Do Carts Really Need to Cost More?

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pacman000
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Do Carts Really Need to Cost More?

Postby pacman000 » December 5th, 2020, 1:10 pm

https://www.pcmag.com/news/cartridges-m ... -cost-more

Saw this on one of the VGC's Zergnet ads:

Cartridges Mean Switch Games Will Always Cost More
The same game will cost more on Switch than PS4 simply because it is more expensive to produce cartridges than optical discs.

It's a bit older (2017) but it's still interesting. My question: Is this true? Aren't Switch carts just a proprietary flash card? Can't publishers reuse flash media if the games don't sell? Wouldn't that make the games less risky, resulting in lower prices?

Also there's this line:

Regardless of whether you burn 5GB or 40GB to a Blu-ray disc the media costs the same. Switch cartridges on the other hand, escalate in price depending on whether you need 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage. They also get more expensive per cartridge the smaller the batch ordered.

Now, I see a few problems here. First, aren't all BluRays at least 25 gigabytes? If so, isn't a 5gig game wasting a ton of memory? And don't disk manufacturers charge more for smaller batches? I know there's a set up cost to press disks; you wouldn't have that with a flash cart.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Do Carts Really Need to Cost More?

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 5th, 2020, 8:50 pm

That article was from 2017, and I think in the time since the cost has narrowed between Blu Rays and "flash" carts. I would not be surprised if in some point in the future it's most cost efficient to slap the game on a cart.

Then again, will physical media still be around if and when we reach that point?

Shapur
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Re: Do Carts Really Need to Cost More?

Postby Shapur » December 7th, 2020, 1:42 pm

Reusing the carts was probably always an option ( see repros) but flash carts are always going to cost more than disks. Even a cheap 32 GB flash carts retails for about $8. A 25 GB BD-R can be had for under 50 cents.

I’d wager even for big publishers you’ll be seeing dollars vs cents on the media side of it.


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