The largest Nintendo chip manufacturer is ready to supply 1GB to 8GB ROM chips.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24569
The memory size for Nintendo 3DS cartridges will range from one to eight gigabytes, reports major Taiwanese newspaper China Times.
Macronix, the largest worldwide ROM product manufacturer, and also the largest supplier of ROM chips for Nintendo, has completed a production line for 1GB to 8GB ROM chips, ready to match a range of requirements, such as for Nintendo 3DS cartridges. This is in response to market reports regarding 3D game requirements, indicating that storage for the 3DS will need to be 1GB or greater.
The 8GB cartridges will increase storage capacity from the Nintendo DS by 16 times. The largest cartridge in use for the DS is 512MB (4 gigabit), as used in titles including Level-5's Ni No Kuni.
Recent financial reports indicate that the fourth quarter of 2010 has resulted in a revenue drop for Macronix, as Nintendo has adjusted orders in preparation for the 3DS launch.
(I think) 512 meg carts.
For along time I always believed that Nintendo and third parties would never return to cartridges, but with the price of flash cards dropping I am increasingly warming up to the idea of the return of cartridge based games, or atleast for Nintendo systems.Join the dark side, young Skywalker.
For along time I always believed that Nintendo and third parties would never return to cartridges, but with the price of flash cards dropping I am increasingly warming up to the idea of the return of cartridge based games, or atleast for Nintendo systems.Join the dark side, young Skywalker.
Nintendo never wanted to use disc based media. They did so because they had to. More than the company's sheer arrogance, sticking to expensive cartridges doomed N64. Miyamoto made some of his best games during that generation, but obviously, not every game producer is Miyamoto. For once, Nintendo absolutely had to bend to the will of 3rd parties because for once they actually had a viable alternative. There are only 3 real advantages to using optical discs: cheaper to produce, larger storage capacity, and the ability to play movies/music. Nintendo ignored one of those right off the bat and, even then, Netflix streaming is making that less of an issue. Now, with price and storage capacity simply no longer major issues, it makes sense for Nintendo to re-adopt cartridges/cards and abandon a medium they never wanted to support in the first place. Nintendo has always been a company that valued the basics of video games. A loading screen means you aren't playing the game, even for 4 seconds or so. A scratched disc means you aren't playing the game because it's broken. Using cartridges/cards makes neither of those things problems. Not saying that abandoning disc based media is a guarantee, but it certainly makes sense and is more than a mere possibility.
Cartridges CAN play music and audio, it's just that they take up a lot of space (which is why developers wanted to switch to optical media for their larger storage)./facepalm
Have flash based cartridges advanced enough to do FMV and all the other stuff that CDs and DVDs do?It's only a matter of storage capacity. Let's say a video file was 3GB, it would obviously fit on a 4GB card and a 8.5GB DVD, but it would look exactly the same on a TV/monitor. Of course, you can compress the file, but it would look worse. Savvy?
Have flash based cartridges advanced enough to do FMV and all the other stuff that CDs and DVDs do?
Have flash based cartridges advanced enough to do FMV and all the other stuff that CDs and DVDs do?
Really, did you not bother reading my post? They already can, and have for years. They just tend to have few of them because that stuff takes up a lot of space.
Nope, the game is so big that it actually comes on 3 Xbox 360 discs (and the PS3 version is over 30GB), there is no way the game could be released on 3DS unless they want to do like 4 cartridges.
Nope, the game is so big that it actually comes on 3 Xbox 360 discs (and the PS3 version is over 30GB), there is no way the game could be released on 3DS unless they want to do like 4 cartridges.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
With optical discs you can't really do that. A DVD is a DVD. They don't really make smaller DVDs that cost less to produce. There are dual-layer DVDs but if your game is smaller than the standard DVD (or CD back in the PS1 days), tough luck. You can't get corners. You've got 4.7 GB whether or not you need it. There is a cap on how much you can cut costs on the medium.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Just because 8 GB is the limit now doesn't mean it always will be. Like I pointed out before, the initial limit for DS cards was 128 MB, but now we have games at double and even quadruple that.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Just because 8 GB is the limit now doesn't mean it always will be. Like I pointed out before, the initial limit for DS cards was 128 MB, but now we have games at double and even quadruple that.
