Sony increasing Blu-ray capacity - Report

One of the Sony's primary competitive advantages in this console generation is the console's built-in Blu-ray player. Whereas Microsoft's Xbox 360 is often limited by the smaller-capacity DVD format, the PlayStation 3's high-definition media playback standard lets game developers pack up to 25GB of data onto each side of a dual-layered disc. The extra space allows developers to make one version of the game that contains localizations for every region or eliminate the need for players to swap discs mid-game.

The PS3's disc storage-capacity lead may soon expand a bit further, as Nikkei Electronics Asia reports that Sony has devised a method to pack 33.4GB of data per Blu-ray Disc layer. According to the Japanese tech news site, Sony has improved the way Blu-ray Disc quality is read using the same technical setup that is currently available in media players, such as the PS3. As such, the improvement could be implemented by way of a firmware update.

Nikkei Electronics Asia did not indicate when the new media format may enter mass production.