Another day, another Nintendo NX rumor. This one comes from The Wall Street Journal (via NeoGAF), however, who are known for their exemplary track record when it comes to video games leaks, rumors, and reports. According to this new report, it seems like Nintendo plan on using cartridges for the upcoming Nintendo NX system.
Cartridges were used for early video game systems, until the PlayStation and Sega Saturn popularized optical media; Nintendo, famously, stuck with cartridges with the Nintendo 64, which led to a widespread loss of third party support, owing to cartridges’ at the time weaknesses, such as high costs, and low storage space.
None of those issues hold true, any more- cartridges have gotten progressively cheaper over the last two decades, owing to solid state and flash memory prices crashing. Moreover, chip-based cartridges are garnering renewed attention thanks to fierce competition among semiconductor makers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Toshiba Corp. to develop flash memory that can pack more data onto small chips at a lower cost, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. Moreover, modern flash memory is also faster to produce than optical media, meaning cartridges would now have shorter lead in times than discs for third parties- a reversal of one of their biggest disadvantages from over 20 years ago.
The report also contends that a reveal of some sort of the system is coming, and sooner than we might think- an announcement of the system could come ahead of the Tokyo Game Show, which begins on September 15. If this were to hold true, then some official word on the NX could be coming from Nintendo within the next two weeks.
The Nintendo NX is currently slated for a launch worldwide in March 2017.
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