Now with media being easily downloadable and essentially everything you can find in-store being available online. Do you think think that there's still a need for optical drives on consoles? It would really not be that hard for people to download games via Xbox Live and the Playstation Network.
Especially now with the video game industry's crackdown on piracy and second-hand games. The games downloaded from online networks would instantly be validated and piracy would become much harder, if not impossible. Of course some people are against this, and some for it.
Also, the actual price of the games could go down if packaging, shipping and so on and so forth were removed from the video game industry. Technically, a publisher/developer would have more money to spend on the actual game if less was spent putting it in a fancy package and shipping it to Gamestop.
Lastly, I believe the probability of this happening depends on a cooperation of sorts between Sony and Microsoft. If Xbox 720 launches with an optical drive then Sony will probably follow suite, as the risk when doing it alone would be considerably higher. I'd assume Microsoft has more to gain from this, with the Xbox Live being pretty far ahead of the Playstation Network. Sony might not be so eager after the PSN hack.
It might also be important to note that the Nintendo Wii U is launching with an optical drive, making this whole scenario less likely. Though I'm not quite sure if Sony and Microsoft still even consider Nintendo competition, or even factor Nintendo into their decision making processes.
Do you think that the next generation of consoles will launch with optical drives?