Sony representatives have announced that the company has developed Blu-Ray optical disc production technology that will enable the discs to be produced at half the cost of existing DVDs. This will largely be achieved via the use of low-cost silicon plates instead of glass, and the fact that production equipment takes one-fifth of the floor space needed for DVD production.
The equipment will cost approximately ¥300 million ($2.74m), and Sony Disc Technology will start accepting production orders this autumn. The PlayStation 3 console will use Blu-Ray discs instead of DVDs, as they can hold more than five times the amount of data.