Sony Working on New Disc Format, Possibly For PS4
In a recent interview with Play3, Sony’s Senior VP of Product Development, Shuhei Yoshida said that the PlayStation 4 will use optical storage discs like Blu-Ray for blockbuster games. This was surprising considering Sony’s digital push with UMD-less PSPgo, and the trend the gaming industry has shown toward digital distribution.
So if the PS4 is to feature an optical disc drive, what will the storage format be? Will we see yet another Blu-Ray equipped console? Or will Sony usher in a new technology much like the PS2 did with DVD and the PS3 did with Blu-Ray? We may have the answer after the jump…
Considering Sony’s track record of innovation and “future proofing” their consoles, it’s hard to believe that Sony will yet again equip their console with a Blu-Ray drive. Blu-Ray is what’s hot currently, and while games still aren’t quite filling Blu-Ray discs’ maximum storage capacity, the format is clearly the “present” and not the “future”. To fully “future proof” the PS4 to withstand the standard PlayStation 10-year lifecycle, Sony is going to need to go above and beyond Blu-Ray.
Sony, not-to-be outdone by anyone, is rumored to be working on a successor to Blu-Ray. According to an article in the current issue of GameInformer magazine (Dead Space Cover; Issue 201) Sony is hard at work on “the next jump”, a disc similar to the previously announced Holographic Versatile Disc. The disc is said to have a capacity of 6TB (terabytes) or 6,000GB (gigabytes), more than enough to support 1080p HD video, 3D imagery, uncompressed loseless HD audio, along with any other AV codec you could throw at it. On top of all that storage, the format can use the massive amount of available space to implicate extra security measures, a major positive when pitching the format to game developers (and movie studios) who don’t want their games pirated.
It’s difficult enough looking into the future to predict such a need, even more so now with digital distribution becoming more and more prevalent. Sony has done it in the past with Blu-Ray and with the help of the PlayStation 3, made the format an everyday, household name. While Blu-Ray is here to stay and certainly has plenty of life left in it, so does the PlayStation 3. When the time arrives for the PlayStation 4 to be released, there could be a need for such a massive capacity storage medium. If Sony sees a need for such a format in the future, they’d likely look to the PlayStation 4 to replicate the success the PS3 had in ushering in Blu-Ray.
Do you see a need for such a technology? Do you think the Sony would take the risk again with another new format debuting on a PlayStation console? Or have they learned a lesson from the PS3′s launch price and initial reception?
32 Responses to “Sony Working on New Disc Format, Possibly For PS4”
Anyone is fooling themselves if they think that even next gen we will need something that is larger than blurays can hold. Most games dont come anywhere near the storage capacity and the ones that do probably could be made smaller by removing things that they included and are not necessary such as multiple languages.
Then current blurays hold 25gb but bluray has the capacity to hold over 200gb when it is multi-layered. A new console if anything would just be able to read multi-layered discs as the storage capacity is well over what will be needed.
Thinking that Sony is making another brand new format seems foolish and even if that is the case, is foolish. There is no need for it and blurays are just starting to catch on with movies, etc as being a common format. Introducing another format is asanine and would only serve to have Sony create another expensive console when next gen thats the last thing they need. This gen it was understandable with the new development costs but that would serve very well into making a ps4 very competitive in the price field when the format is now cheap.
There wont be another format as there is no need for it and it would only serve to hurt Sony more than they have to gain by it.
Oh good grief, something like 16% of American homes have a Blu ray player, and you’re talking about its successor?
The PS4 won’t come out anytime soon. At all. and it will probably use a different version of BluRay, not a whole new thing entirely. That’s what’s going to happen. You see, because it’s the Xbox 360′s successor that’s going to have to either come up with a new format or use BluRay, and while Sony will not be outdone by the new Xbox, that doesn’t mean it will use a new format, instead it will improve on the BluRay which will keep it one step ahead of the Xbox. I think this is what’s really the case, and to look into it as being an entirely different format is just oblivious and is only going to give Sony bad rep, because it will piss people off once they start to hear rumors that Sony will come up with a new format.
