The Battle Between Disc and Diskby, aquatsr
Ever wonder why all the new consoles (sans handhelds) have disc-based (CD, DVD) media? To answer that question we have to go back to the 90s, when Sony first proposed a disc-accessory for the classic Super Nintendo gaming system. Of course, Nintendo denied the offer, and Sony went on to develop another cherished console, the PSOne. Not to be outdone, Nintendo came out with another disk-based (read: cartridge) platform similar to the Super Nintendo, the fantastic N64. The Nintendo 64 was, and is, a great console. With classics such as Mario 64, Starfox 64, 007 Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and more, it's easy to see why the N64 was such a big success.
The N64 had just one big drawback. Compared to disc-based systems, disk-based systems offered much less storage. To put it in less confusing terms, CD and DVD media offered much more storage capacity than traditional cartridge media. At the time, non-volative Flash memory was expensive, fast, and limited in capacity. In contrast CDs and DVDs dropped in price, were slower, and offered huge capacity increases. Hence all consoles, including Nintendo's, ended up using CD and DVD formats for games, with the N64 being the last console to use cartridges for game distribution.
The situation is in prime position to change once again. Some people may say that physical media itself will disappear. Already Sony has games available for download from their online store, and Nintendo has the Wii Shop Channel, which provides a similar function. The Internet as the primary media distribution platform is very enticing to distributors since it cuts their costs for physical media to nothing, and allows a wider range of people (global) that have access to the same exact content.
Jordan Montreuil offers a different perspective on on future change. Montreuil makes the case that Flash media has been dropping in price significantly, just as CDs and DVDs did a decade ago. He argues that Flash-based disks offer superior storage and read speed than that of any disc currently in existence. It's also true that the price of Flash drives will continually drop as the medium increases in popularity. Also, many gamers like myself like to have a tangible connection with their games. Flash cartridges could offer the familiar nostalgic feeling we got from buying a game and physically holding it in our hands, looking at the artwork and seeing all our games physically on a shelf. Lastly, Flash-based cartridges offer near-instant loading times of games, making loading screens a possible thing of the past.
Montreuil suggests that console companies like Microsoft, Sony, and most particularly Nintendo could embrace this technology once again (or simply, once) and see if a console could be made successful on this premise. On the other hand digital distribution is becoming ever more popular. Netflix offers movies on-demand and Steam is a content management system that makes access to your games easy from any computer running a modern Windows operating system. Even game developers like Blizzard are redesigning their entertainment portals to accommodate increased presence online.
Games may never go back to cartridges, but the thought of a console where I could put in a cartridge, load a game in a few seconds, and show off my game collection to friends and family sure brings back memories of the good ol' days.
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