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Nintendo Switch uses Cartridges

So, this was discussed a lot in the past and well, no more CDs, the Switch uses cartridges!

(First image / second row)

oMzcsNM.jpg
 

Shoori

Neo Member
Pretty much like the Vita and DS which I'm completely fine with

Also, the smaller cases that come with the games will be a welcome addition as people are always trying to save shelf space
 
Its a different cart config than the 3DS carts as well - 3DS carts are wider, have 16-18 gold pin lines - so definitely not cart backwards compatible with 3DS, at least.
 
As someone who now likes to buy digital when I can...

I am more concerned with the flash memory on the Tablet. 128GB at best... maybe? I guess the dock will have a bigger HDD? I hope managment between the two does nto become a big issues for gaming on the go.
 

Thraktor

Member
They're a different form-factor from DS/3DS cartridges, and seem to use fewer communication pins (this would indicate a switch to a serial communication protocol, which would potentially be a pretty good thing, as they'd be able to hit much higher read speeds than on the old parallel protocol).
 
I think this will be the pricing scheme

I'm betting price will be

249-299- Screen and attachments for controls

349-399- Full bundle including docking station

Pro Controllers and additional controllers sold separately between 39.99 and 59.99

Games 59.99 ? Cartridge though so maybe 49.99 IDK

Let's see how this plays out
 

JoeM86

Member
Yeah I don't see why this is surprising. Optical media on a portable device often causes the lens to misalign due to shock impacts etc.
 

M3d10n

Member
As someone who now likes to buy digital when I can...

I am more concerned with the flash memory on the Tablet. 128GB at best... maybe? I guess the dock will have a bigger HDD? I hope managment between the two does nto become a big issues for gaming on the go.

I expect it to have no more than 32GB internal (maybe 64GB, since some games will probably reach 30+GBs) but support SD cards for expanded storage. The dock has what look to be USB ports, so it will probably support HDs in docked mode (so you can have a "vault" of games at home).

The best thing is that it's very likely that physical games will be playable without need for installs, since the cartridges should be as fast as the internal memory.
 
I wonder if this will affect the price of carts at all, something like Skyrim will be pushing 4GB, wonder how cheap Nintendo can get media for carts.
 

M3d10n

Member
I wonder if this will affect the price of carts at all, something like Skyrim will be pushing 4GB, wonder how cheap Nintendo can get media for carts.

The Witcher 3 was shown in the video. The PS4 version uses ~35GB for the base install. It was Skyrim, sorry.

Games will go beyond 4GB, by far.
 
I expect it to have no more than 32GB internal (maybe 64GB, since some games will probably reach 30+GBs) but support SD cards for expanded storage. The dock has what look to be USB ports, so it will probably support HDs in docked mode (so you can have a "vault" of games at home).

The best thing is that it's very likely that physical games will be playable without need for installs, since the cartridges should be as fast as the internal memory.

How much would SDs increase the storage though? A quick Googling puts Smash 4 at 15 gbs without all the updates. That's nearly half the out of the box gbs if it's 32. Smash is fairly large, but a lot of the games they'd presumably port over from PS4/XB1 would be large as well.
 

KC-Slater

Member
This may be splitting hairs, but those don't really look like cartridges to me. Cartridge (in the context of video games physical media) to me implies a physical storage media with more embedded electronics on it, like an NES, SNES, Game Boy or Neo Geo cart.

When I think of a cartridge, I think of something that is capable of being augmented with embedded chips/processors like the Super FX or something, not just a dumb storage medium. A cartridge should theoretically be capable of doing something that the console/handheld may not be able to do on its own (outside of emulation.)

Everything from DS on has been closer to a proprietary SD card, not a cartridge in the traditional sense.

Calling it a cartridge is just playing off of nostalgia.

This physical media looks no closer to a cartridge than a Vita game.

/rant over.
 

Ridley327

Member
Do people call the game cards on the DS/3DS/Vita cartridges too?

I don't, but it's hard to shake the terminology when it was used for such a long time. It's especially weird to call game cards cartridges when they're just flash media without any additional hardware.
 

OCD Guy

Member
I think this will be the pricing scheme

I'm betting price will be

249-299- Screen and attachments for controls

349-399- Full bundle including docking station

I seriously don't think they're gonna do a separate bunde with and without dock.

Infact I'd bet anything on it that they don't.

It would be suicide to separate it, and defeat the whole purpose of being able to "switch" lol.
 
When I see the pictures, I'm just chuckling at the thought of people at conventions setting up tables with Mario Kart, everyone trying to sync the controllers to the correct Switch.
 
I wonder what the internal storage will be and what kind of options it will have (microSD)? I assume there will an option to download games as well as buy retail.
 

Occam

Member
Given its portable nature, this was expected.

Hopefully region-free. Can't see myself buying it otherwise.
 
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