PS4: Blu-ray discs are the "primary delivery mechanism"

PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan has said discs aren't going away any time soon, despite the PlayStation 4's emphasis on digital content delivery.

"Clearly, and this applies not just to games but to pretty much every form of entertainment, there is a trend to increased digital consumption, and that is happening now on PS3 and will continue and will probably accelerate on PS4," the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO told IGN.

"But the primary delivery mechanism for the big games on the PS4 platform will continue to be Blu-ray discs, for the foreseeable future."

Ryan said Sony has significant interests in territories where an all-digital focus is impractical.

"If you go down to Southern Europe, where we have very big and important businesses, it can take you 3 days over a standard internet connection to download a file of the size, and that’s not fun," he said.

"There are certain gating factors in terms of internet infrastructure that mandate that the disc-based solution is going to be the primary delivery mechanism for the foreseeable future."

Meanwhile, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shihei Yoshida has promised every disc-based release will also be available digitally, so it looks like you'll have a choice of formats for the coming generation.