Quote Originally Posted by Raedon
This dissucussion is extremely short in real tech sight. discs duck, memory on carts sucks, etc etc.. there is stuff coming out in ten years that is instant access AND can be saved on for little cash. I see cards type systems a decade from now.


and thank god, all the moving parts in these CD systems are NOT going to be fun to keep running in 100 years.
that's what i was thinking when i started this thread - eventually we're going to hit a wall (or come to a point) where there's something chip-based out there that will be cheap enough to use.

i also think CD/DVD based stuff is going to eventually limit design, both game-wise (or rather, the limitations are going to be much more apparent AFTER we move past it), and definitely influences current console design. imagine if you didn't have to cram a DVD drive in there as your means of getting games into the system, but rather only had to build around a compact flash sized card.

the second point about moving parts really only affects the people on this board. little billy casual gamer will have traded in his PS2 way before the drive dies so he can play madden 2057.

i don't know about the on-demand/no media console taking hold. look at the problems inherent reliability and cost/piracy-wise with the xbox, that after one attempt is making microsoft rethink their HD-based approach.

should be interesting to see if someone decides to shake things up in the near future. maybe that's nintendo's big announcement? a small form factor could revolutionize the industry if applied correctly. maybe the new handheld they're being hush hush about is really the new console all-in-one. with a small card based system, it could be possible. something 1/2 the thickness of a gamecube, with a flip top screen, A/V outs, and ports for controllers...

who knows?

(more than likely the future will be a horrid PC on top of your TV all in one set top box that you download games to, but alas...)