ironic if FF7 Remake comes out for Nintendo Switch?
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Not really you think SQ is satisfied with the small dying Japanese console market
Patrick Young
Member
If I tell my Dad the Switch uses tapes, he might buy one.
Well that's why VII remake is targeting western market with trailers from the get go.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
That's true, the FF games also tends to sell the lions share in japan, FF13 sold 2 milion there, wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to expand that userbase in anyway they can.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
Wtf am I reading
Clearly not the whole thread, because I was corrected and backtracked on my specific statement.