I agree. But furthermore, it seems likely to me that the 3DS will have at least one USB port, and with that there is really no limit to storage. Is it out of the question that some games might come on what is essentially a USB flash drive that would plug into the 3DS?
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Just because 8 GB is the limit now doesn't mean it always will be. Like I pointed out before, the initial limit for DS cards was 128 MB, but now we have games at double and even quadruple that.
But why the hell does it matter if the full capacity of a DVD is used or not? I mean, DVDs are basically just a cheap piece of plastic fused with a extremely thin layer of aluminum foil. That's really they are. That's why companies like AOL could notoriously put 20mb worth of their crapware on a 700mb disc and then mail millions of them to everyone and their grandmother. The other 680mb on the disc was completely wasted, but at 10cents a disc did it even matter?
Nope, the game is so big that it actually comes on 3 Xbox 360 discs (and the PS3 version is over 30GB), there is no way the game could be released on 3DS unless they want to do like 4 cartridges.
There is always the 32 GB SD card, but that would be very expensive.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Just because 8 GB is the limit now doesn't mean it always will be. Like I pointed out before, the initial limit for DS cards was 128 MB, but now we have games at double and even quadruple that.
Except the 3DS won't accept cards that big anyways.
Just because 8 GB is the limit now doesn't mean it always will be. Like I pointed out before, the initial limit for DS cards was 128 MB, but now we have games at double and even quadruple that.
The max size of DS games was not known (and is still not known), it's just that most DS games were smaller until prices came down (there wasn't a limit). This is explicitly saying that the max size is 8GB. So as of right now, it would not be smart to assume we will ever see 3DS games bigger than that.
(and mini-DVDs don't count since making a Wii, PS3 or X360 game on one is probably not supported)
Carts vs. discs will get Nintendo nowhere. Don't make it an "either or" situation. Now if the Wii 2 supported both carts and discs then we've got something. The Wii 2 can then do what the competition does plus more. Don't make people choose, make it so that it is OBVIOUS that your console is BETTER.
There was a slot on the top near the back which was like the genesis or snes cart slot, but as far as I know this was never actually used for games (probably just for a modem or some other obscure peripherals).
But a console supporting two proprietary formats might be a bad idea. For one thing, its going to add to the manufacturing cost of the system. The other issue is the two formats are going to be competing with each other over space on store shelves and so forth. You're right that there are some benefits to it as well, but its open to debate whether the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages.
I figure that the 3DS is going to break the Nintendo console life cycle trend of five years and have a ten year life cycle of its own.Nintendo already had one of those. You may have heard of it. It's called a Gameboy something or other.
Anyway, as for 3DS, I presume most games will be under 4GB. If a game requires more, it's probably loaded with CGI/animated cutscenes.
QuoteBut a console supporting two proprietary formats might be a bad idea. For one thing, its going to add to the manufacturing cost of the system. The other issue is the two formats are going to be competing with each other over space on store shelves and so forth. You're right that there are some benefits to it as well, but its open to debate whether the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages.
Well I don't think it's like an awesome idea or anything. But if you're going to do carts, I think that might be the safer approach. Then devs can pick what is important to them. I don't think they would fight for shelf space as they would all be Wii 2 games and I'm figuring a Wii 2 game is either a cart or a disc. There would be no point in being available in both. But it would increase the cost of the system and I think the benefits are practically non-existent. What would happen is that Nintendo would be all cart-crazy and probably everyone else would just use discs. This is my "save Nintendo from themselves" solution where Nintendo's self-serving goof-ass method and the normal conventional method are both available and Nintendo can be crazy without screwing everything up.
I could see Final Fantasy 15 coming out on the 3DS with a 8 to 16 GB card.
