Solid-State Drive SSD - The Return to Cartridge Based Gaming?

The next generation of consoles might be going back to cartridges...

SSD technology is still very expensive, so I can't see them being in next gen consoles. Maybe the generation after that.

Also the major down side to SSD is the price, and i bet that the production cost of making the discs and putting games on them will be at least x2 as much as just printing them on a regular DVD or a BluRay disc.

#1. It'd be farrrrr to expensive to sell games on SSDs - so the cart comparison isn't really valid
#2. It's not zero loading times...  in many cases it isn't even twice as fast as HDD loading (with current tech at least) - hell a 7200RPM HDD at that.

It's still a dream worth dreaming... *hopeful stare at the horizon*
 
...for a golden future without noisy optical drives and short to zero loading times.

Methinks the rate of disc advancement would outpace ssd advancement until solid media doesn't even exist.

I also wonder how much better game engines could be, when optimized for Solid-State Drive. All these open world games streaming content all the time?
 
Solid-State Drives might do a lot more for games, than a better graphics card and more RAM could.

" Methinks the rate of disc advancement would outpace ssd advancement until solid media doesn't even exist. "

I also wonder how much better game engines could be, when optimized for Solid-State Drive. All these open world games streaming content all the time?  Solid-State Drives might do a lot more for games, than a better graphics card and more RAM could.

Is it really a cartridge, though? More of a memory card if you ask me. 
 
Maybe that image isn't blown up as much as it seems.... I don't know....

" @Seppli: Cloud computing will never happen until 100% of the world is broadband wired.  I just don't see that happening. "

"Dude - highend gaming primeraly happens in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan. Those who don't have broadband internet, don't have the money to pay for games anyways."

" @Seppli said:

I also wonder how much better game engines could be, when optimized for Solid-State Drive. All these open world games streaming content all the time?  Solid-State Drives might do a lot more for games, than a better graphics card and more RAM could.

The bottleneck on SSD load times is still extremely narrow compared to RAM speed.  As I said before, SSD load times in games are often not even twice as fast as the typical 7200RPM HDDs most every computer uses.  Basically with current tech it would amount to textures popping in a bit quicker, and loading new areas about twice as fast.  We would need a really revolutionary storage medium for RAM to no longer be relevant. "

" @Seppli said:

"Dude - highend gaming primeraly happens in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan. Those who don't have broadband internet, don't have the money to pay for games anyways."

There are still lots of more rural places in the US, Western Europe and Japan who don't have access to a broadband capable phone line. And there is a huge difference between being able to afford games, and being able to spend huge amounts of money putting in miles & miles of new phone lines.   Broadband isn't as widespread as a lot of people think. There are plenty of people that just don't have access to high speed internet. "

" @ninjakiller said:

" @Seppli: Cloud computing will never happen until 100% of the world is broadband wired.  I just don't see that happening. "

Those who don't have broadband internet, don't have the money to pay for games anyways."

" Methinks the rate of disc advancement would outpace ssd advancement until solid media doesn't even exist. "

" SSDs wouldn't create a zero load-time scenario. Stick one in a PC and you'll still have to wait around a bit for games to load. I have a 10K RPM hard drive in my PC and the difference between it and a 7200 isn't all that great when loading games or maps.
 
@Seppli said:

" @ninjakiller said:

" @Seppli: Cloud computing will never happen until 100% of the world is broadband wired.  I just don't see that happening. "

Those who don't have broadband internet, don't have the money to pay for games anyways."

What. "

Well the DS already uses cartridges, so I don't see why not. 

Also - when it comes to the internet, it's quite likely that current line-bound connectivity will be replaced by a wireless technology. Internet on the ether. Datastreams in the radiowaves. Or something.
 
You never know what's coming.

i got a computer with ssd.  but little did i know it only had enough memory to have all the system basics on there. haha 
 reading this made me realize how quick cartridge games loaded.   i just plugged in pokemon, and i am actually just realizing that everytime i go into a cave or battle or whatever, there is no loading, as there would be in any other type of game. its just instant 
 
playing any game as streamlessly as a gameboy game would make my day haha. i just hope they find ways to make these SSD's cheaper

The DS2 will surely use some kind of cartridge, the PSPGo never sold well in Japan, they just  don't like digital distribution and if the DS2 is going to use the Tegra 2 chip as rumors suggest, they will need some high capacity cartridge, I don't expect Nintendo to go with something like a UMD

SSDs will be become fairly mainstream by the end of 2010, but don't hold your breath.
 
They won't make your computer get more FPS out of games, only load times will get better.

Don't bet on it. High failure rates at this point. Besides, the industry is going download only, so they can fuck you in the ass as far as "owning" anything and taking out the secondary market.

solid state will not make loading times disappear, just make them faster,