"According to the paper (Nikkei), gamers will be able copy 3DS software to internal memory. Multiple games can be stored with the system in this fashion. You'll be able to switch between games by selecting a title from the system's main menu.

The paper notes that due to this feature, there'll be no need to swap cartridges. When outside of the home, you won't need to carry game cartridges with you."

This sounds like a very interesting idea indeed. Although I wonder how big the internal memory of the 3ds will be.

Piracy! yay

So this would be like Xbox 360 Hard-Drive installs without having to have the disk in? That seems like a really unwise decision on Nintendo's behalf...

At first, I was like BOOOOOOO!!!!
 
But then, when I figured you didn't need to have the cart inside, I was like YAY!
 
As for piracy, they'll learn their lesson eventually.

One assumes they have some kind of DRM in the 3DS's innards, like the game installs are only valid for a few days, something like that.
 
There's NO way Nintendo isn't thinking about piracy with this iteration of the DS.

Well, they did mention the 3DS having always on WiFi and uploading game info to their servers, etc.
 
Maybe each cartridge will have a unique code so if you install a game on more than one device from the same cartridge, it won't work? That would be my guess for their idea on how to prevent piracy.

If that's so I'm very interested.

I'll be interested to see how they deter piracy with this. They obviously would have something in place to stop you installing the game on multiple 3DSes, but I can't imagine how they would do it without possibly inconveniencing the owner. A simple idea would be to lock the cartridge after the game has been transferred to the device, making the cartridge unusable until the content is transferred off the 3DS and "back" onto the cartridge. But then you have to wonder what happens to that game if your 3DS breaks while the game is locked away inside it... Like I said, I'll be interested to see how they figured this out.

Nintendo could use a Steam like service that ties the games to a persons account.  In a way this also discourages piracy and buying used games.  One of the main reasons people hack the DS or Wii is to be able to not have to switch between discs and carts.  Now that this is already a feature some people won't try to run a custom firmware.  The used game market would suffer because 3DS games would become like PC games with very little resale value.  Consumers would be wary about whether a used game has already been installed so it'd be safer to just buy it new.

They took away the only thing the PSP had left.

I can see this happening, I have heard of a lot of people who bought flashcards just to be able to discard bringing lots of cartridges.

That sounds like an awesome idea, buy how will they deal with piracy.  That's what I want to know.  There has to be a catch if we are able to do this.

I'm guessing each game will be able to install to one DS at a time. If you want to install it to another DS, you need to erase the original first.

They're not dumb; of course there will be some type of DRM.  But I know that those restrictions probably won't affect me, so I'm all for it.