With the Nintendo NX reveal expected soon, a new report from The Wall Street Journal puts the long-rumored return to cartridges to the forefront.
According to the WSJ report, people familiar with Nintendo and their thought process say the company will indeed adopt cartridges instead of the discs that they, Sony and Microsoft have been using for years.
And while optical discs are still the industry-preferred method of storing game data, the WSJ report says chip-based cartridges are gaining new attention because of fierce competition between semiconductor manufacturers like Samsung and Toshiba, who seek to make a flash memory chip that can hold more memory for less money.
The report continues to cite industry observers who believe a return to cartridges for the Nintendo NX makes sense, considering the general demographic of Nintendo games and consoles. While Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One are geared toward hardcore gamers who are older, Nintendo considers itself to be a platform for a broader fan base that includes younger children.
Cartridges are sturdier and can take a pounding from children. Optical discs, as industry watchers point out, can be scratched and broken easier if they aren’t carefully used.
Cartridges also allow games to upload faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced more quickly than discs.
And with the rumor that the Nintendo NX will be a home and handheld console , creating cartridges can make transporting games a lot easier. Nintendo already uses chip-based cartridges for the handheld 3DS, so its fanbase will already be used to the method.
Nintendo has kept tight-lipped on the NX situation until its official reveal, which some are predicting will be before or during Tokyo Game Show starting Sept. 13. Nintendo had no comment when the WSJ asked about the NX using cartridges.
So would you want cartridges instead of discs when the NX comes out? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
