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walsufnir on 15 April 2013
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Branko2166 said:
walsufnir said:
Mr Puggsly said:
VGKing said:
Zappykins said:
I am going to revise what I said. After thinking about how many people I know who bought a PS3 because it could play Blu-rays.

So having a Blu-ray significantly helped the PS3's sales. But the format war significantly damaged disc sales, the industry, and launched the door to streaming.

Also, I think Microsoft pushed streaming, and their 1080P 5.1 streaming more because they had to counter blu-ray.

LOL. Streaming is just part of the digital revolution.
Streaming really took off with Netflix. Microsoft had nothing to do with it.

MS had something to do with it. They helped push using digital streaming on televisions via their popular console. If Sony had it their way, they would prefer people just stuck with Bluray.

Exactly. Sony wanted to see Blu-rays all over the market, just like DVD, and I am sure this won't ever happen again. Yes, picture quality of Blu-ray by now is better than streaming but this will eventually change. Optical discs don't have a future - not in gaming, not in music, not in movies.

That mantra about optical media not having a future has been repeated many times over the last several years. I can definitely see digital only be an option for some markets like Korea or Japan where high speed internet is the standard for virtually the whole population. However for the majority of world internet users digital only for everything is a pipe dream at best. Granted it doesn't help that the world seems to be entering an economic downturn which will slow down adoption as well as the financing of more high speed internet infrastructure by governments and companies.

There is also the factor of many people preferring to own a physical copy over which they can exercise control and if they so choose can trade or exchange.


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.