Will the cartridge ever make a comeback?

Will game cartridges ever return?

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rigurat

Limp Gawd
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Will the cartridge ever make a comeback?

Do you think this kind of technology will ever return to game consoles, in say the next two console generations?

Solid state technology is advancing exponentially with increasing capacities, and lower prices, it's trying to be a replacement for the hard drive, it's already replaced the floppy drive (USB flash drive), but it hasn't (yet) replaced the optical disc drive.

I remember back in the N64 days, there were no loading times. Cartridges are also dificult to pirate.

Most people I know who have PSP's use a custom firmware and play the games from the memory card. I myself prefer this, and I even have an SSD for my PC. (on my own poll I voted YES)

Remember when parralel connections used to be king? We had PATA, PCI, the front side bus, and the parralel port, now they've all been replaced by serial connections.

Do you think the game cartridge will reemerge just as serial technology did
 
No, optical disks will be much cheaper to produce.

The advantages of them are to thwart piracy but the cost of making them is probably more than they lose to piracy.
 
In the next two generations, I wouldn't think so. I also agree with the cloud statement. At some point we won't be buying physical media for consoles. There could potentially be a cartridge return before this happens, however I wouldn't put money on it.
 
I don't see this happening. CDs are just so much cheaper to produce compared to cartridges.
 
Yes, next gen MS is not going to license BD from Sony. So they'll use some kind of flash based storage, put it on a marketable 'cartridge' looking device and sell that.

Optical media is dead (IMO).
 
I think we'll see disks being used through the next generation, but more and more things will head to an online delivery format of some form.
Hard disks are cheap and getting cheaper by the day. You can get a 2TB hard disk for less than $100 these days. That's a 20% drop in just the last year. That trend isn't going to change, so by the time the next consoles roll around those will likely be $50-75 and even larger drives will be in the $100 range.
With the internet still not being universal, I can see disks being sold, but installed with DRM this time around.
 
theNoid said:
Yes, next gen MS is not going to license BD from Sony. So they'll use some kind of flash based storage, put it on a marketable 'cartridge' looking device and sell that.

Optical media is dead (IMO).
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i can only see this happening if the cost of flash drops dramatically. and plus then Xbox would have to have some type of dvd player to be able to still play movies. i know they would like everyone to use zune marketplace but i dont see that happening
 
theNoid said:
Yes, next gen MS is not going to license BD from Sony.
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Sony don't own blu-ray (and nor do you licence from them, rather from the BD4C or similar licensing group), and I'd be willing to bet a decent chunk of money that the next gen xbox will have at least a BD-XL in it. Not that it would make a difference if Sony flat out owned it anyway. MS use / pay for loads of Sony tech, and vice versa. Fanboys don't tend to last very long in the world of business. ;)

Aside from that, assuming we see a new console before 2015, it'll be too early for a completely disk-less approach. Maybe the generation after that though.
 
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Sony is associated with Blu-ray among consumers due to there aggressive push using the PS3 and Sony Pictures, but they aren't even the biggest stakeholder. I think Panasonic, for instance, receives twice as much from licensing revenue then Sony.
 
caniba said:
It is a waste of plastic.
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what do you think dvds are made from?

right now the manufacturing cost of a 4gb sd card is close to the cost of making and packaging a dvd. the dvd needs a full plastic case, weighs more to ship, and takes up more space in a warehouse. plus if no one buys the games, they could rewrite the carts depending on what technology they use.

I would love to see carts return in a small size. load times would be so much faster if you get rid of spinning media. remember how long it took n64 games to load between levels? about 0 seconds. also the cost of the disc might raise games a couple $, however consoles could be made cheaper and smaller without needing a 5.25 inch disc drive in there.
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It will steer towards downloadable content. However, in failure of that, it is likely we will see flash media take over rather than BD I think.
 
All physical media (including Blu-Ray) are going the way of the dodo. I don't see a bright future for anything but digital downloads to a hard drive.
 
ocellaris said:
what do you think dvds are made from?
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Also a waste of plastic, I was talking about the old school bricks. SD cards would be better, but downloadable is the best.

I also agree that sd cards will overtake anything on disk, for those condemned to shitty/no internet connections.
 
caniba said:
Also a waste of plastic, I was talking about the old school bricks. SD cards would be better, but downloadable is the best.

I also agree that sd cards will overtake anything on disk, for those condemned to shitty/no internet connections.
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yea huge carts would be a waste :)

retailers would not like download only, and they re critical to moving units for any new console. the download only pspgo game cards did not go over terribly well. people still like buying tangible items and not download certificates. this will change, but not before the next gen consoles.
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I do see solid state type of storage being what games ship on.

Optical storage is actually quite stupid. It's cheap, that's about all it's got going for it.

In reality though, the technology currently exist that mixes memory and storage. Eventually, you will not have RAM and a Hard Drive. You'll just have one component that handles both.
 
Psychotext said:
Sony don't own blu-ray (and nor do you licence from them, rather from the BD4C or similar licensing group), and I'd be willing to bet a decent chunk of money that the next gen xbox will have at least a BD-XL in it. Not that it would make a difference if Sony flat out owned it anyway. MS use / pay for loads of Sony tech, and vice versa. Fanboys don't tend to last very long in the world of business. ;)

Aside from that, assuming we see a new console before 2015, it'll be too early for a completely disk-less approach. Maybe the generation after that though.
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Good points, and I do fully understand that each use/license tech from one another. I should have pointed that out, but thanks for clarifying about BD licensing.

All I know is its going to be interesting... this next round of consoles. I would guess that they will probably be the last generation of dedicated physical media machines. DD is going to be even more available next gen but the following gen after the next will likely be heavy on DD and limited physical releases.