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there are some good arguments above, the biggest question (to me) is whether or not devs will want to fill a 6TB disk to capacity. Even when such capacity comes available, the work it would take to fill it with a great game would be outrageous. How much time and effort went in to making Uncharted 2 and that isnt 1TB. If a great game can take up less than a single layer BR disk, what is the need for 6TBs? Maybe, I am not seeing some big picture, but I dont see the need for that much storage on a disk, even when it comes to gaming.
I also agree wholeheartedly with JackC8, the successors to both Blu-Ray and the PS3 are to far on the horizon to bother discussing now. Cant we just enjoy what we have till Sony puts out the next great thing? I am really not in a rush to dish out another 500 bucks on a new system yet. Esp if they wind up killing backwards compatibility again.
That kind of storage space currently is of no use and I’m sure Sony knows it, especially seeing as a Holographic disc costs about $100 each and a reader is somewhere in the $15k range lol. This kind of tech won’t be implemented for at-least a decade, and then at that point that kind of storage space will probably be necessary(or at the very least a 12th of its capacity lol).
lmfao! No one should take this seriously, the only difference I can see coming in the ps4 would be a better Blu-ray drive to handle the high end Blu-rays that are planned to come out in the future, i’ve heard talk of blu-rays coming out in the future that will be up to 320GB of space and seeing as how Blu-ray is essentially the new dvd and hasn’t come into it’s full potential it would be stupid(something sony is not) to release a new format.
This article is irrelevant, no offense.
……………..although it’s nice to know sony is planning ahead of time, maybe we should be talking about the ps5 or 6 lmfao, now that would seem more logical.
Hold up people. It seems the prevailing sentiment here is that BluRay will have enough storage for years to come. The Hard Disc Drive that most people have in their computers and other devices was first commercially feasible in the late 70s, and now tops out at 2 terabytes. Flash-based Solid State Drives are only now starting to take hold in the personal computing market and are already available to the consumer in sizes of 1 terabyte and higher. I have a computer that cost $2699 in 1995, and it has an 8GB hard drive. By the time any PS4 comes out, TB will be the new GB. And to address the idea of digital distribution, the internet is only as fast as the arms that dig the trenches to lay the fiber-optic cable. I live less than an hour from D.C. and I can ONLY get DSL. No cable, no fiber. 365 bytes a second. To download the content of a standard BluRay disc I would have to use my entire bandwidth for 38 hours straight. Not gonna happen. Learn from our goofy techno-past, don’t low-ball future tech. You’ll always be wrong.
My concern here is whether Sony has thought about the 2TB electron oscillation problem that pops up among all memory forms that spin. Like harddrives and optical discs. I know that they could offset this issue by creating a laser that is more accurate control over broadcasted wave lengths but that’s going to cost a fair chunk of money. It’ll be the PS4′s cell processor and when you know that you’ll also have to introduce a more powerful processor, well the cost starts looking to high and Sony likely knows not to walk down that path again.
I imagine that the new optical media will look more like other’s research into the area and will be more likely introduced with the PS5.
The main reason for the new format is to avoid piracy for an extended period since it’s already catching up with the Blu-Ray format.
If you take a moment and think about it.It’s a smart move from Sony’s side
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A successor to Blu-Ray so soon would be very ill-advised imo. Blu-Ray adoption has really just started to ramp up and is just really starting to appeal to the mass market. Releasing and pushing a new optical format so soon will probably result in failure tbh.
Blu-Ray was a huge risk for Sony when it was introduced and as we all know it’s been hugely successful but we’ve got glorious HD movies and games on Blu-Ray discs and in 2010 we’ll have 3D games and movies on Blu-Ray. There is no real need for a new format. Perhaps there should be an evolution of the Blu-Ray disc, one that spawns BD drives that can read and stream the data much faster and paerhaps discs with a larger capacity.
A completely new format? That would be stupid.
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If there is a new type of format being developed for PS4, then Sony should keep it PS4 exclusive! Keep Blu-Rays for BR players, as so many ppl will be pissed off at another format change that they’re likely to not support it at all, therefore resulting in horrendous losses for Sony!
Its too much too soon tho in my opinion. No need to upgrade from Blu-Ray at all, even for PS4! So im wondering if this is just another bullshit article written by bullshit journalists, who want to have a bash at Sony’s name before the PS4 is here.
