14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has once again highlighted that physical media, like its own Blu-ray discs, will continue to be relevant for the next generation of home consoles, even if digital downloads are becoming more popular.
Current generation consoles are all centered around physical media, ranging from the Xbox 360’s DVDs, to the PlayStation 3’s Blu-ray discs. Considering the popularity of digital distribution on the PC and even on such consoles, however, many rumors say that next generation devices will get rid of such physical storage.
Sony has once again highlighted its position on this issue, with the company’s Deputy President, Kaz Hirai, talking to Bloomberg about the advantages of physical media as opposed to digital downloads.
"It's very important that we continue to have a dedicated home-based console,” the Japanese executive revealed. “Relying solely on networks to deliver content is unfortunately just not possible. It's still very difficult to have consumers download 50 gigabytes of data or more."
Hirai’s comments echo those made by the President of Sony’s Computer Entertainment division, Andrew House, who said earlier this week that, while digital downloads or cloud streaming are becoming quite popular in recent years, physical media is still more advantageous for the customer.
This doesn’t mean Sony will stop offering digital copies of PS3 games through the PlayStation Store, however. The company is trying to deliver as many full-fledged games on the online service as possible, even if they take the form of huge downloads that might not be viable for some of its customers.
Until everyone has a broadband connection and hard drives capable of storing all these games, it seems that physical media like DVDs, Blu-ray discs or other types of formats will continue to be relevant. As such, expect next generation devices, like the oft-rumored PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720, to continue having support for such things.