Do you think PS3/Revolution/Xenon will support generic memory cards? When I say generic, I mean the type of cards that digital cameras use (SD, MemoryStick, blah blah). I don't know what got me thinking about this. With the PS3/Xenon trying to become media hubs (or something), it doesn't seem unlikely. 7-in-1 card readers cost like $10 retail.
I expect Sony would only support their format (MemoryStick). The PSP uses a MemoryStick as its only memory card, so I think it's quite likely the PS3 will support MemoryStick too (but also PS1/PS2 cards for backwards compatibility). I'm not sure if there would be a "PS3 memory card" in the old form factor. It's chunky by today's standards. I don't know if it would be feasible to support saving PS1/PS2 games on whatever the new card is (you can transfer PS1 saves to PS2 memory cards, but you can't access those saves from PS1 games).
I'm not sure about MS. I could see Xenon go either way. If MS supports one format, they would probably support all the major formats (even MemoryStick?).
I think Nintendo will stick with a traditional memory card. I don't think Nintendo is interested in producing anything but a game console. GameCube+, minus the cute exterior (I hope).
The only memory card application I thought of (besides saving games) is displaying pictures, MP3s, and video on your (HD)TV and expensive speakers (in addition to network support of the same types of content). Maybe some of the consoles will have HDDs (base or accessory) for storage. Maybe even generic IDE/SATA support! Maybe not.... USB HDD support would be cool. They wouldn't need a gaping hole in the console (like the original PS2 design). I hope they make saving games directly to the HDD required (even if the HDD is optional). The PS2 HDD add-on would be less useless if you could save every game directly to it.
Why wouldn't Sony/MS/Nintendo support generic memory cards? Cost cutting isn't a big reason considering the cost, but it is a reason, as always. The biggest reason is the aftermarket for memory cards. Right now, an 8 MB PS2 memory card costs about $17 retail. A 512 MB MemoryStick Pro costs about $60 retail. That's $2.13/MB compared to $0.12/MB. Obviously that number wouldn't look as sick back when the PS2 launched, but I'll go out on a limb here and suppose that proprietary memory cards might be more profitable than generic memory cards. It's possible Sony (for example) could still sell a Sony/PS3-branded memory card for more money, but I think consumers have more trust in names like Lexar than they do in names like Nyko and Intec. Going generic means they will lose a lot of memory card sales. This is possibly the last generation with expensive and small memory cards. If I compare the number of games I could save on a single PS1 memory card to a single PS2 memory card, the difference is striking. Perhaps we won't need to buy a bunch of memory cards next generation. Or, if we do, maybe they will increase in size like digital camera memory cards, so we won't mind as much.
That's more or less what I think.
I expect Sony would only support their format (MemoryStick). The PSP uses a MemoryStick as its only memory card, so I think it's quite likely the PS3 will support MemoryStick too (but also PS1/PS2 cards for backwards compatibility). I'm not sure if there would be a "PS3 memory card" in the old form factor. It's chunky by today's standards. I don't know if it would be feasible to support saving PS1/PS2 games on whatever the new card is (you can transfer PS1 saves to PS2 memory cards, but you can't access those saves from PS1 games).
I'm not sure about MS. I could see Xenon go either way. If MS supports one format, they would probably support all the major formats (even MemoryStick?).
I think Nintendo will stick with a traditional memory card. I don't think Nintendo is interested in producing anything but a game console. GameCube+, minus the cute exterior (I hope).
The only memory card application I thought of (besides saving games) is displaying pictures, MP3s, and video on your (HD)TV and expensive speakers (in addition to network support of the same types of content). Maybe some of the consoles will have HDDs (base or accessory) for storage. Maybe even generic IDE/SATA support! Maybe not.... USB HDD support would be cool. They wouldn't need a gaping hole in the console (like the original PS2 design). I hope they make saving games directly to the HDD required (even if the HDD is optional). The PS2 HDD add-on would be less useless if you could save every game directly to it.
Why wouldn't Sony/MS/Nintendo support generic memory cards? Cost cutting isn't a big reason considering the cost, but it is a reason, as always. The biggest reason is the aftermarket for memory cards. Right now, an 8 MB PS2 memory card costs about $17 retail. A 512 MB MemoryStick Pro costs about $60 retail. That's $2.13/MB compared to $0.12/MB. Obviously that number wouldn't look as sick back when the PS2 launched, but I'll go out on a limb here and suppose that proprietary memory cards might be more profitable than generic memory cards. It's possible Sony (for example) could still sell a Sony/PS3-branded memory card for more money, but I think consumers have more trust in names like Lexar than they do in names like Nyko and Intec. Going generic means they will lose a lot of memory card sales. This is possibly the last generation with expensive and small memory cards. If I compare the number of games I could save on a single PS1 memory card to a single PS2 memory card, the difference is striking. Perhaps we won't need to buy a bunch of memory cards next generation. Or, if we do, maybe they will increase in size like digital camera memory cards, so we won't mind as much.
That's more or less what I think.
