Metropol

GAME Newport and GAME Crewe are shut.

Not so much fun for the 2,104 staff made redundant today with the immediate closure of 45% of the UK Game store estate. PWC are keeping the remaining 2,814 on for now.

277 Stores closed immediately

333 Remaining open for now.

JAS84 wrote:That sounds too retro to be true. Optical media is cheaper to produce, that's why they ditched cartridges in the first place.

It's good enough for the 3DS and the PSVita. And, with larger production comes lowering of costs.

bilky asko wrote:

JAS84 wrote:That sounds too retro to be true. Optical media is cheaper to produce, that's why they ditched cartridges in the first place.

It's good enough for the 3DS and the PSVita. And, with larger production comes lowering of costs.

Those are portable systems - they're too small to fit a CD into, so optical media isn't viable for them. Home consoles shouldn't use cartridges, as Nintendo learned the hard way by persisting with them for the N64.

JAS84 wrote:

bilky asko wrote:

JAS84 wrote:That sounds too retro to be true. Optical media is cheaper to produce, that's why they ditched cartridges in the first place.

It's good enough for the 3DS and the PSVita. And, with larger production comes lowering of costs.

Those are portable systems - they're too small to fit a CD into, so optical media isn't viable for them. Home consoles shouldn't use cartridges, as Nintendo learned the hard way by persisting with them for the N64.

The PSP used optical media, don't forget. And remember that the N64 was released here 15 years ago, so that might not be entirely relevant.

We will simply have to wait and see.

Cartridges are so much better than optical media, not least for the read speed and the fact they're rewritable.

Remember than an SD card is essentially a 'cartridge', they are widely available now and dirt cheap to make. Whilst no video game manufacturer is going to distribute on SD cards, a proprietary format would be cheap enough to develop these days to make it viable.

While a big part of me balks at the idea of losing a physical format, for the manufacturers, the real question will be 'so what?' The PC games market is now almost download only, and the major console manufacturers have shown their download-friendly hands over the last 5 years or so. I do believe they are inherently different (you might visit your friend's and bring a copy of COD along with you....but you probably don't expect to bring along Civ5 for the PC and install on their box).

From their perspective, in the midst of the death of high street games retail which we can only expect to cement over the next few years (I accept the UK has been unusually fast in its demise), finally console makers and publishers no longer have to pay lip service to retailers which have been providing sales with one hand while royally fucking them over with the other through the pre-owned trade. It seems quite plausible all three console manufacturers could be entirely responsible for their distribution channels this generation coming; as of 2010, 80% of PS3s were online. I'd have thought there would be regulatory problems with manufacturers being solely responsible for operating closed markets for their devices, but then the mobile space gives precedent for that to apparently not be a problem. My big problem is price - other than Steam, no digital distribution channel has needed to be competitive on price (and presumably partially to placate retailers), so curious to see where this goes next...

Cartridges are so much better than optical media, not least for the read speed and the fact they're rewritable.

Remember than an SD card is essentially a 'cartridge', they are widely available now and dirt cheap to make. Whilst no video game manufacturer is going to distribute on SD cards, a proprietary format would be cheap enough to develop these days to make it viable.

Not only that, but the size of the media can be reduced or increased to suit, making it more future-proof. Theoretically you could have multiple slots - which could allow one to be used as the storage medium as opposed to a hard drive.

Of course, cloud gaming (if it is the future as many predict) would allow hardware costs to be significantly reduced, and make sure that a game that requires certain hardware can be catered for and wouldn't suffer from out-dated hardware. Microsoft could integrate the Xbox cloud service with Windows 8 to allow tablets, PCs, and phones to play Xbox games - It could also become a Smart TV app.

Add-ons wouldn't be a problem - controllers, headsets, Kinect and so on could easily be add-ons.

JAS84 wrote:

bilky asko wrote:

JAS84 wrote:That sounds too retro to be true. Optical media is cheaper to produce, that's why they ditched cartridges in the first place.

It's good enough for the 3DS and the PSVita. And, with larger production comes lowering of costs.

Those are portable systems - they're too small to fit a CD into, so optical media isn't viable for them. Home consoles shouldn't use cartridges, as Nintendo learned the hard way by persisting with them for the N64.

Ever heard of minidisc or UMDs?

As I recall, the UMD format completely bombed. It's another Betamax.

But it showed that optical media could be adapted to work with portable devices. OK, so no-one apart from SONY took it up, but still....

JAS84 wrote:As I recall, the UMD format completely bombed. It's another Betamax.

It was nowhere near as successful as Betamax.