But there are people who like to watch movies on their phone while they're on the bus. How one can pay enough attention to the film while keeping an eye out for their stop and tuning out the sounds of traffic and noisy passengers I will never know. I can't do it. But I feel I need a certain amount of focus and attention to really take in a movie. Other people don't care and they would probably be fine with playing Final Fantasy or any game on the go. I know people that turn TVs on to just have something going on the background. I'm either watching TV or I'm not and I get pretty peeved if someone is distracting me while I try to watch.
FF doesn't have to be cutting edge, that has nothing to do with the games. It's just that SE are graphic whores. Hell, some of the SNES ones are better than the more recent ones.
You cannot immerse yourself in a game or movie on the bus. You have to compromise in some way.
i just want awesome games...anywhere
You cannot immerse yourself in a game or movie on the bus. You have to compromise in some way.
I have never had a problem with this, multitasking is not a problem for me.
What would it mean for the gaming industry as a whole if major franchises such as Mass Effect found a home on the 3DS with similar production values as its console brethren?
QuoteWhat would it mean for the gaming industry as a whole if major franchises such as Mass Effect found a home on the 3DS with similar production values as its console brethren?
I think at some point in the future the technology will be cheap enough that portables and consoles will be one in the same. That doesn't mean videogames will be confined entirely to small screens. Either your portable will be able to connect to your TV and connect to seperate controllers for when you're at home or they'll just offer both console and portable models and you go with what suits your needs - like choosing between a laptop or a desktop computer.
See I personally can't stand portables. I can never find a comfortable position to use them in that doesn't hurt my neck. The screen is attached to the controller and I tend to move the controller around a bit when I play games. As a result I move the screen which I'm trying to look at and the whole thing is disorienting. I didn't really start to love my GBA until I got the GB Player. In retrospect my DS was a waste of money. I have no use for it as a portable and playing games on it is a frustrating chore. The whole set up just doesn't work for me and I likely won't get the 3DS.
At this point the blurring between console and portable does not excite me because it seems like the direction it will go at first is just offering a portable. The 3D feature prohibits Nintendo from making this thing attach to a TV. Yeah, the feature could just be disabled when connected to a TV but I know that isn't how Nintendo rolls. Portables are also big in Japan and Nintendo plans everything around Japan. I could see a switchover where the 3DS is Nintendo's primary focus and the Wii or Wii 2 is just the casual focused gaming machine for the living room. I can see the possibility that next gen Nintendo would put the "real" Zelda, Metroid and Mario on the 3DS. Traditionally Nintendo has very clearly treated their console as the "A" platform and the portable as the "B". I could see that flipping around.
Having one platform available in both portable and home console formats is ideal because then it just becomes about the personal preferences of the user. I know other people like me that own portables entirely to play the exclusive games that system offers and that it is practically never used in a portable setting. It would nice if there was no need for that phenomenon to exist. The idea of major console game series being moved to portables upsets me. Essentially it would be like taking those games away from me. I can't play them the way I want to anymore (thinking about it, motion control upsets me in a similar way). But on the other hand, Kytim89, if consoles don't work for you anymore then you're in a similar situation where all sorts of games are effectively cut off from you. Both situations are undesirable but it has been a necessary evil for portables since matching the technology of consoles was just not cost feasible. But if that restriction no longer applies then it really is stupid and arbitrary for this game or that game to only be playable in one format.
Though stuff like this 3D screen and motion control keep consoles and portables seperate. Nintendo could always use those features to justify keeping the formats independant of each other. Of course 3D is optional since it can be turned off for all games and not all games require motion control. There isn't really anything wrong with having a handful of games that only work on one format - realistically it's no different then how some games require a light gun or an instrument - but, again, that isn't how Nintendo rolls. If they create a justification to have two completely different systems they can get us all to buy both. I figure as the line blurs between consoles and portables Nintendo will introduce more and more "unique features" to artificially differentiate between the two formats.
However the one-format concept could catch on if Japan becomes more and more portable focused and North America becomes more and more console focused (due to Americans loving their home theatre setups). The incompatibility between the two markets may necessitate a common ground where one format is used that serves both markets.
