Believing there is a future for optical discs, Sony and Panasonic have said they will jointly develop a new next-generation standard capable of storing a minimum of 300GB on a single piece of media. While both companies have released their own high-capacity optical solutions in the past, they will now work together to develop a new format that will target professionals, but may also come in handy for regular consumers as well.

While many companies, including Amazon, are trying to get you to move your data to the cloud, they still need a way to back those files up. Professional industries use high-capacity discs to store things like high-definition film and move large amounts of data. Sony and Panasonic hope that by developing a new standard for optical discs, industries will jump on board, ultimately benefitting consumers in the long run. The two companies hope to make their new 300GB disc available by the end of 2015.

The Verge: Sony and Panasonic team up to create 300GB discs of the future

I don't really see much use for using this type of disc in like a PS4. But, maybe something medical could get some good use out of it? Or you know, MTV Music Generator 4 and Watch Dogs 2 could get bundled into one disc. I guess. Maybe some download 20 PSN games can get bundled in. Who knows?

That's a LOT of space for a disc.

Who needs hard drives for saving files when you can keep all that stuff off a computer that can be hacked? What? It was the best use case I could think of!

I'm surprise that its possible to fit all that memory in one disk.

THAT'S A LOT OF NUTS

You'll have to handle it with kid gloves. Any superficial damage could render it useless.

At one point there was working being done on discs that used holograms that they could get 1 TB on the disc, not sure whatever became of it though.

These could be useful for 4k movies which sound like they are going to take quite a bit of space.

Actually looks like it's on wikipedia lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

good,

Is that really necessary? I suppose with consoles perhaps... but this will KILL PC gaming. If a game even takes up half of that, that's 150 GB of data that will need to be installed to a PC. I don't know how they'll overcome that hurdle.

They're developing this in preparation for the jump from 1080p to 4K. 4K movies are going to be large, I just doubt that will still be reliant on physical media by then. Who knows though, some people seem really adamant about sticking to physical discs.

So disc as they are right now? Remember when CD's were coming out and they said they were going to be "indestructible"? Rofl

THAT'LL BE 4 BUCKS BABY YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT

I doubt they'd work in current players.

If you don't get some fries, your gonna have a bad time.

@evilsbane said:

I nearly lost a DVD full of pictures because of a tiny scratch. It takes a much smaller scratch to destroy a Blu-Ray so I imagine these things will stop working if someone blows on it.

THAT'LL BE FOUR BUCKS FIFTY BABY, YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT!?

Edit: Oh shit, I totally missed that @xyzygy made the exact same joke. However I used letters instead of numbers, and added some !?s, therefore my attempt is superior.

It's important to note that Blu-Ray discs are coated with this anti-scratch stuff called Durabis (or other similar proprietary solutions) that makes them much more scratch resistant than CD's or cheap DVD's. I've accidentally scratched some DVDs in my time (or had my PS1 and PS2 scratch them for me), but I've never scratched a Blu-Ray.

Maybe the PS3 is better at handling discs. Maybe I've become less retarded. All I know is that the stuff works.

It was my understanding that Blu-Rays are far more resilient than CDs or DVDs.

If it would cost only a fraction of a hard disk then this will be infinitely useful for back ups.

It would be cool to have HD TV show collections on just one disc.

@mlarrabee: According to the newer physical specs, Blu-ray discs are required to be hard coated and the error correction is fairly solid. It shouldn't be a problem anymore. (DVDs are still shit, though.)

By the way @blu3v3nom07, the press release doesn't say that this will be Blu-ray so the thread title is a bit misleading.

@tebbit: Huh, I didn't know Blu-rays were specifically coated; I just knew that with the highly increased pit density the chance for disc damage to destroy relevant pits was much greater.

That explains why my Blu-rays are still immaculate while my equally cared-for DVDs have visible scratches.

@audiobusting: Yea, you're right. Fixed. I still bet they'll keep on using a blue laser or something. I thought it was supposed to be faster. But sure

I guess you could release the entire PS3 library on 20 or so of those sized discs.