While digital downloads and the cloud have been all the rage the last year or so, good old fashioned physical media still rules the roost. Last week, the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA)
approved a ginormous multi-layer
Blu-Ray disc that is capable of holding up to 128GB of data. This four-layer disc more than quadruples the current single-layer (25GB) or doubles the dual-layer (50GB) discs that are on the market today.
Initially, the new larger format will be geared toward medical, commercial and document retention types businesses, but can you imagine the type of future-generation console games and cinematics that could be stored on one of these suckers with virtually no limitations on size? The only drawback appears that the format may not work with the current Blu-Ray lens technology, but the BDXL will allow today's 25GB and 50GB discs to be played on future players.
