Nintendo’s Next Console May Not Have A Disk Drive

Megalith

Megalith

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Oh, hey, Nintendo’s next console is going to lack something? Color me surprised. Okay, I’ll be a little more optimistic. I do like the idea of a game console that finally goes diskless, as one of the reasons why I game on them less often is because I’m just too lazy to put in or remove a disk. There is that annoying issue of hard drives filling up way too quickly, however.

Nintendo has filed a new patent for a device that many believe could be their next NX console, or at least have something to do with it. Spotted by NeoGAF, the official US patent shows a new hardware unit that looks like a game console, but is missing one very game console-like feature, a disc drive: “The example system is not provided with an optical disc drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disc,” the patent reads. “An example system includes an internal hard disc drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disc drive to perform game processing.”
 
The main thing I'd be happy about is the return of the faster loading. Every since they went to disk from cartridges it got longer and longer to start up a game.
 
No disk drive wouldn't be surprising. The PS4 and Xbox One almost didn't have disk drives either, this is going to be coming out at least 3 years after those consoles. It could cause issues with this new console after its supported lifetime, but I doubt anyone is going to care enough to not buy it.
 
No used games market for the next Nintendo console............not sure Nintendo has the online chops to handle a "all digital" distribution system and make it work smoothly world-wide, although this would be an enticement to developers....all of their games would be direct-sales, they'd never lose business to the used market........
 
Sounds like streaming games, which will just be worse. Enjoy your latency.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Translation, now you REALLY won't actually own any of the media you buy.
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This.

I'm so sick of this whole cloud based stuff.

Plug in a NES from the 80's, and guess what, it still works. You paid for it then, you paid for the games then, so you have them, and they work. It's sad to see this very basic concept does not exist anymore.
 
Considering that Nintendo has by far the worst online support, issues transferring content between consoles, and dial-up like download speeds I'll have no interest at all in a digital only Nintendo platform.

For everything else I've come to prefer download almost exclusively, but I have zero faith in Nintendo getting it right.
 
Why assume Nintendo is going cloud-only? None of their mobile consoles have ever used discs, yet none are 100% reliant on "the cloud." Sony, on the other hand...
 
carlbme said:
The main thing I'd be happy about is the return of the faster loading. Every since they went to disk from cartridges it got longer and longer to start up a game.
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Because games started getting bigger...

That aside, we had the same rumors for the ps3 generation and again for the latest. It isn't going to happen and if it did it would be suicide for Nintendo. We aren't ready for pure DD until data caps are abolished and that isn't happening for many years.
 
It still has a slot to place media. Maybe they are going back to cartridges. Maybe we can have co processors back too for those witcher 3 games that need the extra juice!!
 
sfsuphysics said:
Translation, now you REALLY won't actually own any of the media you buy.
Click to expand...

I've got news for you, we've never owned any software we didn't code ourselves. Read the EULA going back decades and you'll see that all software is the property of the publisher / developers and we always have used it under license. A license which can actually be revoked at any time if your in violation of the EULA.
 
I just hope that they don't cheap out on internal storage.
For a fully disk-less system, I'd really like to see 1TB, minimum.

It may sting a little to not be able to sell used games, especially since Nintendo games tend to hold their value more than others, but then again, how often have I wanted to sell my Nintendo games :D

Not having to store yet more digital media is a big plus. Hopefully, they find a way to make backwards compatibility (at least with games purchased digitally) to work.
 
Dan_D said:
I've got news for you, we've never owned any software we didn't code ourselves. Read the EULA going back decades and you'll see that all software is the property of the publisher / developers and we always have used it under license. A license which can actually be revoked at any time if your in violation of the EULA.
Click to expand...

yeah, i hated when the nintendo police showed up at my house to take all of my NES games, or disabled them remotely. :rolleyes:
 
Dan_D said:
I've got news for you, we've never owned any software we didn't code ourselves. Read the EULA going back decades and you'll see that all software is the property of the publisher / developers and we always have used it under license. A license which can actually be revoked at any time if your in violation of the EULA.
Click to expand...
I understand this, however decades back revoking a license means jack shit because I still physically held a copy of the actual software whether it be in cartridge format or disc.
 
