There will be physical media for atleast the next two generations.
I think the next Sony console will stick with blu ray as they have invested in the tech, but I hope the next Xbox will do away with optical media, the benefits being lower cost, less noise, less heat generated, less power consumption and quick loading times (especially compared to blu ray). For those with slow/no Internet connection or if you prefer a box with instruction booklet, games could be released on flash drives as previously mentioned, or better still to keep costs down you could bring your own USB stick to a games retailer and they upload your game to it. I hope Microsoft go with standard HDD's next time so we can upgrade to our own needs (SSD would be put in straight away)
I think the next Sony console will stick with blu ray as they have invested in the tech, but I hope the next Xbox will do away with optical media, the benefits being lower cost, less noise, less heat generated, less power consumption and quick loading times (especially compared to blu ray). For those with slow/no Internet connection or if you prefer a box with instruction booklet, games could be released on flash drives as previously mentioned, or better still to keep costs down you could bring your own USB stick to a games retailer and they upload your game to it. I hope Microsoft go with standard HDD's next time so we can upgrade to our own needs (SSD would be put in straight away)
Won't EVER happen. MS make a killing off of overcharging on ridiculously small HDD's and people have to just go along with it.
Optical media isn't going anywhere, and a download-only console would severely alienate the retail industry. Sony tried that with the PSP Go and many stores retaliated by refusing to stock it.
Your probably right but if MS and Sony released new consoles download only I don't think they would refuse to sell them and lose out
Could someone please enlighten me? If Microsoft were to use blu ray would they have to pay some sort of royalties to Sony?
MS will have its own proprietary format I think. Like Nintendo does.