As part of the same press conference announcing the slimmed-down PlayStation 2, Sony has also officially confirmed that it will adopt the Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM) format as a medium for the next generation PlayStation. Specifically mentioned was a 54GB (dual layer, single side) capacity for the BD-ROM, 6 times larger than that of DVD-ROM.
The press release accompanying the announcement also reveals of Sony development: 'Development of key devices, including a single optical pick-up that can read data from all three formats of CD, DVD and BD, is already on-going.'
However, Sony are also expected to announce a tech demo showing an 8-layer version of the Blu-ray Disc, capable of storing 200GB of data, next month, and are considering a commercial 4-layer 100GB version of Blu-ray for release in 2007, showing the versatility of the format. It seems likely that the next-generation PlayStation will ship with the 54GB capacity disc reader, however.
