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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.

The disc is more than just delivery mechanism. I'm still not sure how I feel about the digital only edition apart from the fact I enjoy the second hand games market, going down to the likes of CeX and choosing a new used game.

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?

There's absolutely no reason not to believe them to be totally unable not to be caught without their pants on again.

Wtf?

If there's one thing I'm not, it's not stupid!

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.

players will be trapped in Sony's ecosystem

Isn't it part of the definition of a game console?

Pedantic grammar Nazi alert: a disk is different than a disc. Your hard drive is a disk; your DVD is a disc. The type was in the original article. Bad versions will have internal storage disks, solid state drives. But only one has a UHD Blu-Ray disc drive.

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: [1]https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/ps5-ssd/

[1] https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/ps5-ssd/

That internal SSD performance is in the same ball park as XB4 Ram!

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.

... not to mention the ensuing unecessary material (largely unrecyclable plastic) waste

The problem with Nintendo is your digital downloads last one generation at most as they completely redo online services for every generation. [1]And you need to have both consoles in front of you and wait for the Pikmin to move house .

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRivS8wFsa0

Death Loop looks great. Dishonoured meets Tarantino.

But I WILL get one for Horizon : Forbidden West.

Lets say I don't have ShellShock Nam 67. But their main FPS is great for the older gamer.

Neither this nor the new XBox will fit on the shelf under my TV unless they can lie down. I suppose if the consoles are losing their disk drives in the next couple of generations, they can be stood on the floor behind the telly.

Just thought Wiii not touched since kids finished Super Mario Galaxy. PS2 not touched in 3 years, PS3 in a year.

Nearly bought some PS3 DLC then found same price whole game PS4.

Console tidy up time?

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!

A quick internet search will provide you with your answer.

TLDR: Yes you can lie it down.

See title.

Given that its the over litigious Sony, and their current abuse of DMCA for the last of us leaks, and past abuses, I am done buying anything from them.

And no complaints it causes Covid-19? Looks like the love-child of the Alienware X51 and the new Aurora R9 not necessarily a bad thing but isn't exactly unassuming.

Perhaps we could start a rumour that the new consoles include an embedded 5G transmitter? ;-)

Icon --> Well it is Friday!

If Sony (or even xbox) offered a feature where these machines could be used as a desktop replacement then their huge costs could be offset against buying a pc for home too.