Nintendo's March 2017 console, the Nintendo NX, will accept cartridges rather than discs, lending further credence to the idea that it will borrow elements from both home and portable console traditions.
The cartridge format is closely associated with handheld consoles due to size and stability; Nintendo's portables, from the Game Boy through to the DS and current 3DS lines, have all used cartridges.
Daring, perhaps foolish, has been the portable console to deviate from the norm, with Sony's 2004 PlayStation Portable the sole example; its replacement, the PlayStation Vita, went back to solid state media.
It's quite the opposite in the land of home video game consoles, which tend to stay immobile next to a TV: discs have been order of the day since the Sony PlayStation signaled a significant mainstream change in the mid-1990s -- the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Xbox all followed suit in abandoning the cartridge format.
But now, a new report from the cites Nintendo's desire to serve a wide audience as the rationale for its cartridge-based decision for the NX.
"Nintendo's core fans include small children, who might scratch discs but find cartridges tougher to damage. Cartridges also allow games to load faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced faster than discs," its sources said.
A July report from has also corroborated suspicions that Nintendo's NX would revert to a cartridge format; it's also said to house its key components inside portable touchscreen displays with detachable controllers, rather than in a base console unit, as has been standard.
An official reveal is expected before the end of 2016.
