Sony reveals PlayStation 5 will offer heretical no-optical-disk option. And yes, it has an AMD CPU-GPU combo Sony has revealed the fifth iteration of its PlayStation gaming console – and this time it comes in two variants. One is the "standard" model and will include an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive. The other is disk-free. Removing optical disks entirely would have been a very bold move because it would have limited backwards …
Having young children, a major drawback of the online only approach recently became very obvious: how do you get content while blocking online access?
Retaining the optical drive isn’t just a pragmatic decision for compatibility. This is a games device, it really needs an option for completely offline single player usage.
Hasn't that been solved ages ago? Whether it has an optical drive or not, devices have had functionality that restricts the console to only download and play, let's say PEGI 3 games only.
Getting rid of the optical drive isn't a massive deal these days, with this generation the disc is merely a delivery mechanism - the games are installed on the HDD regardless.
Obviously you'll be able to play offline single player, that's already possible with this generation console. This requirement is not affected by the presence of an optical drive.
If the downloads are encrypted, you *could* put them on any drive and play with no need for a UHD OD.
If UHD is desired and if the cost difference is only like $100, you might as well get the UHD model as buying a separate UHD player would probably cost at least that or more.
If you're buying a next gen console for better gaming graphics and expecting "HOLY SHIT!!", be prepared to be let down like never before.
Bold move. Also, feels like a bad move. To me that means that all content will be online, players will be trapped in Sony's ecosystem and won't be able to do anything outside of what Sony allows online.
It also means that, when the inevitable TITSUP happens, all Sony gamers will only be able to twiddle their thumbs in unison. Not to mention the inevitable launch fiasco where will once again see a major company's networked pushed beyond its limits when thousands of gamers will feverishly try connecting for the time, at the same time. Cue the inevitable tweet about how Sony is sorry and it couldn't have imagined all that activity.
Yup, I almost feel like I can see the future on this one.
Such is the state of things these days that your first install from disc is an unplayable bug-ridden mess and a day-one update is required anyway. However unlike, say, Steam, there is no CD key, so you can actually sell/buy discs second hand and the new owner can put the disc in their drive and get updates too, so there's that.
Hopefully the lack of CD keys will continue with the PS5, but you can see that the frog boiling continues apace.
Your Sony TITSUP already happened in 2011, didn't it?
It would be a bold move if they only had a disk-free version. As it stands, I know which version I'd be buying - the one where I own a physical disk that I can re-sell.
Not to mention the digital versions will almost certainly be at least the same price as the physical version. I don't think I've ever bought a digital version of a PS4 game, not least because the physical version is often cheaper on Amazon, despite you ending up having to download the full game as an update anyway.
Recently bought Doom Eternal. It was cheaper to get a box from Amazon which contained a cardboard disc with a product key telling me where to download it from Bethesda.net. Saved about a fiver. But as it's still basically a digital product, I look forward to having to buy it again in 10 years when Bethesda is consumed by some other platform and I lose access.
"To me that means that all content will be online, players will be trapped in Sony's ecosystem and won't be able to do anything outside of what Sony allows online."
But having a disc or not isn't relevant here. There are already plenty of games that install from a disc but still require an online connection to actually play. And there are plenty of downloadable games that are perfectly playable offline once you have them. The online services horse has well and truly bolted at this point, so there's no point worrying that a new console might potentially trigger it in the future.
As for being trapped in Sony' ecosystem, that's literally the only reason consoles exist at all. If they didn't want to lock you in their walled garden, they'd be just another PC hardware retailer. They're not even pretending any more, consoles are just a PC with a branded lock on the door - you agree to lock yourself in in exchange for bribes of exclusive games.
To me that means that all content will be online, players will be trapped in Sony's ecosystem and won't be able to do anything outside of what Sony allows online.
You mean like Steam, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, iPlayer, Kindle, Sky Now, Apple TV, Google Play?
Nah you're right, it'll never catch on.
Use of third party external storage for game storage is unlikely, given all the hoo-ha they are making about the performance of the extra special Sony ssd storage tech and how it is a requirement that all games utilise it.
That and the box is an eyesore, looking more like something soljaboi would whack his name against than a big three console.
Hard pass from me until they release the inevitable revised version in two years...
Mark Cerny (lead designer at Sony) has already stated that an external drive can be used for legacy PS4 games, and those PS4 games can be run from that drive, or moved to the internal SSD for a speed boost if wanted. Can't be used for PS5 games though, but...
PS5 also has an NVMe M.2 slot...
Quote from Mark Cerny : "We will be supporting certain M2 SSDs," Cerny confirmed. "These are internal drives that you can get on the open market and install in a bay on the PS5. They connect through the custom IO unit just like our SSD does, so they can take full advantage of the decompression, IO co-processors, and all the other features I was talking about. Here's the catch though: that commercial drive has to be at least as fast as ours. Games that rely on the speed of our SSD need to work flawlessly with any M2 drive."
