So. Next Gen consoles are probably well in development and we will probably here the first info on them next year I am sure.

I was thinking....

What do Microsoft do in terms of medium? It really is an interesting one.

Sony of course will keep with blu-ray, thats a given but what abou the xbox?


- You can not just go with DVD again, current new games are already shipping on 2/3 discs. Even if you had them just as a download to hardrive they would take some install time and over a few discs. Just not a fit.

- Pure digital?
Not there yet, Broadband with the caps etc is just not ready for a pure digital medium on console and people still like to go down the shop and buy the discs.

- HD-DVD?
Piracy would be low because no one is making blank discs etc. It has a decent storage size for your data. This wont happen though because you need to mass produce them and who does? No one.

- Blu Ray:
Probably the obvious, the external player for the 360 has been on and off trying to get sorted for years now and the licensing is just a mess for it with Sony being the biggest player. Microsoft do have a small stake in Blu Ray but do they go down this route? There has been a number of load time and other issues on the PS3 as well. Will the just be paying out to much in fees to make it viable for them or can they cut a deal?

- Flash cards?
Are they cheap enough, It needs someone to stick their neck out and and 64GB+ cards need to be mass produced to keep the cost down enough. Maybe in the distant future but not now.
The speed of data transfer is ok but it would be a pure dump to drive and check rather then anything else if they did this. Packaging could be a lot smaller.

-Cartridge?
It does have its advantages but then its disadvantages. Is there technology to make this work very well? It would be kind of the flash card route.

Anything else?

Microsoft have an interesting decision to make and its not an easy or obvios one to me.

I think its pretty obvious that they will opt for BDs, it would be pretty stupid not to given that they are cheaply mass produced, the drive can then also play films and CDs, the format is more than large enough capacity for games.

HD-DVD is dead, pure digital is Marks life dream that will not happen for 10 years, flash cards are crap, expensive and prone to failure, and finally the general consumer doesnt want to see cartridges and big boxes; Im sure they cost more to manufacture too.

pure-digital would harm sales
cartridges & flash media are expensive compared to a disc...
for that reason discs will be around for a long time yet

8cm BD disc of some kind is where my moneys at.

Whats Blurays read rate relative to its size

I.E does it take as long to read the BD disc at xxgb (Cant remember how big they are) as a DVD takes to read a 4gb DVD

The lowest read speed of BD discs is about 9MB/s (2x, quick enough for uncompressed 1080p video) and at the theoretical 12x maximum should be 54MB/s.

The technology has a long way to go yet though various manufacturers, they are already working on the tech for multi-layer 100GB/200GB discs with backwards compatible drives and they expect 1TB by 2013 according to Wikipedia. Were going to be with BD for a long time.

It has to be BluRay, but I think they will also be pushing the digital downloads aswell.

Quote from: DEViANCEIt has to be BluRay, but I think they will also be pushing the digital downloads aswell.

Its the obvious one but will they be able too?
Sony is the biggest fish in the blu ray pond and are you going to let one of Your potential biggest threats in that market?
Steve jobs keeps saying no to blu ray due to the licensing costs and issues.

Its not just your gaming but there  is a device that can play movies and thats another competing market.
A lot of people by a PS3 over a 360 because it can play blu ray movies.
Xbox 3 With blu ray removes that edge.

The console could be made too expensive due to that extra cost going into sonys pocket.

I think at the moment it is the only real choice and yep they will push digital downloads further but its not going to be straight forward and may not even happen, the external drive didnt for some of those reasons.

Ultimately everything will be cloud/wireless based and we wont need media I guess as things will stream almost instantly.

Till then blue ray I guess. If I was enough of a film buff to warrant a blue ray drive Id likely get a PS3 rather than a standalone player.

sony dont own blu-ray, so they cant really do anything about MS getting in on the action.

Quote from: Eggtasticosony dont own blu-ray, so they cant really do anything about MS getting in on the action.

Yes and no, Blu-ray is a technology developed by Sony and a few other companies, so expect that there would still be licensing fees the MS would have to pay to Sony, but I dont expect that Sony can actually say no!

I remember playing Atari 2600 games on my Colecovision when I was a nipper thanks to a handy little gadget that let you plug the Atari carts in.

If Microsoft go with a Blu-Ray on the next XBox then I want a little gadget to play XBox games on PS3 and vice-versa.

Imagine the lawsuits.