The Future of Gaming?

I don't like 3D, there i said it.

The problem isn't necessarily the technology, or even it's application at cinemas, although it must be said that far too many films are now being released in three dimensions just because they can. There in is the reason why I don't like it, and why I worry about it's increased use in the games industry. Forcing 3D into a game that doesn't benefit from it's inclusion just adds extra cost to the developers wage bill, and weakens the format for when it truly is deserving to be used.

I played Gran Turismo 5 in all it's glorious three dimensions while I was in Tokyo recently. It sucked.

So what is the future of gaming if not 3D? Well like three dimensional gaming this innovation has it's roots firmly planted in the past, so come with me now on a journey through time and space (not to the world of the mighty boosh) to a wonderful era when the ROM cartridge was king and load times didn't exist.

The Fairchild Channel F, NES, Atari 2600, Master system, Mega Drive, SNES, N64, the list goes on. All these consoles had two things in common. They used Cartridges, and they had very little load time at all. However, due to limited capacity, Cart based systems died out when the CD format Sony Playstation began to dominate the industry with games such as Final Fantasy VII.

So why, you might ask, is cartridge gaming the future of the industry? In a way it already is. Flash card technology works on a similar premise to that of the old ROM Carts of yesteryear. No moving parts, fast download times, and depending on the format of the card quite robust to boot. The Nintendo DS, the best selling console of all time, hand held or otherwise, has been using a solid state mask ROM since it's inception in the mid 2000. This format is not too dissimilar from the cart systems used by the older Gameboy, and the format used by the NES and SNES also.

Early this year Sony finally announced the NGP, the long suspected follow up to the PSP. Among the raft of impressive demonstrations of the hardware, including dual analogue sticks and an OLED screen, it was noticed that it would not use the UMD disc format of it's predecessor, but instead move to a card based system which has been announced as having a capacity of either 2GB or 4GB, depending on the size of the game. While the inner workings of the card are yet to be truly ascertained one thing is almost certain. It will use what i believe is the future of the gaming industry on all platforms.

Solid State Memory.

Let's look at this on three fronts, the first being console reliability. One of the major reasons why any console breaks down is due to moving parts, and also the heat they generate. The RROD that so many XBox 360 owners dread is due to the console overheating. All thanks to the disc drive constantly spinning so that the disc can be read and data loaded. The PS3 suffers from drive failures due to extended use of the disc drive as well. Now what if you replace the disc format with a solid state card, for arguments sake lets say the physical size of a floppy disc or mini disc. With no moving parts heat is drastically reduced, and wear and tear on the machine is almost completely removed.

Secondly, by using a solid state card to hold game data you can access media held on there much faster than you ever could on a CD/Blu-ray disc. Although it might well not be instantaneous it would certainly be much quicker than sitting there for what feels like an eternity waiting for the Mojave Wasteland to load up again after searching through some deserted shack.

Last but not least, lets talk about the environment. With no disc drive to constantly power and no cooling fans needed to keep the drive from frazzling the power consumption of a future console is conceivably much lower than those of this generation. This not only helps you to save money on your utility bills, but just as importantly reduces the amount of energy you use, meaning that less fossil fuels need to be consumed to power our enjoyment. It won't save the world, but it'd certainly do some good.

A few years ago this would have been mad to suggest, that you could fit an entire console game on a solid state flash card, but the proof is there in concept at least. NGP is reportedly nearly on par with PS3 in terms of graphical power, and it's card based system can hold 50% of the capacity of a blu-ray disc already. Clearly the developers think they can develop something worth playing on this system using this memory format. Technology improves and capacities may increase over time so that we can fit more and more data onto a card the same size as a DS cart, or SD card. Even if they don't, would you really be that annoyed if you had to swap out one card for another halfway through if it meant you could play Fallout: New Vegas or a 100 hour plus JRPG with no load times and without fear of your console frying?

I know i wouldn't

Until next time I'm Dave Roberts, and I'm Game for a laugh.