Report: 3DS to allow installation to memory
Japanese sources suggest multiple game installs will be possible
A report from Japanese business paper Nikkei suggests that the newly unveiled Nintendo 3DS will allow games and other software to be installed directly to the system's memory.
Many technical details, particularly in regards to online services and menu functions, have yet to be described in detail by Nintendo, but the Nikkei, as translated by website Andriasang, claims that multiple games can be installed onto the system at once.
As a result users can have access to multiple retail games from the same console, without any need to swap cartridges.
The implications for increased ease of piracy and perhaps an end to the Nintendo DS's region free software (already eroded in terms of DSiWare) are unclear, and Nintendo has yet to confirm or deny any of Nikkei's report.
Although software installs are possible on the Xbox 360, PSP and, in part at least, on the PlayStation 3 these are all to increase loading time speeds, which are otherwise limited by using disc media.
The 3DS will continue to use cartridges though, so the feature would appear to be solely for the sake of convenience.
Nintendo has already indicated that the maximum size of a cartridge at launch will be 2GB, but has not mentioned anything about internal storage. Support for SD memory cards has been confirmed, however.