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[angrod14]

4K Blu-Ray is already being maxed out and we're not even half through this gen. We're seeing game sizes that go way beyond the 100 GB cap the format has, like COD Black Ops Cold War (225.3 GB), Gran Turismo 7 (183,2 GB), Cyberpunk 2077 (158.7 GB), and others. Once people start seeing their disc doesn't even contain offline playable data anymore, the declining of physical media sales in favour of digital "licensing" will most likely get more and more pronounced, until it's eventually dead. Pretty much what happened on PC.

However, if there's a new sucessor (SD cards, or another optical format) that can hold a lot more data and keep the pace I think physical sales could remain strong and healthy, although it would require an investment from Sony and the others that I don't think they would be willing to make at this point. I mean, why would they?, if they're seeing people embrace digital distribution that not only saves these companies money, but also allow them and the publishers to completely control all of our content.

Will there be a "next" physical format or it all ends with UHD BD?

 

[kittoo]

None

 

[keraj37]

New kind of ROM cartridge for next gen consoles.

 

[ReBurn]

The new physical format is going to be the device you save your digital downloads onto.

 

[hybrid_birth]

Sonys working on a ps6 blu ray format that will store 500gb of data. It’s called the Uber Ex orange ray 5000. It is rumored to run COD xbox discs incase that ever becomes exclusive.

It also will cost $150 for a physical game. Along with $999 for the ps6. With Jim Ryan saying to mortgage our houses if we can’t afford it.

Source: my uncle works at sony

 

[Fredrik]

Disc 1, disc 2, disc 3… disc 11.
We’ve seen nothing yet.

 

[angrod14]

The new physical format is going to be the device you save your digital downloads onto.

Well, there lies the problem. That's kind of where we are right now already. In their TOS, Sony states that for every digital "purchase" they only guarantee you the first download to your SSD, and after that you're at your sole risk if there's SSD failure, data corruption or something, and the game becomes unavailable to download again.

If I'm the responsible party to keep my content available, I would just go for the physical version, since SSD and HDDs suck for cold storage compared to optical discs. But if there's no physical version, or it doesn't even contain playable data, then I'm basically fucked if something shady happens to the copy stored on their servers (complete delisting for licesing issues, etc.).

 

[rofif]

The Blu ray discs have very high capacity of up to 100gb. Not sure if more is possible on ps5.
The discs are also much more durable than cd or dvd was. Take a look and your games are most likely not scratched and should not rot like some 90s cds.

Of course if we used sd cards, we could get more capacity and smaller size but it's more expensive.
Would be awesome if new physical was some sort of SD card that you can write updates ONTO.
But for the sake of bc, I am hoping ps6 will use the same standard, so ps4 and ps5 discs work!

 

[kiphalfton]

Zero.

DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD Blu-ray discs are super cheap. Cartridges would be way too expensive. Same with something that is the equivalent of a SD card with the game on it.

 

[Kilau]

4K Blu-Ray is already being maxed out and we're not even half through this gen. We're seeing game sizes that go way beyond the 100 GB cap the format has, like COD Black Ops Cold War (225.3 GB), Gran Turismo 7 (183,2 GB), Cyberpunk 2077 (158.7 GB), and others. Once people start seeing their disc doesn't even contain offline playable data anymore, the declining of physical media sales in favour of digital "licensing" will most likely get more and more pronounced, until it's eventually dead. Pretty much what happened on PC.

However, if there's a new sucessor (SD cards, or another optical format) that can hold a lot more data and keep the pace I think physical sales could remain strong and healthy, although it would require an investment from Sony and the others that I don't think they would be willing to make at this point. I mean, why would they?, if they're seeing people embrace digital distribution that not only saves these companies money, but also allow them and the publishers to completely control all of our content.

Will there be a "next" physical format or it all ends with UHD BD?

I understand the point and I don’t know if there will be another physical format after this one but where did you get those game sizes from?

GT7 is 112GB on my PS5 and Cyberpunk is 63GB on my XSX. Can’t speak to any CoD game but I know that the full install is like 3 games in one.

