The extra cost involved makes me think this will never see the light of day.

Except as noted, Sony owns the patent.  They would be able to quash any ability to manufacture or sell, or import it.  If they did get made, they'd only appear on the Chinese black market.

When you figure in the lower packaging costs, it isn't that much more expensive.  Especially considering you can easily make piracy all that more difficult.

The major difference is that it's an integral part of the console.  Unlike a mini-disc that slides into a slot, this cartridge sets into the console.

Imagine the PS1's CD door is a cartridge, except that the door also comes off by sliding up off two pins.

You couldn't use your game console to play regular blu-ray movies with this 'drive', so they better not be using this on the PS4 or i'm not buying, period.

It seems pretty weird. Would this be as part of a push for a new 4k format then?

Completely agree, this is pretty much what I said back when the first anti used games rumors were knocking around.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=5002024

Not quite the same but a similar product.