Nintendo's Magical Secret
I know this may sound a little crazy, but I just ran across a simple theory which may explain the relatively small size of Nintendo’s Gamecube disks. It amazed me at how simple it sounds, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. I’m convinced as to what Nintendo plans to do in the upcoming years with the Gameboy handheld device because of this theory. Keep in mind that what I have to say is not the gospel, and I could very easily be wrong in my grape juice-induced ramblings. I’d also like to apologize if everyone already knew about this and I am indeed a fool, it’s just one of those revelations that come out of nowhere.
We have all heard of Sony’s PlayBoy, or PlayMan, or whatever the hell it’s being called now. I also recall hearing that Sony’s disc medium will be dubbed “UMD” for Universal Media Disc, a 2.4 inch optical secured ROM disk with cartridge, which basically resembles a MiniDisc. This little thing can store up to 1.8 gigabytes of precious game information.
Now it is time to theorize about how Nintendo plans to compete. Let’s suppose that Nintendo is already developing a successor to the Gameboy Advance SP. Let’s also suppose that Nintendo plans the Gameboy to oust Nokia’s N-Gage with better 3D graphics than the current PS1 style graphics that the N-Gage has. Heck, lets assume that the graphics as good as Nintendo’s Gamecube. Let’s also suppose that Nintendo plans to introduce a new disk medium for its Gameboy Advance SP successor.
But wait! Why should Nintendo have to create a new disk medium? They already have a disk medium. Not only are these disks 3 inches in diameter and can hold 1.5 GB of information, they are also encoded in DVD-ROM format. Goodness, where can I find such a magical disk medium which exhibits all these properties? Yes, you guessed right, we already have one, the Gamecube disk medium.
This has huge implications for Nintendo in the future. Let’s say that Nintendo announces their successor to the GBA SP, doubling it as the competitor to Sony’s PSP. This means that you’ll be able to play your Gamecube games on a portable gaming device, which means backward compatibility for all your old games. Nintendo has also announced backward compatibility for their new console as well.
This also means that Nintendo can continue to support the Gamecube with new games, and still make these games available on a portable gaming device. Also, since Nintendo’s new console supports backward compatibility, when the Gamecube eventually dies out, they can continue to create games for their new portable console and still make those games available on Nintendo’s new console. It makes perfect sense!
The only drawback would be that Nintendo’s portable device would be larger than Sony’s, but .6 of an inch wouldn’t make much difference to anyone except those annoying fanboys who never received enough love from their mommy and like to argue over useless technical specifications.
As I said though, nothing I have written is proven, and I could be completely wrong. However, if I am right, then this has to be God’s gift to gamers. You’ll have ultimate freedom to choose when and how you play your games. Imagine the possibilities when playing multiplayer games? What about Gameboy to console link-up for Nintendo? All boundaries are virtually eliminated when you talk about wireless online play as well. Ultimately, having this type of multi functionality which bridges the gap between portability and stationary gaming means that gamers will be brought closer together than ever before. I really hope Nintendo plans to include this feature in their future plans, but if they don’t, I’ll still be a Nintendo man.