NO MORE GAME DISCS, PLEASE !!!

Today, prices and availability dates have been unveiled for the upcoming Wii U console.

Among its specs it is mentioned that game discs for this console will have a 25GB capacity while the internal HDD storage will be either 8GB or 32GB.

I don’t know whether you think the same, but I believe it is time for the game industry to move away from CDs and DVDs.

In spite of the improvements some consoles have introduced in order to avoid scratches (like the XBox 360), it’s really annoying and frustrating when a game disc gets eventually scratched on a relevant area for the game to properly run.

So, as we wait for a full switch to the Cloud nirvana, why not replacing discs by other hardware like flash drives? Nowadays, a memory stick can have large capacities.

I’m not talking here of empty flash drives that you can buy to then plug it into the console to save downloadable games, but drives already prepared and commercialized by publishers containing the game.

Imagine a flash drive with one read-only memory area (where the first version of the game is stored) and a protected memory area for patches (I will leave game content out of this picture, for now). It would be like going back to the cartridge era with a modern twist.

Smaller box-art and more portability for games not commercialized through the Cloud are some of the additional benefits.

So let’s hope devs of next-gen consoles -like the XBox 720- embrace this thought …

Cheers!
~Pete

[Btw, this could be also applied on laptops, notebooks, ultrabooks and so on so forth]