>The financial statements of the company that provides Nintendo's ROM chips - used in both consoles and for 3DS game cartridges - have sparked speculation as to whether the upcoming Nintendo NX will drop the use of optical disc drives in favour of cartridges.
As spotted by Screen Critics, Chinese memory manufacturer Macronix is reportedly expecting an increased order of ROM chips from Nintendo, and company chairman Wu Miin made specific reference to the NX in his financial briefing (reported by Money-Link and translated by NeoGAF user Jim_Cacher):
"In the past, Macronix sales performance usually peaked at third quarter, while declined at the fourth quarter. However, Wu Miin pointed out that because Nintendo has announced that the new platform will be launched in March next year, orders should be placed in advance. Therefore, the operating revenue of Macronix in the fourth quarter may be as good as the third quarter."
>According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). Blu-ray also has the potential for much higher speeds, as a result of the larger numerical aperture (NA) adopted by Blu-ray Disc
Dominic Scott
Nintendo san noooooooooooooooooooooo
David Sullivan
The NX is a handheld with power just a tad below the Wii-U. People are gonna freak.
Colton Gutierrez
This would be awesome, if they do ROM chips. Way cheap, no moving parts needed in the console, no disc scratching, big storage, can be used for both console and handheld, LOAD TIMES DEAD KEK
I hope it's true.
Connor Thomas
Only way that would make sense is if the cart can be inserted into the home console and the handheld portion for portable gaming. Otherwise, if theres no handheld part, copying data from a BD to the internal HDD is a lot more cheaper and since everyone is doing it, Nintendo doesn't lose much
Adrian Thomas
>big storage
Well ...
Owen Wood
No BC, then?
Camden Scott
SONY BTFO MICROSOFT BTFO
THE TRUE NEXT GEN IS HERE, FOLKS
MORE DATA THAN A BLU-RAY
NO LOAD TIMES
NINTENDO DID IT THEY WON
Lincoln Powell
This rumor is old as fuck, come up with newer ideas to shitpost
Caleb Torres
Or you could just use a hard drive and install everything. It's both faster and cheaper. It's like consolefags don't even know how to use technology.
Jonathan Adams
Blu Rays go up to 50GB. Look at the cards in the OP image.
Dominic Ross
Digital only and the console fails before it's even officially revealed.
Hudson Phillips
>Nintendo deluxe model 32GB >Nintendo NX comes with 64GB >Improvement
Ryder Gray
Yeah, a digital only Nintendo console, what could possibly go wrong?
Leo Rogers
Lmao literally what are you even talking about, retard?
Nathaniel Brooks
Instead of paying $0.05 for a triple-layer Blu-ray, publishers will be able to pay $10 for a 64GB card. Brilliant!
This only makes sense for a portable device because the PSP is the only handheld ever to use optical media.
Ryan Jackson
They might do BC for digitally bought games. I'll feel like a million bucks cause I'm DIGITAL ONLY MASTER RACE
Julian Baker
Read the article, it's not the console that's going to be 32gb, it's the cardrige supposedly.
Wyatt Reyes
Yes, the cards in the OP cost at least 100x more to manufacture than a Blu-ray disc.
Jaxon Sanders
Sony has a tax for everyone but them using Blu-ray.
Parker Baker
>$10 for a 64GB card
$25 for 256GB Class 10
Gabriel White
Triple-layer isn't a thing
James Turner
Not gonna happen if it's a console. But we still don't fucking know if it's a console or handheld how is that even possible.
Samuel Foster
That would be great. Discs are too big, I want GC sized Blu Ray discs.
Nathaniel Johnson
You can install from a disc, you know.
Colton Cooper
No they don't, Sony doesn't even own Blu-ray. It's owned by a consortium of companies. Even then, you don't have to license Blu-ray movie playback. Publishers would be much happier with Nintendo eating the small hardware cost of Blu-ray. These are the same people that wont' even use h.264 in games because it costs them $0.02 per copy of a game sold. Instead they opt to use Bink which blows dick because it only costs $8000 per game game developed. Where is a 256GB SD card available for $25?
yeah just like the PC guys, all of its content is digital no wonder PC gaming is dying
Wyatt Wilson
Yes it is, that's what the new 4K Blu-ray supports. 100GB triple layer discs.
