NX Rumored To Use Cartridges

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-Linkand 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."

An increased need for ROM chips above and beyond the usual level required for 3DS game production has been touted by some as possible evidence of a return to cartridge-based game delivery for Nintendo. Cartridges were dropped for the GameCube, and all subsequent consoles used disc drives.

The high-speed nature of cartridges could obviate the need for PS4-style game installations and, if the rumours of the NX being a handheld/home console hybrid are true, the lack of an optical disc drive would make the console far more portable.

There are mitigating factors here - the NX could very well just include internal ROM chips, leading to that increased demand (although some have questioned whether the potential size and quality of Macronix's latest chips would be required for an internal component).

Screen Critics also reports that Macronix recently began testing chips with a capacity of 32GB, and that these could be what Nintendo plans to purchase. Given that Xbox One and PS4 both use 50GB capacity Blu-Ray discs, and many games exceed even that, forcing extra features to be downloaded, there's some question as to whether Nintendo would adopt a format that reduced the need for installs, but still required it for many modern games.

There's a chance that all of this is moot - last year, Nintendo filed a patent for a console with no disc drive, but emphasised the use of downloads to a hard drive for game distribution. Even that's being used as evidence of cartridges by some, however, as the patent also includes a "read/write card slot"

This should all be cleared up soon enough - Nintendo has announced that the NX will launch globally in March 2017, although we won't see it at E3.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/05/rumour-nintendo-nx-to-drop-discs-for-cartridges

I think the Big N is longing for the days of the SNES and N64. Next they will bring back the members that left Rare.

We got a locked thread yesterday

Really? Oh well, Padlock in coming.

Would this be possibly due to the fact that the NX is a console/handheld hybrid system, so it needs to share a format that works for both uses?

I can't imagine they'd use giant carts like the N64 and prior.

@beardmad: it's supposed to hold 32gb of memory

Cartridges capacity is 32GB

Uncharted 4 size is 50GB

Diablo 3 - 58 GB

Batman Arkham Knight - 46 GB

Battlefield Hardline - 42GB,

GTA 5 - 41GB,

Call of Duty Black ops 3 - 41GB,

Last of us remastered - 40 GB,

Destiny - 40 GB,

This would mean that NX cannot run all those big games. This could mean that NX will be weak console and cartridges are worse since Blu-ray can hold 500GB but Cartridges only 32GB

@FreedomFreeLife: wasn't it you who made that thread yesterday that got locked?

The hipsters are going to love the NX.

Yes but mod hates me and locks every my thread that is kinda against nintendo. i gave same list like in my last post and he locked it for provocation

Cartridge would be great. There be no anti-climatic "Please wait while game is being installed on your hard-drive".

I agree, especially if the price is right.

@FreedomFreeLife: if those figures are accurate (and i know GTA5 on the PC may be even bigger than 41GB so they probably are) then yeah...32GB will be a problem for 3rd party multiplats. not a deal breaker but not ideal.

it would be plenty for nintendos own games though (the only games i can think of on the wiiu that pushed the 25GB capacity are xenoblade X and smash bros).

assuming they are similar to 3DS carts in terms of price...is the trade off worth it? no installs and faster loading in general would be nice on a console.

i mean its not the end of the world...if devs need to fit their game into 32GB because 3rd party games are selling like hot cakes on the NX then they will get it done. they can do things like have the SP stuff on the cart and have the player download the online maps and stuff if they want to play online. it depends on whats hogging up the storage space on games currently. any repeated data on the image, used to improve loading times, could also be removed of course.

@flyincloud1116:

I truly hope it is a cartridge format, i'm tired of installs, dirty or scratched discs and constant updates.

What Year is this? Do you want Third Party support at all Nintendo?

I hope its not true

Xj1 and PoS4 use 50 GB blu rays and require additional content to be downloaded because they don´t want to ship in another fucking 1 dollar BluRay ( and I´m exaggerating in the 1 dollar price ). Most games can be stored now since there are 64 GB SD cards.

No more need for moving parts ( optical disc readers ), cartridges would be great.

Maybe it has something like the rumor PS4 neo to PS4 type of setting which allow lower setting graphic and the cartridge will be able to use on the NX hand held?

Sounds like a disaster. God help them if this is true.

How is cartridges a disaster?

@FreedomFreeLife: Who says 32gb is the limit? There are 64gb flash cards, hell there's 256gb flash cards.

Also compression, duh.

@Chozofication: price of the cart. publishers will not want to spend more than they absolutely need to on the storage medium.

3rd parties won't support it.

Have you seen the size of modern AAA games?

Cartridges are more expensive to make and store less.

Pros and Cons...

but I'm concerned that if this rumor is true, we will see a many a 3rd party skip the cart if their game won't fit and avoid due to cost.

