What are the expected technologies in next generation consoles?

• What are the expansion possibilities using new media?

If we look at the way games are being distributed at the moment, we can see that most of the games are using DVD (digital versatile disc) to deliver games. Although the capacity of the DVD is limited to double layered disc which can contain 9GB and uses a red laser to read the disc. At the moment their are several new formats being launched by several companies and supported by different studios. You could say their is a new format war in the making, and the big question is who will survive it. The two formats are Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. They both use blue lasers to read the discs, but HD-DVD can contain about 15GB of data with a theoritical limit of 30GB and Blu-Ray can contain 50GB with a theoritical limit of 200GB using 8 layers on a single disc. There are also several other formats that are being developed though not as populair as the major two they are likely to become a mainstream format. Enhanced Versatile Disc is a china based format it uses the same standard as the DVD and red laser to read the discs, but it enables to store HD quality on the same disc. Versatile Multilayer Disc is another format that can store HD quality and more than that offers a 30GB capacity. One of the most prominant developments in storage media solutions can be seen in the form of the HVD. The HVD is the abbreviation for Holographic Versatile Disc. This may be the next big medium to store information on, it enabled content providers to theoritically store up to 1 terabyte on a single disk. Considering this limiting the developers to make games is not related with the medium the games are distributed on, the storage capacity is not the issue.

Background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-DVD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

• How well is the computing power keeping up with gaming?

Background information: http://www.dfcint.com/game_article/gamegenres.html

• What are new technologies that will enable new kinds of gameplay? (Virtual reality)

• Who is the biggest technology player in the game console industry?

• At the moment can technology increase the realism of the games?

• What technologies are going to be introduced soon?

Background information: http://www-1.ibm.com/solutions/digitalmedia/doc/content/news/pressrelease/941342122.html

• Is technology more important or the quality of games?

http://www.alienbrain.com/comp_prro_prre_pu_030722.php

Game Research and Technology http://www.red3d.com/cwr/games/

New technology tracks in-game ads http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5796449/

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