Original article here: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/ps5-ssd/
Nintendo Switch Games at retail are often an empty box with a download code in. So not only a hideous waste of resources but you have to type in some ridiculous string of nonsense to get the game you just paid for!
But, it's the way the industry is going. If you don't have a physical copy you can't sell it on. It makes financial sense for games companies to cripple the second hand market. It makes financial sense for games companies to avoid manufaturing physical products, they're software developers. Much easier to allow 50,000 downloads than manufacture 50,000 disks.
On the plus side, having a box with a big browsable list of games built in is very convenient....
Steam showed the way on PC years ago, and in a very short time basically destroyed the boxed PC game industry, with any publishes not going via Steam, having to provide their own downloads, or create their own platform.
Big publishers like Ubisoft and EA have been trying to do the same to the console market for years, the PC versions of Origin and Uplay basically being practice for them.
The only reason I have any disks for my PS4 (first PlayStation I've owned) was that they were usually cheaper to buy than the online store versions (especially the legacy games, like early Uncharted games etc).
Personally, I don't miss having to use a CD/DVD to install stuff on PC.
The problem with Nintendo is your digital downloads last one generation at most as they completely redo online services for every generation. And you need to have both consoles in front of you and wait for the Pikmin to move house.
On the plus side, having a box with a big browsable list of games built in is very convenient....
What got me into programming was typing several pages of BASIC code for a game printed in a Dragon 32 magazine - by the time I finished dealing with all the syntax errors on input, I had managed to figure out the meaning of the statements... That is how I "learnt" to program. And I must also give a word of thanks to "Mr Sankar", the Maths teacher who allowed us to use the Commodore PET (which was in locked cabinet), sacrificing his lunch hour to supervise us. His introductory scribble on the blackboard was
LET X = X + 1
Which, from a Mathematical perspective "does not compute" - but that was just the opener for us
Thank you Sir.
Hmm yes, that reminds me there's a PS3 literally gathering dust round here somewhere. Though it's not as bad as it was due to me digging it out earlier this year as I was convinced I could properly platinum GT6 by finishing off the Senna challenges. It didn't take me long to figure out my meagre talents could no way achieve the times needed, so that was the end of that!
The PS2 was shown upright http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/445933.stm as was the PS3 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4807858.stm and the PS4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-22852723/playstation-4-launch-gasps-as-price-unveiled I'm pretty sure this one can lie down to
gets woke.
Sounds a hysterically funny game, provided they have the sense of humo(u)r to actually do it justice.......
Anyone else remember 'Leather Goddesses of Phobos'?
Zak McKraken & the Alien Mindbenders?
Some funny games with an extremely dodgy sense of humour......
I suspect the PS5 and the new Xbox will be the last generation to even give you the option of a built in optical drive. I do feel a sadness that we will loose the second hand games market though, as not everyone can afford to buy games at full price. Maybe we need to go back to the budget labels games of they 80s and 90s where older full priced games are re-released for £4.99 6 months after their initial release.
Losing the second hand market would be bad as far as I'm concerned. I tend to buy mostly new, but have discovered that you can't take other people's ratings for a game for how much you will like them yourself. I've just finished Assassins Creed Origins and accumulated something silly like 100 hours enjoyable play time! Just tried Resident Evil 2 and found it so bad I deleted it after 10 minutes play, so that will be going on eBay. Both games have 5 star ratings on Amazon and with reviews that make them sound like my sort of game.
It would be annoying to pay full price for a game only available by download and no means to sell it if you don't like it.
But surely you make the device ecosystem the centre of your living room/bedroom so you can (Sony anyway) flog some Blu-Ray discs ??
A stand-alone Blu-Ray player is from £55 retail (inc tax) @ Argos... so a bare drive is probably about max £10 manufacture costs at scale.
Digital only editions a solution to a problem no-one asked about. It was only ever a thing with the PS3 launch and the massive cost the new Blu-ray tech added to the launch cost.
There's a huge second-hand market in retro games. I buy Sony Playstation Portable games from eBay, I have two old PSP systems I use to copy off the games to ISOs and then I play them through an emulator on my Sansung tablet and PC. Alright it's not exactly the right side of "larry law" but the console is long dead and I buy the original software boxed. The games cost me anywhere from £1 for a disc only to £10 max for a boxed games instead of the £60/each for a single title on the latest console. I've started buying N64 and Sega Megadrive systems and games, I couldn't afford them when they came out, now I can and you can get dozens of games for the same price as single game for the latest kit.
Retro means you get tons of games, hours of great, well tested gameplay all at great prices.
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