Topic: 3DS Cartridges Could Store Up to 8GB

[NWR_Karlie]

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.

[ThePerm]

geeze, no need for the console

[oohhboy]

That's what they can use now, no doubt if they wanted to they can be larger as it becomes more economical. I have pretty much skipped the Wii with my DS.

[TJ Spyke]

No, more likely is that early 3DS games will be around 1GB and some of the last 3DS games may get up to 8GB. Same thing when we found out how large DS games could be. It will likely be several years before 3DS games get anywhere near that big.

[Adrock]

I expect Resident Evil: Revelations to be a couple GB in size consider it's a full-length RE with voice acting and whatnot. I still don't think it's coming close to 8GB though.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Final Fantasy 3D is GO!!!!!


It will be the 1st multi-cart 3DS game clocking in at a whopping 13GB's in size

[Chozo Ghost]

This is a level of storage that is on par with that of DVD 9 (only slightly less). If it were absolutely necessary, games could spill over onto 2 carts I guess, but this would be more than sufficient for 99.9% of games.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm sure in the not so distant future that if a high profile game was being made for the 3DS that needed more than the 8GB cart size limit, Nintendo would be able to produce a larger cart to avoid the multi-cart issues.

8GB's seems to be the limit of the current manufacturing process, but not necessarily the limit for the size of the card the 3DS could read.

[NWR_insanolord]

The initial limit for DS cards was 128 megabytes, but we've seen games that use 256 meg and (I think) 512 meg carts.

[TJ Spyke]

(I think) 512 meg carts.

That would be the recently released Ni no Kuni, which is the largest DS game released.

[ThePerm]

so Halo 3ds?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Find it funny how that solid state cartridges and stuff are rapidly catching up to media like DVDs (even surpassing it), something that at one time was considered archaic like with the N64. They could make the Wii 2 with cartridges again, that would be extremely ironic.

[ROiDS]

Cartridges that Nintendo uses today are usually flash memory, so it's not too surprising to see this much memory on a 3DS game. Even today, we don't even know the limit of the DS cartridge, all we know is that 512 MB is the highest size so far.

[Kytim89]

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. 
 
I figure that whatever left over space that is left on the 3DS cartridges will be used for some kind of anti-piracy endeavor to prevent pirates from copying the games. Perhaps Nintendo will use holo-storage? Who knows, but it makes sense for them to do this?
 
If the Wii 2 does have cartridge based games, they will most likely have a storage ceiling of 16 GB and be about the size of a PS2 memory card.

[Mop it up]

Now I'm really starting to wonder if Nintendo will use cartridges for their next home system.

[Adrock]

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.

[TJ Spyke]

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). I don't see a console using cartridge based media though, discs are still cheaper and publishers would complain about the added cost of making cartridge games.

[Kytim89]

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.

@ Adrock
 
NEVER! I'll never join the darkside. You have failed your highness. I am a forum troller, like my father before me.
 
I see Nintendo going back to cartridges because of security reasons. It is harder to duplicate a cartridge than a DVD. The question is whether this will bode well with third parties since they like having the latest technology. However, third parties might be attracted to cartridges for the same reason that Nintendo would be: security.
 
Have flash based cartridges advanced enough to do FMV and all the other stuff that CDs and DVDs do?

[Adrock]

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

I imagine you stopped reading my post right before I mentioned "Netflix" otherwise you would have known that I was specifically referring to music and movies on CD/DVDs. Outside of the Homebrew channel, the Wii can't play DVD movies.

And publishers have never complained about using cards on DS and don't seem to mind that the trend is continuing with 3DS.

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?

[TJ Spyke]

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.

[Kytim89]

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.

The difference between in-game graphics and cutscenes is diminishing to the point that FMVs will become extinct, if they have not done so already? This is going to save a lot of space on cartridges. Also, I over looked your post, TJ.

[ThePerm]

i face palmed too when i got to Tj's post.

[Dannymcl]

God! Imagine how long DQ games are gonna be with that amount of storage! 600 hours anyone?

[Kytim89]

This might sound like a dumb question, but could the 3DS handle a game on the scale of Final Fantasy 13 if it has a big enough cartridge?

[TJ Spyke]

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.