In book preservation, processes are established and closely followed. Manuscripts and get-go editions are kept in carefully managed vault-like facilities, where humidity and access is advisedly managed. There are also all-encompassing projects to digitise these materials, creating permanent backups in cloud storage then that those pieces of history will never be lost.

The video game manufacture is barely half a century sometime (though you tin argue it stretches back around 60-70 years), but is running into serious problems around preservation. Yet when we talk about problems keeping games alive nosotros often refer back to the NES era or before, or the dreaded 'disc-rot' of early systems that used that particular applied science. It's becoming increasingly credible that our physical copies of games, which we probable think of as 'permanent' in our own minds, are vulnerable to eventual wear and tear.

ORAS
Image: The Pokémon Company

In case you missed it, this has come into rather sharp focus with talk online of numerous PAL copies of Pokémon Omega Ruby-red and Alpha Sapphire starting to fail, with some players stating their copies have long since died. It seems early for these games to be failing, and seemingly in reasonable numbers; one possibility is that a specific PAL manufacturing run had either cheap or faulty components in the process, as even the memory associated with DS and 3DS cartridges shouldn't exist dying this early.

Withal, information technology'south important to recognise that cartridges, like their disc-based chums, will see reliability issues downwards the line due to acknowledged lifespan limitations. That's the departure betwixt mod media and our example of books, of form; technology based on retentiveness cards or discs aren't forever, they're mechanical devices that will fail.

It'due south important to recognise that cartridges, like their disc-based chums, will see reliability issues downwards the line due to acknowledged lifespan limitations.

And then what sort of lifespans are we looking at? Well, information technology depends. There's a trend, especially in debates betwixt those that prefer digital game purchases to physical copies, for collectors to suggest their copies are 'forever'. In the example of the concrete box and cartridge existing, yes, that could be true to a degree, but the functionality of the technology is something else entirely.

With DS and 3DS cartridges, it'southward worth highlighting that doomsday scenarios of swathes of game copies dying imminently seem very unlikely. However, the perceived brand-upward of those generations of cartridges seems to vary depending on source, without a groovy deal of clarity; in whatsoever case both generations of the cartridges / retentivity were supplied by Macronix. It seems that DS cartridges may have a form of masked ROM for media upwards to a sure size, which is non-writable, with a small corporeality of flash memory at the very least for save information. In the example of the 3DS information technology appears to be purely flash retention, albeit with different types handling game and save data, for example.

In terms of wink memory it can exist prone to accelerated deterioration or wear, so the aforementioned ORAS issue could exist down to a poor batch of memory, and if the component failed it could accept the game'south functionality with information technology. This, in reality, should exist a rare consequence that volition still disappoint anyone affected.

[UPDATE - sixth May: With regards to the ORAS consequence, we had a reader reach out to us, @Voultar, who may have identified the cause of the cartridge trouble, and information technology may explicate why it has seemingly affected a particular batch in meaningful numbers. It is anecdotal of class, but you can view the video below, in which re-soldering the chip seems to get the game working once again. It'southward an interesting potential fix, even if information technology's not possible at this point to confirm it as a 100% solution.]

There tin be some scary statistics thrown around near retentiveness lifecycles, but the reality is that the range is extremely broad. A lot depends on the quality of materials and manufacturing, and wink memory in detail degrades at varying rates with each read/write; in other words, every fourth dimension yous save and load a DS / 3DS game you lot take a tiny amount off its life. Major players in the space continue to develop and enhance the number of 'cycles' before their memory degrades, and this includes progress from Macronix. How long, though? Only fourth dimension volition ultimately tell, and guesswork based on bike-information tin can give y'all estimates from 20-50 years, potentially longer. Simply the key point is that it is a lifecycle; just like retro game media, it'll eventually terminate working.

Mario Kart DS
Paradigm: Nintendo Life / Zion Grassl

As for the Nintendo Switch cartridges, it's early and difficult to say as, again, they're bespoke cartridges. The memory is provided past Macronix once again, and in the case of Switch rather than store save information on the cartridge itself the games put our saves on the system memory or specified MicroSD. An extra dorsum-up is cloud storage for saves, just of course this is backside the Nintendo Switch Online paywall at present. Every bit for the lifespan of the game cartridges themselves, it'southward difficult to say, though progression in technology and approach volition hopefully make them fifty-fifty more reliable than their predecessors.

In summary? Though there'll exist outliers and some scary tales, your DS and 3DS games are probable to be fine for the foreseeable hereafter; they may even outlive the bodily gaming systems themselves. The worry, of course, is that like all hardware they will eventually degrade and finish working, it's inevitable. It's a challenge for all modern media, arguably, non just games - finding sustainable solutions to secure and shop games for hereafter generations should be a priority. Anyway, game preservation is a topic all of its own.

And so, don't panic. Don't assume your cartridges volition last forever though, they certainly will not.