A rewritable media format and internet connection would mean that developers could update a software/game for the device. That would mean that more developers would see the device as a viable option for bigger software titles that otherwise always gets published exclusively on PC’s and Mac’s (Photoshop on “DS2″ anyone?), since the interface on Nintys next handheld most likely will follow in the same vein as the DS, so a bit like a laptop already, they just have to see to it that they make the cartridges writable… the other option would be to include a hard drive, and that would be great as well, we’d prefer both. But they wouldn’t be able to rely solely on a hard drive for a small device like the follow up to the DS, I mean, use a hard drive in conjunction with a rewritable media format, actually, only use a hard drive for the same purpose as it is used on the Wii: “DSware” and old games.

Why I’m stressing rewritable is because of a product like Wii Fit, it obviously had some faults to it that should have been possible to adjust since they are so small, such as the problem of not being able to quickly change between different users so that you easily could “compete” in a dance contest or something like that, or the problem with not being able to set up your own one hour work out scheme… I mean, these issues are extremely simple to address… had Wii Fit run from the Wii hard drive (it can run partially, but only a few stuff), or if the Wii ran on a rewritable media format. lol, ok, so actually, maybe these small issues could be addressed only by updating what you install on the Wii hard drive.

Will they use usb connection for movie and music playback on the “DS2″? probably not. Ninty likes to “build up walls around their devices” so to speak, and there might be some sense to that considering the threat of making it possible to run burnt games and so on. Isn’t that the explanation to why they haven’t made the Wii play DVD’s?

I guess what I’m getting at here is that they can maintain their closed garden even if they publish their games and so on on a rewritable media format, because if the media format was their own proprietary format, then no one else could use it.. maybe.. I’m not that technical, I guess there is a risk of that happening since these so called updates had to use an internet connection. Maybe a hacker could come up with a way to wipe a disk clean and install whatever game they wanted from a server of their own. Key word here is “easy way”, easy way means everyone, everyone spells disaster; I mean, even the game boy back in its day had a fair share of pirate games, but it’s in a different ballpark now. Sony isn’t aiming for the closed garden in the same way as Ninty obviously.

But then again, you can ask if there really is that much use for a rewritable media format (the format the games et al are played on). It would be interesting to hear what anyone hear had to say about that. As I wrote, maybe this way to allow for updates can be handled simply by installing them to the devices hard drive, although it seems slightly problematic for say a program like Photoshop to solely install updates to the devices disk drive, I mean, wouldn’t updates to a program like that need to be installed “in the same main folder” or run from the same disk at least?