Nintendo NX/Switch Revealed

[Jameerthefear]

Not really, buddy. Each game costs $60 to purchase for a consumer. Jstern said 3ds games cost $2.50 a pop and blurays cost $2. If those numbers are correct then $3 per cartridge is in the right ballpark..

Microsoft and Sony do it with blu-rays that cost around $2 per disc so I don't see how $3 per 4gb solidstate or usb-flashdrive style cartridge is too much... You can even double that to 8gb cartridge costing $6 per cartridge and it would be fine considering the games are $60 each! You do realize they make KILLER profits from the $60 per game? You probably already know that these companies take a loss on the actual console but make it back from all the games they sell.

They don't lose money, they simply lose a bit of the profit. Instead of pocketing $30 or w/e it is per game (throwing a number out there), they might pocket $27. Not really a loss if you get a return on the investment with more buyers. Remember, the Wii was a success overall so if this NX/Switch is a success too then the investment on cartridges is worth it.

BDs don't cost $2. They probably cost 2 cents. A cartridge is probably substantially more. That's a LOT of profit lost. I don't know why this is so hard for you to see.

[nightlight]

Not really, buddy. Each game costs $60 to purchase for a consumer. Jstern said 3ds games cost $2.50 a pop and blurays cost $2. If those numbers are correct then $3 per cartridge is in the right ballpark..

Microsoft and Sony do it with blu-rays that cost around $2 per disc so I don't see how $3 per 4gb solidstate or usb-flashdrive style cartridge is too much... You can even double that to 8gb cartridge costing $6 per cartridge and it would be fine considering the games are $60 each! You do realize they make KILLER profits from the $60 per game? You probably already know that these companies take a loss on the actual console but make it back from all the games they sell.

They don't lose money, they simply lose a bit of the profit. Instead of pocketing $30 or w/e it is per game (throwing a number out there), they might pocket $27. Not really a loss if you get a return on the investment with more buyers. Remember, the Wii was a success overall so if this NX/Switch is a success too then the investment on cartridges is worth it.

No.

The difference in cost to produce cartridge vs disc is not marginal. The reason games cost the $60 they do today is because of carts. Development is more expensive than it ever has been. Cartridges offer no tangible benefit to the developer while increasing the costs of production. Games are evolving constantly in this era through patches and dlc.

If you don't remember, it wasn't uncommon to see N64 games retailing for $70 and above.

[Draz]

fck is goin on in here

[jstern]

No.

The difference in cost to produce cartridge vs disc is not marginal. The reason games cost the $60 they do today is because of carts. Development is more expensive than it ever has been. Cartridges offer no tangible benefit to the developer while increasing the costs of production. Games are evolving constantly in this era through patches and dlc.

If you don't remember, it wasn't uncommon to see N64 games retailing for $70 and above.

No tangible benefits? It is a vastly superior technology. Most people only really know about the negative of using cartridge for the N64, but there are games that wouldn't have worked back then without the speed of the cartridge. 007 for example.

Also, though I prefer there not to be downloadable content, since it can get easily abused by publishers putting out buggy game to be patched later, or charging you extra for things that should have been in the game in the first place. Having a cartridge based system is not going to stop that.

The cartridge cost is negligible. The cart technology being used today is not even as good as the more expensive N64 cartridge. 256mb/s vs 40 for the 3ds. But a Nintendo DS cartridge is still fast enough to show no loading time despite pumping out more content. Disc technology is shit. The 3DS has slower, cheaper memory, and it's still much better.

The difference in putting out Nintendo 64 game back in 96 vs a CD based game is significant. The difference of a cartridge based game in 2017 vs the aging Blu Ray is not. The car NX cartridge would probably have to be in the 128gb range.

Games for the newer systems have mandatory installations before playing it, because of the speed of the blue ray. If not, some of the games you see now would not be possible, unless you cut down on the graphics. A faster media could have the opposite effect.

[bladefd]

BDs don't cost $2. They probably cost 2 cents. A cartridge is probably substantially more. That's a LOT of profit lost. I don't know why this is so hard for you to see.

No.

The difference in cost to produce cartridge vs disc is not marginal. The reason games cost the $60 they do today is because of carts. Development is more expensive than it ever has been. Cartridges offer no tangible benefit to the developer while increasing the costs of production. Games are evolving constantly in this era through patches and dlc.

If you don't remember, it wasn't uncommon to see N64 games retailing for $70 and above.

http://kotaku.com/5479698/what-your-60-really-buys

According to that, platform folks profit between $7 and $14 per game, depending on success of sales after all of the costs are taken into account. $7 is royalty and the other $7 depends on how much unsold inventory there is remaining. If they hit a home-run in game titles, then we can go to the upper-end of those profits. Obviously if it's a flop, then it's game over.

Keep in mind this doesn't even include money these companies make from DLCs, which are often gimmicks but people buy them. Sometimes, the producers intentionally leave parts of the games out and package them as DLCs.

Nintendo wants to invest on an idea they believe is original in this day and age with cartridges. If we go by Nintendo's track record and their fanbase, then they have been very successful so far. Even if we include Gamecube and Wii U in there, they have been successful.

Now, lets say they are as successful with the NX/Switch as they were with Wii and profit $11 a game. Can they afford to spend $3 of it on the cartridges? Yes. Is originality a lot to bank on rather than take the safe way out with dvds or even blu-rays? Maybe yes, maybe not.

We can argue the semantics of investment all day. It all comes down to success in the end and the demand for their inventory of games. Originality often brings in more buyers. Also, we don't know how much the console itself will cost. With Moore's law in effect and prices of solidstate/flash storage continuously falling every year, it is not fair to compare the costs of the hardware to n64..

[bladefd]

Unless if Nintendo NX/Switch is a flop, they are perfectly fine going the path of cartridges. Originality and the other technical benefits of cartridges as jstern eloquently put it is worth it in my view. Based on Nintendo's track record, I would bank on them being successful yet again.