With cart storage increasing and cost decreasing steadily, carts stand a chance possibly.
With digital sales steadily increasing, if next gen were to include a second digital based sku (with optional add on blu-ray drive for someones optical needs like movies, music, BC) then I could potentially see carts being used for next gen games, maybe.
The potential savings/profits on digital (game) sales would probably make up for the extra cost of the carts for physical games. This would allow for physical games to stay the same price or increase slightly worst case. This may also mean digital game sales end up staying the same price as well, instead of decreasing like they should.
BDXL discs would most likely still be cheaper at that point in time, but what kind of savings carts would lead to overall, console cost included, plus the performance benefits, may be enough to switch to carts.
This would be so ironic btw. PS forces NiN to switch to optical. NiN forces PS to "Switch" to carts. LOL
