The Video Game Critic

In the late 90's the Nintendo 64 was the last major console to support cartridges. The games were super expensive (upwards of $80) and third parties stayed away. Worse yet, there was a chip shortage that drove prices even higher. Console makers learned a lesson from that.

Fast forward to 2015 and we don't have that problem. Chip storage is ubiquitous and cheap. Is it time to bring back cartridges? I think so. It would solve a lot of problems:
1. Piracy - it's a lot harder to pirate cartridge games (not saying someone won't figure it out, but still)
2. Loading - let's face it, one of the big issues with this generation is the onerous install/load times. In theory carts would load much faster.
3. Durability - cartridges are the most durable media, and customers like that.

I know you're probably saying "it's too late, the next gen will be download only". Maybe, but the thing about downloadable games is that they are usually cheap, impulse purchases. When it comes to buying games that are really important to people (Madden, Call of Duty, Mario World) gamers prefer physical media. And while few people are willing to shell out $60 for a download, they'd easily do it for a cartridge. Just look at the 3DS games.

Another benefit of carts is that publishers will be forced to put out completely, fully-functioning games instead of beta crap that requires a day one patch.

I just have one request. Don't make these new cartridges fit on tiny, fingernail-sized chip. They are too easy to lose. Lets go back to Atari 2600-sized carts.

Comments?

I think bringing back cartridges would be the coolest thing that could to happen to games right now, but unfortunately I don't see it being possible. The dollars-per-GB price of MLC flash right now is $.39, so a 40 GB game would add at least $16 bucks to the retail price of the game, not to mention the built-in costs of manufacturing and distributing them. All told, games would probably cost $100 at retail (we've seen this before), which I doubt consumers would go for. The console itself might be cheaper sans the inclusion of a hard drive, but if that were the case, where would you store the system's OS, which on both current consoles takes up a significant amount of space?

I'd like to see cartridges again. But I don't want it to be ruined by lack of money and have the games look like they were made by just a couple guys. At least there was the NES, Neo Geo, Jaguar, N64, etc. And those games don't take forever to load. If anything, I'd like to see a crew do a killer 3d game on the Jaguar and show what it was capable of.

I think bringing back cartridges would be a really cool idea. I don't think it would work for the type of market that Sony and Microsoft are pushing for however I could see it working in an indie environment. Like Ptdebate said they would cost too much for games that are as large as current console games are, however for indie games, which tend to be much smaller, I could see it working.

It will never ever happen, but it sure would be neat. MS and Sony really want to go download only. It allows much more control for them and even better anti-piracy than cartridges.

Technically I'm sure a cartridge based console is totally feasible. The cost of the flash isn't that bad really. Most games that are using up a 50 GB bluray could be put on a 16 GB or less cartridge without any NOTICEABLE losses. Remember Capcom putting RE2 on the N64? 2 CDs=1,300MB put on a 64MB cartridge and the results weren't too shabby. It would be neat as a sort of modern day Neo Geo. Expensive but premium games with the packaging to boot. I'd certainly be interested in something like that. Lets get a kickstarter underway. Neo Geo 2 giant cartridges and all.