Sony to Use Blu-ray Disc For its NextGen Console

At this year' s TGS Sony revealed the PS3 will have greater storage capacity.

By Rainier Van Autrijve | Sept. 21, 2004

Earlier today Sony announced at their PlayStation Business Briefing 2004, that their next generation Playstation will be using Sony' s latest storage format, Blu-ray Disc (BD).

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a new generation high-density optical disc format that enables recording and playback of digital high-definition video signals and programs. BD-ROM format has a huge memory size of 54 GB (dual layer, single side), which is 6 times larger than that of a regular DVD-ROM.

BD will also support the Hi-Vision TV broadcasting MPEG2-TS compression technology, making it possible to reproduce extremely high resolution HD video images. With the introduction of the latest high-compression code/decode technology (MPEG4-AVC, VC-1), playback of high-quality video images from HD video signals becomes possible even under a low bit-rate environment.

Sony is currently working on new lens technology by the name of Single Optical Pick-Up for the new BD format, so it can actually be read, which will ensure backward compatiblity with current CD and DVD media.

This will kick much ass...so long as backwards compatability is assured. With 40 PSOne games and what is destined to be around 50 PS2 titles, I do NOT want to have to purchase another PS2 (or two) just so I can be assured of being able to play nearly 100 titles in my collection when I get a new system...

This news is quite old. Do not expect the PS3 to actually record onto discs, as that would be extremely cost prohibitive in a video game console. BUt then again, the PlayStation 2 sold in the beginning because it had a built in DVD player, not because there were any good games available for it (there weren' t for quite awhile). So maybe Sony will do the same thing and release launch games that are crap, but people will get it for the shoddy Blu-Ray player...... NAH. I don' t see it happening. Blu-Ray is way too proprietary to be a selling point.

With Blu-Ray technology, Square' s Final Fantasy series will now be 700,000 hours long with CG cutscenes that go on for days! :D

I' m sorry, I must' ve missed the console that had as many worthwhile games at launch as PS2.

SSX
Madden 2001
TimeSplitters
Smugglers Run
Summoner
Unreal Tournament
Tekken Tag Tournament
Ridge Racer V
Kessen

I' m trying to think of this many games worth mentioning for any other console launch in history......hmmmmmmmm.............