DF-1 said:
yeah, i hated when the nintendo police showed up at my house to take all of my NES games, or disabled them remotely. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Software in a hard format becomes an item.

I think about all those tetris tengen cartridges out there. or worse yet. Zombie nation nes.

(i facepalm thinking about how valuable that nes game is for such a shit title that it is)
 
Or worse yet, when a game becomes unplayable because the servers to verify the copy are no longer present or online.

I don't buy downloadable games unless they can justify the price of not printing the disk and putting it into nice packaging that still holds some value.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Plug in a NES from the 80's, and guess what, it still works. You paid for it then, you paid for the games then, so you have them, and they work. It's sad to see this very basic concept does not exist anymore.
Click to expand...

Unless you want to fire up that copy of Zelda that had a battery that died years ago :p
 
Dan_D said:
I've got news for you, we've never owned any software we didn't code ourselves. Read the EULA going back decades and you'll see that all software is the property of the publisher / developers and we always have used it under license. A license which can actually be revoked at any time if your in violation of the EULA.
Click to expand...
This is meaningless though since you could do whatever you wanted to the software you bought (short of using it in some commercial product) and resell it elsewhere. Yes, you never owned the intellectual rights to the software, but you owned your COPY of the software, no matter what the agreement said. It actually doesn't matter what the parent company writes on the EULA, they can write anything, it only matters what is enforced in court. There's been a precedent of home ownership for digital media ever since it was held up that videotaping TV broadcasts onto tape was considered legal.

[quote="]I agree with you. Software in a hard format becomes an item.[/quote] Well, it USED to. Ever since we started having discs where it's only the install files and you still have to authenticate it online means that a physical copy doesn't necessarily mean anything either. A copy without online-DRM is the only one that means something.
 
I haven't placed a single disc into my X1, PS4, or Wii U. Never will. A video game system not including one is the good thing, IMO. Spend that couple of bucks elsewhere.

That said, Nintendo has, by far, the worst digital infrastructure of the three. If they really are planning to make a digital-only console, I hope they are going to put a lot of time into a proper system to make finding and accessing games easy.
 
viscountalpha said:
Or worse yet, when a game becomes unplayable because the servers to verify the copy are no longer present or online.
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This is an argument against DRM, not against digital ownership.

So I take it [H] is now anti-Steam, judging by these comments?
 
I highly doubt this rumor but its way more believable than when similar rumors were started about the PS4, please people Sony makes BR they were never going to skip a BR player.

From Nintendo's standpoint a major problem with the Wii U was its high cost, expensive touch screen controller, GPU, CPU, etc.... When the new consoles came out Nintendo had no price drop play available to them that wasn't going to cost them big time. So just like other console makers they are reacting to their last gen short comings. This time it wont be surprising to see a bar bones SOC type system and a return to a very basic cheap controller.

I wont be surprised if they make some cheapo flash memory based cartridge.
 
Terpfen said:
This is an argument against DRM, not against digital ownership.

So I take it [H] is now anti-Steam, judging by these comments?
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Can't speak for [H], but I've always seen Steam as a lesser evil in that regard. Reliance on a central server to play a game is always bad news for longevity, but Steam tends to have a low level of DRM that has already been cracked for most games, so if the servers went down, there would be a lot of options. Still, not a good precedent.
 
SD card equivalent is easily the solution.

That being, wtf kind of patent is that? How can you patent that?!? The patent describes a freaking computer from 25 years ago.
 
And honestly I'd love to see cartridges come back. It's been way too long since save games stayed with the game. Console break? Fuck your saved games. Don't have Internet access? Fuck your saved games.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Plug in a NES from the 80's, and guess what, it still works. You paid for it then, you paid for the games then, so you have them, and they work. It's sad to see this very basic concept does not exist anymore.
Click to expand...

And the games were better.
 
Terpfen said:
This is an argument against DRM, not against digital ownership.

So I take it [H] is now anti-Steam, judging by these comments?
Click to expand...

