We’ve heard rumblings within the industry regarding the future format of video games, but Sony has generally stayed true to the sentiment that Blu-ray is the (foreseeable) future — until now. SCEE president David Reeves spoke up at a developer conference in London and asserted that the future lies in the PlayStation Network.
"The key to the future is the PlayStation Network. Games put straight onto PSN are the big opportunity," Reeves commented. "We do believe that the disc-based delivery system will fall as the power of the network base rises. At the same time, the overall industry growth will continue to go upwards as we push out into emerging markets. What we don’t see is an overall decline in the market. This is a golden era of video games."
While we tend to agree, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ as much as ‘when.’ Blu-ray won’t be disappearing during this generation, and it’ll probably make a return (albeit a majorly enhanced one) for the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation Network has been a surprising success to say the least though, with over 40% of PS3 users downloading games directly to their hard drives, bypassing brick and mortal outlets. What do you think? When will we drop physical formats? Leave your comments below.