Jacob Fisher
>Where is a 256GB SD card available for $25?
I couldn't find, I was thinking about the 64GB one
Adrian Taylor
$10 dollars for fewer load times and 5 times the memory, such a fucking ripoff
Kevin Perez
Reminder that the hardware isnt the best in 3Ds
Dylan Roberts
>100GB triple layer discs. >He thinks anyone is naive enough to believe such a thing >mfw
Nolan Carter
>implying drones differentiate between load times and seek times.
Liam Harris
>512 GB SD card What the fuck happened? I remember that shit holding 4 GB at most with garbage R/W speeds.
Robert Baker
Can we stop confusing stuff like SNES cartridges with memeory cards?
Because it's fucking annoying how people do it all the time
When you copy a thousand pics from a micro sd to your pc, stop it happen instantl? No? Thwn there is no non-existant load time. Every 3ds and Vita game has loading times, some are worse than on-disc games
Yes, I'm fucking mad
Jordan Wilson
Gramps please, times are changing.
Gabriel Sullivan
It's a real thing, are you fucking with me?
Colton Butler
I was expecting someone retarded enough to bring PC into that discussion.
Kevin Morris
Isn't this what Sup Forums would love to happen? Have cartridges back?
And honestly, since there are fucking SD and micro SD cards that have a SHITTON more space than your average CD/DVD/Bluray, I'm surprised people haven't hopped this bandwagon earlier.
And it'd solve the loading times issue too.
Yeah, there's the whole expenses shit ordeal, but surely, there must be a way to make them affordable? It can't be THAT hard.
And people would trust games on other people's hands, knowing it won't be scratched beyond help.
Blake Carter
Yeah, to not have load times the NX would have to use cards with like 500MB/s read speeds. At 100MB/s there would still be noticeable load times if the system has 8GB of RAM or more. The upgraded hard drive in my PS4 hits around 100MB/s of sequential read speeds yet shit can still take 30 or more seconds to load. The only difference with flash memory is that there isn't any time wasted seeking on the drive.
Hudson Campbell
>let's repeat the mistake that nearly ruined our company 20 years ago What did Nintendo mean by this
Charles Martin
>And honestly, since there are fucking SD and micro SD cards that have a SHITTON more space than your average CD/DVD/Bluray, I'm surprised people haven't hopped this bandwagon earlier. They also cost more than the actual game. In a $60 game, the blank dvd costs less than $1. If you put the game on a $30 SD card (remember that you need a good one if you want fast reading speeds, not a chinese noname), you're looking at $90-$100 games.
Camden Stewart
Bait, the post
Dominic Wilson
Compare the size of current games with those from the snes. Superior seek and load times don't mean shit when you have to wait for everything to get processed by the system.
David Morris
Nintendo hipsters don't know the difference between memory card and cartridges
it's pretty 2016
>And it'd solve the loading times issue too.
Memory stick games have loading times :)
Connor Parker
>SHITTON more space than your average CD/DVD/Bluray Yes, at SHITTON more cost per copy of game. Game development is expensive enough as is, now you want publishers to spend $10 to manufacture each copy of the game? >And it'd solve the loading times issue too. Not if the NX has the same amount of RAM as the PS4 and Xbox One. The fastest SD cards currently read at around 100MB/s. With an SSD in the PS4 you can still get read speeds of around 3x that, and guess what. You still have noticeable load times. >Yeah, there's the whole expenses shit ordeal, but surely, there must be a way to make them affordable? It can't be THAT hard. You're kidding right? Flash memory will never be cheaper to manufacture than optical media.
Dylan Ross
Nintendo loves making new consoles out of industrial discards found there and there. Anyone expecting a competition for hardware is really delusional.
