We'll see ;) Everyone tries to establish a streaming platform by now. Sony started with Qriocity which has been renamed AFAIR, MS also tries to establish streaming via Xbox. Then there is netflix which eats a lot of the whole traffic generated in US. BBC in UK, Lovefilm, Maxdome and others in Germany. In my opinion it will all end in monthly fees and watching-flatrates.

There will always be people who prefer physical copies and I don't want to block optical media but it just isn't needed anymore (for me). I have a good internet connection, most people I know also. We will see how it turns out but I make a bet: Bluray will be the last optical disc format designed for mass market.

Thanks for the reply :)

 By the way I also edited my post and added a couple of questions for you.

I can see you have a killer internet connection. I have a 100Mb line at home which is pretty fast for Australian standards. Seeing as how you're from Germany I can see how the infrastructure would be great in your country. I'm just saying that outside of a few nations including yours it doesn't seem viable for the majority of internet users to go digital only.

For streaming you don't need that much of a killer connection - 6 to 8 mbit is easily sufficient. 100 mbit is enough for even streaming 1080p video ;) Where I am not with you is the part " I'm just saying that outside of a few nations including yours it doesn't seem viable for the majority of internet users to go digital only.". I think there a way more countries where this can be realized than you imagine. Also keep in mind that the internet access is getting better and better. Remember the internet 10 years ago? It is only 10 years and it is still evolving. The access and the applications for internet. This is not only affecting watching-behaviour but also your every day life. For example, nobody wants to use facebook with a dial-up-access. The internet itself demands more bandwidth and so it all evolves. Of course there are countries that are left behind but I think most of the countries where the people earn enough money won't have problems to stream movies in the next 2-3 years. 

@Walsufnir

I agree people's earnings play a role but the other major factor is the government needs to be willing to invest in the infrastructure as well. For instance at the moment in Australia the opposition which looks like will be our next government has promised to scale back the investment being made into our national broadband network. I can see this being a problem in many other countries as well.

In any case I concurr with you that on average we will continue to get better speeds overall assuming the world economy doesn't tank.

That's business as usual. What's your point? MS was also paying the DVD consortium for every DVD which Sony was a major part of as well. This isn't a big dick contest wal, this is just looking at reasons as to why it happened this way.

Actually, MS was personally financing Toshiba to continue the war. Another reason why they also used an HDDVD add on. They wanted the war to drag on as long as possible, promoting consumer confusion to gain an upper hand against both ps3, and to further it's own streaming tech.

The whole concept of the PS3 is a video game console that is future proof. Sony knew Blu-Ray would be the standard format before this gen was over and they wanted it in their console. Blu-Ray was a selling point for the PS3, both as a game and movie format. You can't deny that.

You're right, sales wouldn't have been better, they would have been worse.

I completely disagree, going with blu-ray was a good idea for this generation. So what if it didn't make them much money?! It gave the extra storage space that games especially exclusives needed. Uncharted 2 and 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 are such examples that blu-ray was needed, there were nearly 50gb each! God of war 3 was 35gb, could you imagine these on 6 or 7 DVD's?! It's this reason that it's stupid that Metal Gear Solid V is coming to xbox 360, i dread to think how many DVD's that will use. Personally, i like my games on 1 disc but i'm sure developers have reduced the quality of graphics and even cut stuff from their games, just to fit it on an old fashioned DVD. It was enough for last gen, but not in the HD era

SIGH. You want to know what really popularized streaming? YOUTUBE. Netflix/Hulu are evolutions of this. People already uploaded movies/tv shows on Youtube only for it to be taken down a few days later....Microsfot literray had nothing to do with the rise of streaming services, they are going with the flow. They didn't invent streaming. They don't even own a streaming webstie or app. Microsoft had no more to do with the popularity of streaming than Sony. Did you forget that PS3 is the #1 console for Netflix? 

What streaming tech?