Yeah... this. Even back when the X1 first was announced with its DRM. All I could think was, everyone on here was outraged over the exact same thing that has been overwhelmingly accepted in the realm of PC gaming. Furthermore, everyone loves to bitch about consoles holding PC back, but then when a console tries to mirror the PC experience, nobody wants that either. I don't get it :confused:

I'd far prefer to not have to own a Nintendo console to play their games, but I've accepted that as reality. I'm not going to complain about them making it as PC like as they can.
 
westrock2000 said:
And honestly I'd love to see cartridges come back. It's been way too long since save games stayed with the game. Console break? Fuck your saved games. Don't have Internet access? Fuck your saved games.
Click to expand...

You haven't figured out how to backup your saves to usb? I mean unless you only have Nintendo it's pretty easy. Can't help you on Nintendo though, good games but shit hardware.
 
Viper87227 said:
Yeah... this. Even back when the X1 first was announced with its DRM. All I could think was, everyone on here was outraged over the exact same thing that has been overwhelmingly accepted in the realm of PC gaming.
Click to expand...
That's only because Steam has never been shut down. Meanwhile, Microsoft has already killed all online access for the original Xbox. Give them a few more years, they'll do it for it for the 360, and so on. Seeing other companies jump on the bandwagon will likely lead to more of the same. It creates an awful precedent.
 
darkpaw said:
Considering that Nintendo has by far the worst online support, issues transferring content between consoles, and dial-up like download speeds I'll have no interest at all in a digital only Nintendo platform.

For everything else I've come to prefer download almost exclusively, but I have zero faith in Nintendo getting it right.
Click to expand...
Ya I agree. Nintendo has enough problems as it is, rather than making things harder for themselves.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Translation, now you REALLY won't actually own any of the media you buy.
Click to expand...

Yep. No resell value for you old disk/games, and no ability to buy cheap used games.

Now if they started offering steep discounts on older games, then I'd have less of a problem with this.
 
Nintendo’s Next Console May Not Have A Disk Drive

MFW people fail to notice a "disc" is not a "disk"...
 
techrat said:
Nintendo’s Next Console May Not Have A Disk Drive

MFW people fail to notice a "disc" is not a "disk"...
Click to expand...

lol yea, i had to post to point out the obvious as well.

“The example system is not provided with an optical disc drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disc,” the patent reads. “An example system includes an internal hard disc drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disc drive to perform game processing.”

It's likely what will happen is that i'll be a very much slimmed down controller tablet, that'll be 100% optional for developers and be slightly better than the PS4 / Xbone.

My #1 peeve with my Wii U is the terrible hard drive limitation. Oh you can attach a SSD.... if its compatible with power requirements... but your're still limited to usb TWO POINT OH limitations.
 
tetris42 said:
That's only because Steam has never been shut down. Meanwhile, Microsoft has already killed all online access for the original Xbox. Give them a few more years, they'll do it for it for the 360, and so on. Seeing other companies jump on the bandwagon will likely lead to more of the same. It creates an awful precedent.
Click to expand...

I don't think the original Xbox is a valid argument. The original Xbox did not have full downloadable games. It didn't have a massive infrastructure of digital content. There was a handful of DLC, but that's it. Multiplayer on consoles was still just becoming commonplace then, and digital purchases were in their infancy (on console). At best, people we're being cut off from their small DLC purchases for games that nobody was playing anyway.

Even with the 360, full digital games, netflix, etc. weren't a thing until partway into the consoles life. Now, it's huge. You've got people with game machines who never play games with them. You've got people with consoles that will never see the disc drive used. And lets be honest, digital distribution is hugely advantageous to these guys. More control over pricing, infinite shelf life, no used sales. There is no doubt the big three want to make digital as appealing as they can, which isn't going to happen by disconnecting people from their libraries of paid content.

I really don't expect the 360 (or any console beyond that) to be shutting its doors to the internet any time soon. It'll probably happen eventually, but by then the console will likely be archaic, and nobody will give a shit other than that they can't dust off their old, broken console in 20 years to fire up an old game they were nostalgic about. Also, if MS continues to make significant progress with getting a previous generation of games up and running on their current console, that further alleviates the problem by allowing you to bring your library of games with you.

My point is, innocent until proven guilty, and the OG Xbox is a poor judge of things to come. Wait till a modern, internet-centric console goes dark, and evaluate how the situation is handled, before assuming your setting yourself up for digital only on a console.
 
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