Doomed

No shit, but cartridges are still the best format for games. If a 3rd party doesn't want to put their game on NX because of that, we have other options.

Plus there's always digital releases, not that I want them but they're an option for pubs.

3rd Parties won't support Nintendo is one thing but the media would not be the restricting factor. Most games are not that large.

Ooooooo.......more rumors.lololololololol

Id love it. Just let me buy a special 120g cart from Nintendo and let me put what i want on it. I hate loading times and slow arse speeds. I can just use my My Nintendo account and transfer all my stuff. Or i could go to the store and transfer too i guess. Nintendo already does this in China, so im sure they have a good system they can use.

Big AAA 3rd party games are that large. Unless you're okay with NX missing games like Witcher 3, GTAV, Battlefield, COD, etc.

This would be a disaster IMO. Nintendo desperately needs big 3rd party games to have any hope of being successful with the NX. WiiU has shown that they can't support a console on their own and hope to sell well without 3rd party.

you realise they are uincompressed needlessly right?

How the f*ck is Diablo 3 58GB?

I don't buy it... unless this reinforces my hopes, wishes, and dreams that Nintendo's next big thing is a console-handheld hybrid, then this would make total sense.

Maybe the kind of third party support Nintendo wants is Japanese third party support since they love the handheld. After all, Nintendo could make a beefcake console that'd equal PS4.5 or XB1.5 and people still likely would care to get third party multiplats on it, but third party Japanese exclusive support on other hand will be much more obtainable, especially with Sony abandoning the handheld market.

Don't think so. Discs are the way to go.

@FreedomFreeLife:

Weak because of cart size? Carts allow the benefit of add-on chips. Performance of the console could increase, over time.

what year is this?

I hope they aren't going back to cartridges. That would be a BIG mistake. They've already made 2 mistakes with a No E3 show of NX and releasing the NX in 2017. Nintendo execs are losing their minds.

It's time for us all to acknowledge that the NX is basically just a handheld that will be slightly more/less powerful than a WiiU.

Over 32GB costs more than blu-ray. Like other said, THIRD PARTY WON'T SUPPORT THIS CRAP!!!

@FreedomFreeLife: Id rather pay more money for better tech. Disc are dated.

NX is gonna bomb harder than the WiiU.

How do you know?

Hahaha better? It's like you prefer Nuclear Power Plants than Green Energy because Green Energy costs more and takes more to install and split over the country meanwhile Nuclear power plants is cheaper and just no need to install and you get energy.

MY GOD... You know that this cartridges is outdated, right? you can't play newest game or any update. So yeah, you prefer 32gb limit which means that 3rd party won't support NX and it will flop.

GO BUY YOUR FLOP SYSTEM THEN.

@FreedomFreeLife: Why you limit yourself to 32g? 50g disc limit is too small mate. Also disc are slow. Me and you need 120g cart mate, we be ballin.

Most newest systems has dropped disc and cartridges and now Nintendo takes outdated system. hahahahahahaha

Nobody in 2016 uses cartridges or disc. No buy NX system then. Another big failure.

@FreedomFreeLife: SSD is a cart aint it? I heard its good and fast speeds. We need to upgrade. 120g SSD cart is what we need.

Another day, another NX rumor. I'm just going to wait until the official announcement because people are making up shit to get attention.

WTF YOU TALKING ABOUT? NOBODY USES SSD, WHHERE THE HELL IN THE WORLD DO YOU LIVE? IN AMERICA? WOW... AMERICANS STILL HAVEN'T JOIN 21 CENTURY.

NOBODY USES ANY CARD OR DISC TO PLAY GAMES. WHERE THE HELL YOU LIVE???

@FreedomFreeLife: Aww man, i still use SSD. I just upgrade to it :(

considering we got tiny micro sd cards that can hold 128 gb or more I doubt they'd limit it too 32gb

@FreedomFreeLife: But, how much of that is audio and videos that can just be compressed without anyone noticing a difference?

The cartridges could surely be bigger anyway. Plus, Rom based cartridges are much faster. And, they're more durable, too. I wouldn't mind at all if the NX uses cartridges.

Holy shit I called this way back asking why cartridges aren't used anymore.

Dude...Day fucking 1 if this is cartridge based.

First of all, SSD costs too much.

Second, as PC gamer, we do not buy any dics or card game. All my games are steam installed. 40GB downloading takes about 10-20 min and best is that you can download pre-ordered game.

1TB hard drive is a lot cheaper and go digital. If they go cartidges they go limit 32 GB because over that it would cost too much just like SSD. We have to be realistic here. Since NX hardware will be weak, it would be best to take blu-ray disc. No 3rd party = high costs card = flop.