Let Micro$haft try and create the next format. They have to really, because i can’t see them paying for BR drives in their next console if it means giving Sony money for the privilege! The ball is in Micro$hafts court, and its down to them to make a decent response, not for Sony to come up with something new.
This site should be called PSBS (think we can all guess what that stands for yh?)!
hello …
when PS4 comes out, yes it will be good for a new format, yet this time SONY must be sure it’s not overpricey & mostly be sure it is backward compatible with blu-rays / dvds & CDs … else will be another hard start with less possibility of a better catch up like with the PS3…
SONY is synonym to innovation, i’ll definitely follow but please, do take in consideration that we’re just human with limited revenue
we want 3D (well some @ least), better than HD games, lossless movies (IMAX quality + 3D or better), maybe some multilingual discs in HQ Audio … but as long as it supports our previous purchases (BC is the key!) & not being expensive … then it will win the day!
cheers!
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how will it be good richy? Becasue the blu-ray was taken off by storm? Becasue it has good sales? that’s bullshit and you know it! There’s no way in hell this is going to happen simply becasue the PS3 hasen’t been met to it’s full potential. Games companies still fail to recognise the potential that the blu-ray offers to gaming and the sheer capacity they can use for their games as nyghtcrawler said a multi-layered disc can offer 200GB and if we can have a games like Uncharted 2 that haven’t even begin to scratch the surface,
well i’m imagining just now a game 12 times the size of uncharted 2 which would be epic, hopefully naughty dog will realise this and multilayer their disc.
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@SabinPheonix – you are right on the money.
A lot of the rest of you don’t seem to be following the technology trend for the past two decades. The rate at which our standard programs and media are increasing in size is actually pretty quick, and kind of ridiculous. What was a lot of space two years ago, is filling up now, with many people upgrading hard drives and the like. What makes you think in 6 years this trend won’t have continued, and that new formats won’t be needed? You say “oh, uncharted 2 has barely scratched the surface” but fail to realize that in two years games will be easily double, triple, or some other large multiple in size. Frankly this is great news that is extremely relevant. The reason that Sony continuously comes out with the better games for the better system is because they do exactly this – plan for the future so they can be the most advanced in the market place. Whats the point in releasing a new system, with better processors and graphics cards, etc, if there isn’t more information to process and more textures and animations to display? If you still think this is stupid, then wait 6-8 years for when this releases, maybe you’ll see the relevancy of my argument.
well considering there was just an announcement for a TV that could produce resolutions twice that of 1080p there probably will be some new disc that can support it no matter how much I don’t like the idea of movies getting higher priced again…I do really like that they will be sticking with games being sold on some sort of physical media though. I wasn’t looking forward to having to download everything. Not to mention it would kill the used market and no one would be able to buy as many games.
All I got to say is … 1 terabyte capacity … that would be cool and pointless for the blueray successor
I bet it’s not gunna be the hologram disc (single-layered=1Tb, dual-layered=2Tb)
That’s gunna be Microsoft’s doing. Sony’s gunna perhaps make a blu-ray hologram disc, as the blu-ray disc is 5x larger than the DVD, so in theory, the blu-ray hologram disc will have a maximum memory of 10Tb compared to a small 2Tb! HA HA HA! SONY FTW! MICROSOFT FAIL! X)
Blu – Ray is only just starting to take over from DVD, a new format this soon would be suicide. Blu – Ray is absolutely fine for now, for both movies AND games.
I hope they stick with just a upgraded blu ray (those 400 gig discs we hear about) and then phase in DD. I think combined these would make for a very future proof and awesome system. Hopefully this will work out the best for all gamers.
this is a perfectmove adn Sony will dominate once again with a new optical disc
Another thought i have is prehaps this is something for the next psp?
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All Sony has to do is upgrade RAM, VRAM and possibly improve the processing power a bit.
Other than that the PS4 will be future proofed as long as they get all the kinks worked out of multilayer stuff.
@ giese095
both those TVs aren’t adopted formates.. 1080i is still being run by HD stations. The higer res TVs upconvert (the same as any other HDTV) if that was the case we would see tons of 2.35 screens. Not just 1 philips TV
What’s with all the SPAM links?