Honestly at this point its all but Speculation but heres What I think will appear next-round.

Playstation 4-I think Sony's going to be feeling the costs and expenses they occurred from the PS3's Development. Especially with the economic situation, I would think that they would like to reduce R&D costs significantly and will re-use many of the ideas and technology from the PS3. Things like Blu-Ray and The Cell will remain and hopefully they can go back to the launch price of PS1 and PS2 at $299.99 as well as making the PS4 easier to program for.

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Xbox 720-I really hope they dont really use this name. On the topic I think that Microsoft will either go the way of Digital Downloading. I'm not to sure how well received Stream is but from what I hear the service is wonderful and easy to use. With Valve's close relationship to Microsoft I think it would be plausible to see them helping Microsoft deliver a gaming experience from Xbox Live similar to Valve's Stream.

However, I dont think many people would feel to comfortable with DD when it comes to gaming. With Retailers like Walmart not being able to make a profit from their games Microsoft might be isolating itself from Retailers who would sell their consoles if they choose the DD route. Frankly I dont think the World is ready for DD yet, Unless, MS a voucher system where you buy a voucher from a retailer for a game then download it from the Xbox Live system.

With that said, I think if Microsoft wanted to stick with a Disc format then they might resurrect HD-DVD format and use instead of eating crow and going the Blu-Ray route. The technology is there and just because the format might not be selling movies doesn't mean that it cant be used for its storage purposes.

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Nintendo-Nintendo has always developed their own format. They Created the Nintendo Gamecube Disc with the help of Panasonic(I Think) and the Wii optical disc, it wouldn't be to far Fetched to see them develop a new disc format for their games.

Digital Downloading will not be anyone's primary means of media if they want to reach the broadest possible market (which they will want to do now that the Wii has shown the way), reliable broadband, especially in America, is either way too expensive or far too slow (or both). To be able to download something like, say, Mass Effect would be infeasible for a lot of people out there

Blu-Ray (or a Blu-Ray knockoff in Nintendo's case), will be the standard de jure.

PS4: Blu-ray
X720: Blu-ray
Wii-2: proprietary format based off... blu-ray

Actually I have a funny feeling, based on previous conversations in this forum, that Nintendo is going to go with carts.

Sony is blu ray guarenteed, MS is probably blu ray though they dont get a good deal they may come up with a propriety disc similiar to HD DVD which they were a part of and WII2 will be its own. All three will start to push digital download also.

fixed

nintendo - proprietary
xbox 720 - holographic disc
ps4 - bluray

Doubt it if its one thing Im sure everyone has learned this gen is that Price will always be the deciding factor on whether or not your console does well. HVD as of now is way to much money and to much of a risk to be used

I think DD might be too far fetched for the status-quo but it is the best answer for MS and Nin. Who wants to pay Sony for the rights to use Blueray Discs?

(Of course now Nin can use HD Discs, because it is now less likely to be pirated.)


But as it is Most People don't know this but you can walk into most Target and Walmart stores and download game demo's for the DS.

Retailers are already sick of the lack of floor space they have for their products- with memory becoming so cheap and compact who is to say that we won't be taking our key chains up to a machine in a store downloading a game.

For that key-chain memory device we could either play and store games or transport games to our system Hard Drives.

Nintendo use to do this kind of stuff for the NES and the SNES in Japan, 10 years or more ago. Time we caught-up?

All they need is some kind of security code to insure that the software can not be pirated.

Cartridges.