There’s a big difference between being outdated and being retro, and Nintendo is notorious for confusing the two. Things might be different with the Nintendo NX, however, as ScreenCritics reported on Thursday that the upcoming console will abandon disc drives in favor of the cartridges that so many of us grew up using. Although they’re much more expensive to produce than discs, most gamers agree that the look and feel of cartridges are far superior, not to mention they have that nostalgia value that Nintendo is an expert at exploiting.
The financial statements of the company that provides Nintendo’s ROM chips – used in both consoles and for 3DS game cartridges – have sparked speculation as to whether the upcoming Nintendo NX will drop the use of optical disc drives in favour of cartridges. As spotted by Screen Critics, Chinese memory manufacturer Macronix is reportedly expecting an increased order of ROM chips from Nintendo, and company chairman Wu Miin made specific reference to the NX in his financial briefing (reported by Money-Link and translated by NeoGAF user Jim_Cacher): “Macronix’s ROM chips are usually supplied to videogame console maker, Nintendo. Although the sales is in off season during the first quarter, the revenue is similar compared with the same period last year. Wu Miin suggested that as Nintendo had just announced it will release a new generation console in March next year, and the console will be launched at the same time in Japan, America and Europe, so ROM’s sales is expected to increase in the latter half of this year, and it will have a large growth potential.”