 

[angrod14]

I understand the point and I don’t know if there will be another physical format after this one but where did you get those game sizes from?

GT7 is 112GB on my PS5 and Cyberpunk is 63GB on my XSX. Can’t speak to any CoD game but I know that the full install is like 3 games in one.

The 18 Biggest PS5 Game File Sizes (& How Many GB They Take Up)

The PS5 has some huge games. These are the biggest so far, and just how many GB they take up!

gamerant.com

 

[Kilau]

http://[URL][URL]https://gamerant.com/ps5-biggest-game-file-sizes-gb/#f1-2021-109-5-gb

[/URL][/URL]

That’s simply not accurate. I wonder if they are counting both the PS4 and PS5 totals or something.

They list GoT DC at 122GB but on my system it’s 61GB

 

[killatopak]

It’ll be SD cards since they go up to 1tb or something.

 

[ReBurn]

Well, there lies the problem. That's kind of where we are right now already. In their TOS, Sony states that for every digital "purchase" they only guarantee you the first download to your SSD, and after that you're at your sole risk if there's SSD failure, data corruption or something, and the game becomes unavailable to download again.

If I'm the responsible party to keep my content available, I would just go for the physical version, since SSD and HDDs suck for cold storage compared to optical discs. But if there's no physical version, or it doesn't even contain playable data, then I'm basically fucked if something shady happens to the copy stored on their servers (complete delisting for licesing issues, etc.).

Correct. You'll be just as screwed as if your game disc is damaged, lost or stolen. They don't help you in that case, either. You only get the one disc.

They're not going to develop a new, larger physical data storage format to ensure that customers always have access to games on physical media. In fact they want to stop delivering games on physical media, period.

 

[remember_spinal]

its called an SSD

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

some kind of USB sticks could be feasible?

 

[angrod14]

Correct. You'll be just as screwed as if your game disc is damaged, lost or stolen. They don't help you in that case, either. You only get the one disc.

Yes, but it's one thing to get your own disc damaged, like any property of yours could, and another thing to have some fucker exec on a suit suddenly waking up and deciding to remove their game because "contracts expired" or some shit like that. We're really heading towards some sort of dystopian nightmare.

 

[Three]

With games requiring installs 100GB is enough for compressed data that would take more space once installed.

 

[nikos]

Games would either have to run directly from said media or install way faster than discs. I made the mistake of buying physical games when the PS5 launched and couldn't believe how long they took to install. Would have been faster to download.

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

None.

No reason for it... We live in a digital world now. The problem with physical media is beyond space amount it has more to do with speed...

Just think about it... You can buy a game and click download, few minutes later you have your game ready to play OR you can go get an Ubber/take off your car drive to the store, buy your game, drive back and then you can put your media on your PC/Console and then you wait the same amount of time for the game to install and download a patch...

Sorry physical media will never be a thing again.

 

[ReBurn]

Yes, but it's one thing to get your own disc damaged, like any property of yours could, and another thing to have some fucker exec on a suit suddenly waking up and deciding to remove their game because "contracts expired" or some shit like that. We're really heading towards some sort of dystopian nightmare.

I mean that can still happen with games in physical media. Those same execs can wake up one day and send an update to every console connected to their network to prevent any they want to game from running whether it's on a disc or not. They can already make it so that you have to be online to use your discs.

We're already well past the point where games on disc are an insurance policy against the evil suits. Discs already ship with the worst possible version of a game on them with most requiring a day one patch. Some discs ship without the game on them at all like the most recent Call of Duty. You only think you own something if it's on physical media.

 

[angrod14]

I mean that can still happen with games in physical media. Those same execs can wake up one day and send an update to every console connected to their network to prevent any they want to game from running whether it's on a disc or not. They can already make it so that you have to be online to use your discs.

We're already well past the point where games on disc are an insurance policy against the evil suits. Discs already ship with the worst possible version of a game on them with most requiring a day one patch. Some discs ship without the game on them at all like the most recent Call of Duty. You only think you own something if it's on physical media.