They're going for the gimmick. The question is, will said gimmick convince everyone enough (aka it doesn't matter if it's shit) into buying the NX like the DS and Wii managed to?
Isaiah James
Rumor: NX DOA "Why are we making this thing again?" Said CEO Kimishima.
Colton Garcia
>You're kidding right? Flash memory will never be cheaper to manufacture than optical media.
It's going to be cheaper in Nintendo fan minds. They have to have something to dream.
Matthew Jones
No lie, if they have actual chunky plastic cartridges ala pre GCN, I'm completely sold.
Liam Williams
I making a thread like this in 2012.
Benjamin Garcia
Fuck yes. Cartridges are better for collecting. We 1996 again. Is it possible that my wishes will come true and 2017 is the year of Nintendo and Trump?
Robert James
>The question is, will said gimmick convince everyone enough (aka it doesn't matter if it's shit) into buying the NX like the DS and Wii managed to?
As long as they have hipsters shilling for their shit, it will sell.
Ethan Perry
Bitch please, we're behind schedule.
Jace Price
This actually makes a lot of sense with what we already know.
They've merged the handheld and console hardware divisions and we already know this was part of a concerted effort to make sure that in the future the two would be like "brothers in a family of systems" similar to how devices of different size and power can run the same software with iOS and Android. This was in aid of reducing software shortages by combining the library of the portable and console markets, essentially finding a way to leverage Nintendo's dominance in the handheld market to boost support for their home consoles.
Nintendo's handhelds have always used cartridge media, and now that that media has become cheap and high-capacity enough to compete with discs, it makes perfect sense as part of their strategy of merging portables and consoles that they'd be using the same media type for both.
What this will basically mean is if you buy a game, you'll be able to put it in either your handheld or your console.
Cartridges are a much cooler form of media to collect games on than discs are on top of that. Sounds good to me.
Hudson Cox
>that media has become cheap and high-capacity enough to compete with discs
Find me a 25GB SD card for 0.98 cents (the price of a Verbatim Blu Ray)
Nolan Moore
Enough to compete doesn't mean it's equivalent.
Liam Morgan
>VR only lifeforms
That's a fancy name for what nowadays we call "anime grills"
Justin Hill
Going back to cartidges Pros:
>Smaller form factor >Faster load times >10x more durable
Going back to cartidges Cons:
>No BC >All hope for a Nintendo console that can just play some goddamn DVDs is dead
Eli Gomez
Because its a handheld hybrid
Benjamin Harris
In the future is going to be possible to pirate PS4 and Xbox games and the price of the blu ray writers is lowering each year
I'd rather have my Blu ray backups/pirated games than stupid Memory Stick games
Kevin Carter
>and now that that media has become cheap and high-capacity enough to compete with discs, it makes perfect sense as part of their strategy of merging portables and consoles that they'd be using the same media type for both. DVD's are piss cheap as are Bluray's now that the latter is not new technology. Cases for both are standardized and also piss cheap.
Aaron Miller
>Enough to compete doesn't mean it's equivalent. Enough to compete doesn't mean 20 times the price of a blu ray.
Levi Nelson
>play some DVDs Who fucking cares? Who doesn't have a DVD/bluray player already if they actually want one? Fuck that, I want game consoles that are game consoles, I don't want these all-encompassing "media platforms" that end up just being shittier versions of my PC.
Julian Edwards
>2016 >implying anyone uses DVDs/blue rays
Brandon King
>Enough to compete
SD 64 gb Sandisk = $20
TDK Blu Ray Dual Layer 50GB = 0.99 cents
Liam Brooks
Bruh, we know it's cheaper to use BD, we all fucking know it, but that doesn't necessarily make it better or the only choice.
Josiah Brooks
>No BC This is inexcusable, especially for a Nintendo system. >All hope for a Nintendo console that can just play some goddamn DVDs is dead If you don't already have a device that can play DVDs you're beyond destitute.
Jaxon James
just as retarded as the comments saying it will die because it will be digital only
Robert Sullivan
>Who fucking cares? Who doesn't have a DVD/bluray player already if they actually want one? You realize there are some people in the world who don't have that much disposable income? A games console for many is a multiple-use device, you fucking clueless basement dweller.
