Are Wii and Wii U Emulators the reason the Nintendo Switch went with expensive Cartridges?

I was thinking about it and maybe Nintendo didn't like that you could play Superior Versions of their games on PC using an Emulator.

To me it doesn't make sense since Nintendo is still getting paid for a copy of the game but Nintendo has always been over protective about their ip.

Was wondering what you guys thought. It's definitely going to be more difficult to play these games on PC now that they are Cartridge based. The main drawback with Cartridges is the Manufacturing costs associated with them. Games on Switch will probably never cost less than $40 unless they're on clearance.

No, they did it cause cartridges are fun. Discs are primitive tech.

What else would they of put the games on ?

They enjoy losing money. That's why they have Amiibo shortages, NES Classic shortages, Switch shortages and now putting their games on cartridges instead of discs. I dont care if cartridge manufacturing prices have gone down in the last few decades; still isnt cheaper to produce than discs

as if cartridges can't be hacked....

a switch emulator will show up at some point

Nintendo has always used cartridges for handhelds, and Switch has to be able to function as a handheld. You may be overthinking this one a bit.

(And Switch, like all consoles, will inevitably be both hacked and emulated someday).

Because NES, SNES, Gamecube, N64, DS and Gameboy roms were never dumped, yes I know Gamecube was a disc but it was proprietary.

Switch games will be emulated as well. There's nothing stopping people from making ROMs of games, regardless of the format. Considering Switch can play games without the card, I wouldn't be surprised if people already hacked the Switch to do just that with ROMs.

The reason why Nintendo went with cartridges (cards) is because the Switch is first and foremost a handheld device. By going with cards, there's no need for optical drives, which would add bulk and use more power from the Switch. Plus, it would be more expensive. The trade off is that now it's more expensive to manufacture switch games.

That's an interesting theory but I don't think it's the reason.

I think it has more to do with space and read time.

The read/write time of cartridges are faster then that of the propitiatory blu-ray discs used on Wii U. More than that, the Nintendo Switch can be used as a handheld device. To save up on space, a cartridge slot is simply smaller than a disc drive.

Nope. Nintendo went with cartridges to save money. No need to worry about bluray drive. They already have established cart tech. Why bother with a cd drive, especially for a gaming tablet. Makes no sense.

... they are not more secure in anyway shape or form.

Its the only form factor that makes sense.

Cant wait for the inevitable homebrew on the Switch, its going to be awesome.

Storage medium has zero impact on emulation.

Handheld needs to save space + avoid laser skipping.

No, they went with cartridges for the portability factor.

Cartridge based emus say hi ...

Storage media has nothing to do with emulation

They went with cartridges because it is the only format that makes sense for a portable system.

It's a handheld, so probably power use concerns, and I don't think the carts will protect from piracy on the device or through PC emulators,

I guess this poster hasnt seen the Citra emulator for 3ds games....

The format has nothing to do with the diffleculty to emulate.

Wii U and Wii games didn't require a disk to play, you only needed the ROM and it would work.

No. I think the major reason is that They were going portable and making the games Digital would be the way to go.

Are you aware that most consoles in history are cartrige based? And they all have emulators?

Why emulate when they are easy hacked?

I don't think so. The NES, SNES, N64, DS, 3DS, and etc all eventually had their games ripped. I don't see why the Switch will be any different. You don't need the physical media in order to emulate. You only need the game file.

Cartridges make sense for a mobile platform. It takes less power to read them. With the Switch being a hybrid, they were a perfect fit. Aside from that, cartridges eliminate the need for lengthy installs.

How odd I've bought 2 games that were under $40... that were new.. weird.

Cartridges didn't stop N64 games from being emulated. Cartridges are simply much harder to copy than discs. PS1 games could easily be copied by burning the game. N64 cartridges didn't have that flaw but were still emulated pretty easily.

@EG101: They have to make a Switch emulator first, don't know how easy it is to rip a cartridge though.

@dotWithShoes:

Were those games AAA level games on Cartridge or DL titles?

If AAA Cartridge based then I stand corrected.

No the Cemu emulator only started becoming popular for BOW

They should have put a disc drive in the switch

from what I understand, it isnt that hard to do. Cartridges arent designed to stop emulation

It is because memory cards load much faster and are much smaller and easy to transport along with digital downloads, while having no moving parts required to read the data, massively saving on Battery power which is a must for any handheld device......this should be obvious.

I wouldn't count on it. It'll only be a matter of time until the Switch gets some homebrew running to dump the cartridge's ROM onto the internal/external storage.

Cartridges make sense, because the system is portable. Disk drives would take up far too much room. Furthermore, cartridges don't stop emulation, as the DS already has one, and the 3DS has one that isn't all that functional yet.

I remember PSP UMDs.

Discs in a portable decide is the worst f*cking thing you can do.

@aigis: Pretty sure they have the files protected somehow, would be stupid if they didn't encrypt them.

^this

Why would the Switch use battery consuming optical drives on a handheld? Games at switch quality would have to spin fast constantly or fully install to an internal storage, it makes no sense at all to use optical media. The former just isn't practical and possibly not achievable and with the latter it would need a lot of expensive storage.

This way, you just switch the games you want o play like normal.

It may cost more per game, but it's much more efficient for the job it's needed for. Optical drives are perfect cheap physical distribution for home consoles that can have full disc drives with constant power from the mains.

And to be fair, optical games STILL cost £40, even if you're buying digital you don't save, so it's not like publishers pass on the savings.

Since when did carts stop piracy? lol

Wii and Wii U emulators? (Hops on Google)

Cartridges make perfect sense for a portable ( in the final run no matter how you look at it or how much you try to deny it, Switch IS A PORTABLE, the only difference is you can hook it to your TV ), PSPs UMDs ended up being a pain in the ass, thankfully now you don't need the damn things to store and play your games.

Carts are better for piracy due to smaller file sizes.

The reason carts were chosen is because having discs (or any type of rapidly moving part) on a portable would have been a disaster.

Disks are not good for portable consoles. Leads to scratches with movement on the go, while it spins. On a cartridge, not an issue and theirs less loading + no required installation - which is what portable gaming is all about. nice and quick. A scratched disk with longer load screens and installs is not fun

This +1

Where did you say AAA games?

/Thread

They went with carts because the Switch is a handheld and they needed compact media to put their games on. This way it's more portable.

This is a stupid question, and you're an idiot for asking it. It's portable. That's why it uses carts. You expected a fucking Blu-Ray drive on a portable? Your dumb ass probably expected a hard drive in the main unit as well. Maybe you even expected PS4-level performance.

The Original PSP plays disk media. So in 2017 it's definitely doable.

The reason I brought it up is because back in the N64 days Nintendo decided to use Cartridges instead of Disks for 2 reasons, 1 Nintendo could control the Price of games better and 2 they were more difficult to Pirate.

Sorry your too ignorant to know this.

The original PSP is the reason why discs in portables is a bad idea. It being 2017 shows the industry has learned from that mistake.

.@EG101: Nobody liked UMDs. They were a failure and nothing replaced them. Nintendo would have needed to make their own 100% proprietary format with the hope of getting even half of what a BD can hold, and on top of that would have needed at least 1TB of storage due to game installs. Also, the only reason UMDs were used in the first place was that it was the only practical way to get enough storage at the time. That's why Vita doesn't use discs. Or do you think that's an anti-piracy measure too? You're thinking too hard. Cartridges are just more practical for portables. It's that simple. Lighter, less power, faster, no moving parts... UMDs died for a reason

I think you pressed "create topic " rather than not bothering to create such dumb topic.