Yeah, that's technically true. I guess the only real advantage physical gives -for now- is reselling, trade-in, and the fact that's not linked to any account in particular so if that gets banned you can still play it.

But the digital sales are so fucking good, fuck they're parading those 75% off all the time. You just can't reason with that shit. It is too much of a good deal. In my country, for example, games aren't made locally but all imported, and if you're buying physical you'll be shelling so much more cash than simply buying from the store, where you will pay sticker price at worst. No amount of reselling -at least here- is gonna give you that money back, as people are poor and used copies are worth less to nothing.

 

[MarkMe2525]

There will always be applications for physical media. In industry, this is huge, but less of commercial market for such products.

I believe if a company can develope a Terabyte capacity optical media, that it would provide enough benefit to hit the market.

 

[Yumi]

I’d love a giant cartridge. Having switch games is nice, but feels funny with how small the card is. I love large formats like Vinyl and 8 Tracks. It’s probably stupid, but I’d love to put an 8 track size cartridge into a game system. Really feel like you are starting a game up.

 

[nightmare-slain]

There will be nothing new. Physical media is on its way out if you hadn't noticed already. Why do you think both Microsoft and Sony have released all digital consoles like the XB1S digital, Series S, and PS5 digital?

Over the next couple years we might start seeing rumours that next gen will be all digital. I'd be surprised if they kept physical media. There really is no point in it anymore. Plus, MS/Sony stand to make a lot more money so you can bet it'll be happening.

I don't think there is any new disc tech. If anything we'd probably go back to cartridges with 250-500GB but that'd be expensive as hell. Nintendo cards rarely go to 32GB because they are more expensive. Also, capacity isn't everything. You'd need them to be fast enough to not bottleneck the console. Basically imagine games came on those external drives Xbox uses.

 

[anothertech]

They're just going to have an open slam nvme slot.

 

[64bitmodels]

its called an SSD

imagine N64 style SSDs that you pop onto the top of the PS6 and the game immediately loads like in the old times. Fuck yea

 

[LordCBH]

0%

 

[Drew1440]

Sony already has the Archive Disk format ready for the PS6 which can store upto 300GB, being based on BluRay disks. The snag is the discs themselves look to be enclosed in some sort of cartridge.

 

[Elder Legend]

Sony already has the Archive Disk format ready for the PS6 which can store upto 300GB, being based on BluRay disks. The snag is the discs themselves look to be enclosed in some sort of cartridge.

Hmm that's interesting. Never heard of this until now.

Truth be told though I don't think we're going to have anymore physical media come PS6. If we do, it will be the last one imo.

 

[64bitmodels]

Sony already has the Archive Disk format ready for the PS6 which can store upto 300GB, being based on BluRay disks. The snag is the discs themselves look to be enclosed in some sort of cartridge.

i looked up the prices on one of those bitches and it's... uh...

only person who's gonna be able to afford a PS6 with one of those is HeisenbergFX4

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

i looked up the prices on one of those bitches and it's... uh...

only person who's gonna be able to afford a PS6 with one of those is HeisenbergFX4

 

[Beechos]

None, dont alot of games nowadays store little to nothing on the discs and make you download everything.

 

[hemo memo]

None. Not worth the investment when things going digital fast. I mean Nintendo might because of the next Switch as games will get bigger and the game cards size is very limited. The other 2? BR are more than sufficient to carry them until consoles go completely digital.

 

[old-parts]

There was a new form of optical disc media demoed at CES 2023 that claims up to 8TB usable space.



Their roadmap says commercial drive available in 2026.

If it actually delivers on it's cheaper the Blu-ray claims, it might prolong optical disc support in consoles.

What the industry really needs is everyone to come together and produce a single high capacity, low cost storage medium akin to SD cards with readers/players are built into everything, TV's, phones, set top boxes, consoles etc. This will keep the market for physical media market going as DVD/BD disc spinners are in their twilight years, all of the hardware to play movies is in your TV already or console, the whole point of DVD/Blu-ray other than a storage vessel is obsolete and as a storage vessel for games on consoles its inadequate.

