Sony and Panasonic are joining up to make all those Blu-ray discs you’ve been purchasing obsolete.  A new disc-based media format is on its way by 2016.  The companies announced the project in a statement likely read in between outbursts of maniacal laughter:

Sony Corporation (‘Sony’) and Panasonic Corporation (‘Panasonic’) today announced that they have signed a basic agreement with the objective of jointly developing a next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs, with the objective of expanding their archive business for long-term digital data storage. Both companies aim to improve their development efficiency based on the technologies held by each respective company, and will target the development of an optical disc with recording capacity of at least 300GB by the end of 2015. Going forward, Sony and Panasonic will continue to hold discussions regarding the specifications and other items relating to the development of this new standard.

The collaboration continues a partnership that formed the core of Blu-ray’s development in the early- to mid-2000s and played a big part in the creation of DVDs in the mid-1990s.  Since the mid-2010s are approaching, getting the band back together for a new format makes sense from the timing angle.

Unfortunately for Sony and Panasonic, their new disc may be obsolete long before George Lucas can find some way to ruin a new re-release of the Star Wars Saga.  With streaming on-demand video leaps and bounds ahead of where it was even two years ago, a new disc-based format will have trouble in the entertainment market.  The next generation of physical media may be relegated to backing up computer files and sitting, unlabeled, on a forgotten shelf.