PlayStation 3 will be launched in a few months and one of the biggest attractions of Sony’s next generation video game console is its integrated Blu-ray player. Also Microsoft has with its external HD DVD player entered the HD format war and a lot of energy has been spent on the support for this new format that the movie industry is starting to rely on. Those who thought that the next next generation video game consoles, the ones after PS3 and Xbox 360, would be focusing just as much on their optical storage seems to be heading in the wrong direction. Phil Harrison, VP for worldwide studios at Sony Computer Enterntainment, has namey said that he would be very surprised if PlayStation 4 even used an optical unit.
The reason is according to him that the video game console market and the Internet will develop to the degree where games and software will instead be distributed over the Internet instead of with physical storage media.
“Both companies are even touting the ability of these new discs to play movies in even higher hi-def. That struggle, however, is ultimately meaningless. “I’d be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,” Harrison says.”