 

[Lupin3]

I mean, why would they?

Exactly. The hustle, the cost, the environmental impact... There's no reason for it.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Sony already has the Archive Disk format ready for the PS6 which can store upto 300GB, being based on BluRay disks. The snag is the discs themselves look to be enclosed in some sort of cartridge.

Compact disk and original blurays were enclosed in cartridges at the beginning of their life. Eventually, they developed protective coatings for both formats to allow them to ditch the cartridge without fear of damage from the lightest of scuffs.

 

[sachos]

It would be crazy if we could get games on SSDs, next gen cartridge gaming baby! Imagine if you could download updates onto them that would be sick.

But i don't think a game final install size being greater than 100gb necessarily means the game won't fit on a UHD disc though, i would presume games are compressed when building the disc to save space and even then they could keep using multiple discs like they have been doing up till this point.

 

[KungFucius]

It would be crazy if we could get games on SSDs, next gen cartridge gaming baby! Imagine if you could download updates onto them that would be sick.

But i don't think a game final install size being greater than 100gb necessarily means the game won't fit on a UHD disc though, i would presume games are compressed when building the disc to save space and even then they could keep using multiple discs like they have been doing up till this point.

A fast writable media with some physical DRM would be awesome. Even better if they sold some adapter where you could connect a bunch to the system at any given time. I don't see it happening, but it would be great for gamers.

 

[angrod14]

It would be crazy if we could get games on SSDs, next gen cartridge gaming baby! Imagine if you could download updates onto them that would be sick.

But i don't think a game final install size being greater than 100gb necessarily means the game won't fit on a UHD disc though, i would presume games are compressed when building the disc to save space and even then they could keep using multiple discs like they have been doing up till this point.

A fast writable media with some physical DRM would be awesome. Even better if they sold some adapter where you could connect a bunch to the system at any given time. I don't see it happening, but it would be great for gamers.

SSDs are great for short-term storage, but pretty terrible for long-term. Their average lifespan is of around 5 years and need to be constantly powered during that time in order to preserve data in them, otherwise it starts to vanish. They're pretty terrible for shelving.

Optical media is king in that regard. Data is burn into the discs and it's not going anywhere for 25-100 years providing you don't play soccer with them, they have zero moving parts, are maintenance-free, and they're cheap.

 

[RickMasters]

 

[Deerock71]

None.

No reason for it... We live in a digital world now the problem with physical media is beyond space amount it has more to do with speed...

Just think about it... You can click download and dew minutes later you have your game OR you can go get an ubber/take off your car drive to the store, buy your game, drive back and then you can put your media into your PC/Console and the you wait the same amount of time for the game to install and download a patch...

Sorry physical media will never be a thing again.

Digital is proving to be inadequate as well. If you actually want to own what you buy, then you're going to have to force the companies to re-think what it means to OWN what you buy.

 

[lh032]

doubt it, blu ray works fine. Name sounds cool as well.

 

[Yoboman]

None

Kinda sad Blu Ray will probably be the max quality we ever get for most films

 

[Robb]

I don’t think there’s much incentive for anyone to invest R&D in that area anymore, so I’d say it’s very unlikely.

 

[BennyBlanco]

CP2077 is 68 gigs on PC

 

[Deerock71]

I don’t think there’s much incentive for anyone to invest R&D in that area anymore, so I’d say it’s very unlikely.

The incentive would rely on the purchaser to say THIS IS WHAT I WANT!!!

 

[Valonquar]

Never, and consoles will never release with sufficient storage to hold ALL your games digitally either.

 

[Aenima]

You still havent seen Blu-Ray final form. Sony already has 3TB physical disks (not Blu-Ray), used for studios, but Blu-Ray can still increase in capacity.

 

[StereoVsn]

New physical format is not happening. Unless it's NVME drive attached to your console.

Not that there couldn't be a new physical format as there are a variety of upcoming media formats that could store hundreds of GB of data on blu-ray equivalent. I just don't think console makers have any incentives to implement that.

Instead Sony and MS would rather you buy shit digitally and who knows what Nintendo will do.