And not because the consumer wants it. I believe by then the expose of DD services will be so far reached that the companies on the back end will feel it a doable risk to push DD first and foremost with physical media playing second card. They'll expect flak and will get a lot of it. But in time, consumers will turn around and fall in line.

*shrug*
 
While I think Carts are extinct, I would LOVE for a company to release a NEO GEO sized one! Anyone remember those? the size of VHS tapes!

I don't see consoles going full download only since physical media sells well. I don't mind DL a few games but it would be atrocious to have to wait days to get my latest release over the internet. Flash would be cool. Kind of like the Turbo Graphics 16.
 
id love download only, but im afraid physical disc like bluray is going to be around for a long long time, plus discs are going to be around until the whole world has the bandwidth and money to download full retail games (especially when the next gen or gen after, the download sizes is going to be fockin huge!). I dont see cartirdges making a comeback especially from sony or MS, maybe nintendo will if they stick to low end hardware next gen.
 
Rossi~ said:
No, but oh how i miss them :(
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So do I. It would have been nice to see them return, equiped with 21st century technology.

I was always hoping that flash memory, and other solid state storage would have a larger role than just a mere memory card.

I guess the best it will get to is a game console with an SSD drive.
 
What I want for consoles:

1. Large HDD
2. True 1080P games
3. Libraries of games, movies, etc ALL downloadable thus removing the need for physical media. This is the 21st century and our technology should represent that.

Also along with everything I mentioned, we need faster and cheaper broadband. At this moment in time, 100mbp should be the standard.
 
PSP2 Games will be "cartridge" based. They will be on Memory Cards. DS Games are cartridge based already. Unless you don't consider them consoles.
 
A ROM cartridge is orders of magnitude more expensive than a disk (DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray) from a manufacturing perspective.

Since discs are cheap and large hard drives are cheap my magic 8 ball of profit tells me the next consoles will continue to use discs, probably with the option/requirement to install them on a hard drive to improve load times.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an "elite" console in the next generation that comes with an SSD instead of a traditional HD. Expect to pay a high premium.
 
No. Cartridges as a format are dead. Optical media is sure to follow before too long. Maybe 10-15 years?
 
merlin704 said:
What I want for consoles:

1. Large HDD
2. True 1080P games
3. Libraries of games, movies, etc ALL downloadable thus removing the need for physical media. This is the 21st century and our technology should represent that.

Also along with everything I mentioned, we need faster and cheaper broadband. At this moment in time, 100mbp should be the standard.
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Agreed, and most of this will be here next gen. However, 100Mbit connections while common in countries like Korea will take a long, long time to sprawl the US. This is mainly due to dated infrastructure and old lines running all over the country. Dense urban areas, mainly counties/cities with the capital to invest in infrastructure upgrades will get these kinds of speeds first.

It will probably take 5-10 years to get those speeds to most US consumers.
 
Honestly, even a solid 20-30 Mbit connection is more than functional as long as you're not trying to stream lossless audio or something along those lines.
I'd think that will be the standard in coming years, with the quicker connections really being designed for specific needs.
 
given the cheap nature of flash memory with solid state coming down in the future i could see Carts returning..
 
jonneymendoza said:
Not when the average user only has 2mb internet. good luck sreaming HD content through that with no lag whatsover.
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In 1995 the average user didn't even have an internet connection.
In 2000 the average user was probably on dial-up.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume we'll be an average of at least 10x faster 10 years from now.
 
True, but games will most likely be at least 5x bigger... so will it help?
 
Cloud storage for the entire game is probably unlikely.

Internet based DRM like steam is probably very likely though. It still allows you to play when there isn't an internet connection.

I would like to see cloud based game saves though. That way when you go to a friends house or whatever you can still have access to your saves without having to bring along a Hdd or memory card. Game saves usually aren't that large so it would be pretty feasible.
 
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Mozex said:
In 1995 the average user didn't even have an internet connection.
In 2000 the average user was probably on dial-up.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume we'll be an average of at least 10x faster 10 years from now.
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Honestly I don't think broadband speeds will improve that fast in the US. Comcast is still the only game in town for the last 8 years around here. Fios failed here and was never widely available. WiMax 4G is available, but its only about 6-7mbs and the latency is 110ms. I think for broadband to get a lot better we need more competition in the non-wireless technologies, but its quite expensive to run fiber optical cable or cable in general all over the place.

Its easy to look at the beginning of the internet and say things are much faster after the first ten years, but its unlikely that that pace will continue. We went from nothing to something in that time frame. I don't think we will see the same level of investment just to make the internet faster. Its hard to see a financial benefit to doing this, especially considering the lack of competition.
 
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I don't think so. I think digital downloads + massive hard drives are going to take over in the next few years. Look at what Steam has become. I don't buy PC games that aren't on steam anymore. I can't tell you how badly I wish I had that option on consoles.
 
Rash said:
id love download only, but im afraid physical disc like bluray is going to be around for a long long time, plus discs are going to be around until the whole world has the bandwidth and money to download full retail games (especially when the next gen or gen after, the download sizes is going to be fockin huge!). I dont see cartirdges making a comeback especially from sony or MS, maybe nintendo will if they stick to low end hardware next gen.
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most xbox 360 games at the moment range from 3gb to 7gb or so installed on the HD

i just download an hd movie off zune that was 7.7gb. so the bandwidth is there in the US.

just most people want a physical thing. hence why ill never buy a digital download movie. i want a physical disc or something i can touch. Thats how we are as people.
 
I can see the next gen XBOX keeping the optical drive (BD capacity, not necessarily BD spec) but at the same time making all the titles downloadable from XBL, ala Steam. It will be purchase one or the other. If you buy the disc, you are subject to disc checks. If you buy it off XBL it is just tied to your gamertag.

Publishers LOVE the Steam model. It kills resale permanently.
 
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