So to anyone whose been paying close attention to the industru the past 6 months one thing has become abundantly clear. The death of the retail disc is close to reality. Both MS and Sony are ready and want it to happen but are keenly aware that the infrastructure doesnt allow it quite yet.  That being said this is the last generation for disc based content.

1. Both Sony and MS are investing heavily in cloud based technology. Sony is pursuing the streaming option with Gaikai and MS is investing in cloud computing

2. DRM. Its coming to both consoles and a LOT of it.  MS will do this through mandatory installs and online authentication while Sony will use their watermarked disc trademark. According to Giantbomb Activision, EA, and Ubisoft are demanding it on both consoles and neither MS nor Sony will tell them no. Those publishers are far too large to simply ignore.

3. The heavy emphasis on integrating online into every experience,  including single player. Things like livecasting your games and DVR recording and sharing them with friends encourages the community to always be connected and to invest in the digital space.

4. Profit. MS and Sony arent blind. Theyve seen Steam and the IOS store and realize just how profitable cutting out disc manufacturing and retail would be.

So what do you think? Are you excited to go fully digital or dreading it.

I don't see Nintendo abandoning disks next gen if they make a new console.

Music CDs still exist Disc based Videogames should too. Choice is a good thing.

I agree with you on that. Im more talking about Sony and MS i guess.

It should be a bannable offense to group Sony into this.

Hold up, I'm sorry.... I read "this as this gen" as in Ps3/360. Do you mean Ps4/X1?

Your joking?

You believe Sony will simply look at Activision, EA, and Ubisoft and tell them no? Sony filed the watermark patenr for a reason and its obvious. In fact Sony themselves have admitted it.  They said pre owned will be up tp the publisher. Same as MS. They also said PS4 wont require online.

Its obvious publishers will have the option of utilizing the watermarked discs and that most will indeed use them

sony is the company who has already an online pass for their games which makes a big part of many used games useless, sony has most retail games as downlaod versions (more as microsoft) and sony is the company who said it's up to the publishers with the drm stuff. so, you really expect that a ps5 will be still "no drm, no online and retail is king"?

Ah no problems. I updated the thread title to clear up any confusion

Companies file patents all the time. Most of them are never used. Sony said the pantent doesn't concern the Ps4... Sorry bub