How very near sighted.  Because you and your group of friends think it's niche, it is?  I'm glad the rest of the world does not see it as such.  I just can't believe the kinda hate Blu-ray has gotten.  Though I suppose it's only been from fanboys and hurt HD-DVD supporters, cause the rest of us are getting into it.  I guess DVD should have never come out, either.  Advancements in tech and quality are bad.  Uncompressed sound and video is bad.  Game developers having more space to store HD graphics and larger levels is bad.  You do realize that next gen Blu-ray, or at least some format similar to it, is going to be necessary to hold the future games.  Heck, DVD can barely hold this gens games.  And DLC is a few decades from being the norm, if it ever is.  CD's debuted in '82 and are still on the market, even with DL mp3's being popular.  Blu-ray is going to be around for awhile.  So either Nintendo and MS are going to have to pay Sony for Blu-ray, or they are going to have to pay millions to come out with their own high capacity format, which will never be very profitable because they can't use it for anything but games since the music and HD movie market is already ceased.

I think it's way too early to think about PS4 or the next X-box especially when the wii with it's dated graphics is such a huge success. Even PC hardware haven't advance that much in the last few years. Multi-cores and better GPU for gaming is about it. I find there are less reasons to upgrade my PC and I really see no need for a new PS or Xbox any time soon. At best there maybe a new Wii in a few years to go HD when more people owns HDTV.

Who here thinks Sony shouldn't sell Blu Ray to MS...if they don't then I can see them dominating the next generation since Blu Ray is the future. In the next gen, Dvds wont cut it.

I agree that we got a few years to go before the nex gen, smidlee, but it's still fun to predict what's coming.

And stewroids, I see how Sony can play it either 2 ways...

1. They can refuse MS access to Blu-ray. By next gen Blu-ray will at least have a small majority of home movie sales, making it the standard. Any system using DVD will seem old hat. Which means MS (and Nintendo) would have to spend a lot of their research budget coming out with a new disc format and capable players with similar storage capacity. The bad thing for them being this format would not be very profitable since they could not branch it out into movies or music. Either this or they can continue to use DVD. But with the advanced graphics, and storage needed for these graphics, they would need a standard of 2 or 3 discs per game, possibly more.

2. They can allow MS to use Blu-ray. This would mean MS (and Nintendo if they decide to use it) would have to either pay one large licensing fee or a small fee for each disc. Profitable for Sony either way.

LOL.  Yea.  So what do you think about next gen's disc formats, CGI?

We won't be seeing the PS4 for quite some time... like it or not, Sony is in it for the long haul with the PS3, as well they should be because it'll be at least another 3-4 years before technology will be powerful enough to justify releasing a completely new console... even the best stuff available today is only marginally more powerful than the 360 or PS3, and there's no software out there to really take advantage of it anyway.

I think we'll see Nintendo release the Wii's successor in 2011 or 2012, and it will be roughly on par with the 360 and PS3 in terms of power... their next system will act as a "bridge" to the current HD platforms, and will probably cost no more than $200 at launch. The only thing they really need to add to their next console besides HD visuals is a comprehensive online system like the 360 and PS3 have, because that's really the main thing holding them back other than the lack of horsepower under the hood.

Guys, while if Microsoft did incorporate Blu-Ray into their next system. They wouldnt be paying Sony a large amount of Money. Not as much as you think. Their are 17 different companies who all own a share of blu-ray. How much Sony owns is a different matter all together

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6354980.html

Quote:
Patent player MPEG LA today announced that the first meeting of essential Blu-ray disc patent owners, consisting of 17 companies, was held in Los Angeles earlier this month.

The meeting’s purpose was to create a joint license providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to essential patents, as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses.

Participating companies included CyberLink; Dell; Hewlett-Packard; Hitachi; Koninklijke Philips Electronics; LG Electronics; Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic); Mitsubishi Electric; Pioneer; Samsung Electronics; Sanyo Electric; Sharp; Sony; TDK; Victor Company of Japan; and Warner Home Video.

Yeah, IF (and this is a big "if") there is a PS4, it'll be a long time before we see it. If Sony wants to remake all the money they've lost from the PS3 before trying for a PS4, it'll take them a while to do it.

The nexy Playstation will

1 Invert Moores Law
2 Be so big it will take up a small bedroom
3 Have its own satellite
4 Deliver electric shocks through the game pad (DualShock X)
5 Cost so much only rich governemnts will be able to afford it

Oh and all the launch games will still suck.

Lulz. This.