Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format...

[riso]

Microsoft's UK Xbox Boss Stephen McGill is claiming that Blu-ray will be dead technology soon and will not make a difference to gaming. Asked if he felt that if Blu-ray would extend the 360's shelf life, McGill said that people now recognise what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low.

“Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?” he said.

This is actually expected as it was one of the comments that was being bandied around during the Blu-Ray HD-DVD wars.

We wonder what he would be saying if Microsoft's standard had won that round?

[Jake]

As long as people want to own a movie so they can watch it multiple times, and share it with friends, physical media will exist.  I may stream all my movies off of a NAS drive, but there's still physical copies around my house.

Oh and there's simply some movies (cult classics really) that you simply can't find on DVD, let alone Netflix or any similar streaming service.  As long as those remain popular, so will the physical discs.