With Bluray disc being the highest capacity optical disc one can buy currently (50gb storage capacity), Sony and Panasonic revealed the next-gen follow-up to Blu-ray Disc.

The new format, dubbed Archival Disc, will allow for optical discs with storage capacities of up to 300GB, a six-fold increase over current dual layer Blu-ray Discs. As time goes on, Sony and Panasonic plan to expand the recording capacity to 500GB and eventually 1 terabyte.

With a terabyte of data on a single disc, 4K suddenly becomes a viable option for home video releases. Sony and Panasonic plan to launch the first Archival Disc systems in summer of 2015.

What this means for DVD, Blu-ray and the new game consoles remains to be seen, but with the stated goal of “expanding the market for long-term digital data storage,” we might see the proliferation of three separate formats next year.

Sony, Panasonic: Archival Disc is the next step after Blu-ray | BGR