Jack Campbell
Nobody cares about the opinion of a filthy piratefag that doesn't contribute at anything so
Josiah Stewart
Nintendo has never had BC on their cpnsoles. Never. Online store doesn't count. Even on their handhelds it was rare when all totaled.
Asher Martin
But hey It's just a theory....
Brody Torres
no one cares about poorfags
Ethan Harris
>but that doesn't necessarily make it better or the only choice.
It's cheaper
Also
>The new 4K Blu Ray is 108Mbps for 66GB discs, and 128Mbps for 100GB discs
So yes, it's better.
Dylan Jenkins
vWii isn't an online store.
Aiden Walker
>but that doesn't necessarily make it better or the only choice. AHAHAHA The cheaper widespread format isn't preferable to what is literally a snowflake gimmick technology in 2016?
Lucas Anderson
but we already knew this
Christian Gomez
Sounds to me like you are comparing the price of buying a single SD to the cost of manufacturing a single disc.
N64 carts cost about $15 to manufacture, and that cost will have significantly lowered now.
Obviously bluray discs are still much cheaper, but solid state media is cheap enough now that it can compete, as proven by the success of the DS/3DS compared to disc based competition.
David Perez
a gay theory
Isaiah Perez
We won't have BC even if they go for Blu-ray. Nintendo need to make a new architecture, so unless they go full retard BC will be dropped.
Durability is a disadvantage. People don't account for durability at all when they buy games, however, it would reduce the number of games breaking, and thus the sales. Pure disadvantage.
You also forgot the price as a disadvantage, probably the biggest one.
Hudson Sanders
doubt it
SD cards cost a hell of alot more to produce than disc based media
Evan Phillips
>wii plays gcn >wii u plays wii >gba plays all gb games >ds plays gb >3ds plays ds nintendo never has BC!
Ryder Jackson
I love MatPat he's awesome and a huge faggot :3
Sebastian Turner
sure there will be but you will have to buy super mario 3 for the 12th time
Wyatt Bennett
The advantage of flash memory is that you can just bring your cart to the store and load up the game. This removes another issue with downloading games, and will lead to a digital only future. This is why publishers were said to be expressing interest.
Nintendo did the same shit with the FDS, so they already have proof that the concept works.
Aiden Roberts
This is a good thing. If they get rid of the dvd / bluray drive, then they can put more graphics in the console.
Andrew Moore
yeah dude, Remember when the Wii couldn't play Gamecube games, what fucking bullshit was that
Bentley Martinez
>filthy piratefag
I may use the pirate "technology" for backups so yes, I want to be able to have my PS4 and Xbox backups and play them
:)
Charles Lopez
Nigger you can buy a bluray player on amazon for less than the cost of a video game. If you can afford to buy an NX and games for it then you have already bought a bluray player if you want one.
Jonathan Cox
also GC and super nintendo played gameboy
Eli Wright
>so they already have proof that the concept works. Was the Famicom Disk System actually successful? They never attempted it again and it never left Japan.
Christopher Richardson
Hope that dude was baiting because he should be feeling pretty stupid right now
Asher Hall
>as proven by the success of the DS/3DS compared to disc based competition.
What's the size of a 3DS game?
The success of 3DS have nothing to do with its medium storage
stop trying to jew me
Jeremiah Perry
>literal retards incapable of even conceiving of the notion that other media formats are possible much less plausible as technology advances
These same type of arguments were made by people saying going to discs is a huge mistake and carts were never going to be surpassed. Good job getting left behind on the march of technology yet again, mongos.
Luke Edwards
>This is a good thing. If they get rid of the dvd / bluray drive, then they can put more graphics in the console. Literally what. The amount of money saved by not putting in a DVD drive will not increase the specifications of the hardware at all.
>N64 carts cost about $15 to manufacture, and that cost will have significantly lowered now >low demand >uncommon format >it's somehow cheaper