Former Sony Exec Believes PlayStation 6 Will Retain Optical Disc Support

[T0@st]

A former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment USA—Shawn Layden—has shared his views regarding current and future PlayStation product landscapes. In an interview conducted by podcaster Reece Reilly (of KIWI TALKZ), the American businessman was asked about Microsoft's recent-ish release of all-digital Xbox home consoles. Layden believes that Sony will not copy its main rival's homework—the heavily rumored "PlayStation 6" could launch in two forms: with an optical drive, or without. The ex-SIE boss commented about a potential disc-less future platform: "I don't think Sony can get away with it now...I think Xbox has had more success in pursuing that strategy, but Xbox is really most successful in their business in a clutch of countries: the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Coincidentally enough—all English-speaking countries."

The current day PlayStation 5 family—consisting of standard, slim, and Pro models—is this generation's market leader; having established a huge international userbase (roughly 65 million units, back in September 2024). Layden cites these numbers as a guideline for the makeup of a new-gen model: "Sony, which is the number one platform in probably 170 countries around the world, has an obligation or a responsibility to say: 'If we go discless, how much of my market is not able to make that jump?' Can users in rural Italy get a decent connection to enjoy games?" He thinks that his former colleagues are making very careful considerations, given the complicated nature of catering to a diverse audience: "which part of your market will be damaged by going to disc-less market? I'm sure they're doing their research on it. And there will be a tipping point, where there's some percentage where you can say, 'Okay that's fine, we can turn our back on that part of the market.' But Sony's market is globally so huge, I think it would be hard for them to go fully disc-less, even with the next generation."




KIWI TALKZ: "Shawn Layden was former CEO of PlayStation worldwide studios and former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment America. His (previous) career at Sony is legendary."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[3valatzy]

Even though Blu-ray was beautiful, it is much better to use compact USB flash drives - no rotation and unlimited capacity.

 

[GhostRyder]

I am actually surprised because I think at this point if we are going to do physical copies it would probably make more sense to make them on cards in stead of Blu-Rays. I know discs cost less to make and truthfully the disks don't really do much anymore but still I think it would be better.

Though more of my surprise is the fact it will not be totally digital.

 

[Event Horizon]

Read-only physical media makes less sense when you pretty much need to redownload the whole game in a lot of cases to get all the updates.

Wish it was more like GOG. Backup your games on anything you like and reinstall wherever and whenever you want.

 

[The Von Matrices]

I am actually surprised because I think at this point if we are going to do physical copies it would probably make more sense to make them on cards in stead of Blu-Rays. I know discs cost less to make and truthfully the disks don't really do much anymore but still I think it would be better.

Though more of my surprise is the fact it will not be totally digital.

I agree that some form of flash media makes more sense. It would have to be a USB drive because otherwise the console would need an extra-cost card reader. But that would make the game more expensive to manufacture and would require a higher selling price.

The problem is consumers' reaction to pricing. It would be hard for Sony to sell physical copies of games if each game with physical media was priced $5-$10 higher than the version without. The blu-ray disc drive costs $80, and most consumers would actually save money by paying more per-game instead of buying the disc drive (since there are a limited number of consumers who have 10+ games for their console). However, I still think that most consumers with slow internet connections would put up with the hassle of digital distribution if it meant saving money per-game.

 

[freeagent]

Problem is that not everyone is lucky enough to share the same internet. Like 5 or 6 years ago I was rocking out at 3.5Mb/s.. took 4 hours for 10GB.

 

[Ordy]

I'm already at the point where i'll probably just wait for the games to release on PC.
But if it forces their overpriced digital store, theres no chance ill get another Playstation.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Even though Blu-ray was beautiful, it is much better to use compact USB flash drives - no rotation and unlimited capacity.

Flash memory's cold storage performance is absolutely horrific. Bitrot can set in within months. Not a good format for games. If you use non volatile flash memory like nintendo, you are simultaneously hit with higher costs for the media and restricted capacities which are already too small for modern games.

 

[Guwapo77]

Even though Blu-ray was beautiful, it is much better to use compact USB flash drives - no rotation and unlimited capacity.

You can't buy PlayStation games on on USB flash drives tho...

 

[Daven]

What’s an optical disc?

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I agree that some form of flash media makes more sense. It would have to be a USB drive because otherwise the console would need an extra-cost card reader. But that would make the game more expensive to manufacture and would require a higher selling price.

The problem is consumers' reaction to pricing. It would be hard for Sony to sell physical copies of games if each game with physical media was priced $5-$10 higher than the version without. The blu-ray disc drive costs $80, and most consumers would actually save money by paying more per-game instead of buying the disc drive (since there are a limited number of consumers who have 10+ games for their console). However, I still think that most consumers with slow internet connections would put up with the hassle of digital distribution if it meant saving money per-game.

Problem is that not everyone is lucky enough to share the same internet. Like 5 or 6 years ago I was rocking out at 3.5Mb/s.. took 4 hours for 10GB.

Flash memory's cold storage performance is absolutely horrific. Bitrot can set in within months. Not a good format for games. If you use non volatile flash memory like nintendo, you are simultaneously hit with higher costs for the media and restricted capacities which are already too small for modern games.

So, I view these three comments together as the story of physical media.

On one end, I've been in places where satellite internet is the best they can do. You may live in the middle of nowhere, but you still wants to play games. Your only option is either an Xbox 360 (timely joke), or to basically play something that fits on your mobile device. Both solutions suck. That said, it's not like internet infrastructure is evolving quickly.

You then have the people living where the internet is good, pretending that losing the $80 optical drive will actually see the consumers get a penny back. Not sure how people got so optimistic, because what I see is them losing the cost, keeping the profits, and charging you more for an add-on. How much did they charge for that PS5 pro again?

Then you get to the new media format. It might be slightly more expensive than a disc printing...so people will complain about their $60 or $70 game costing more...but they still own it and can sell it for real money when they are done. Nothing quite like Steam...where people wait for games to come down in price because there's literally no resale market. Oh, but MS is in the middle of fixing it now that Xbox as a brand is cratering. They release games pass, you pay regularly, and you own nothing. Knowing their history, in two years they'll announce games pass platinum, and call their current version silver. Silver will be 20% less cost, but feature only the 20 latest games while platinum features everything. Tell me that doesn't sound like the MS way, and I'll show you a person either too young or too gullible to see the MS pattern.



In a perfect world you buy the game on a piece of non-volatile ROM. Your ROM acts as a one time check key, that loads the game onto your console drive. Each key calls home once, using minimum data, to authorize the key. If it's on a new console but an old key, MS freezes that game on your system without the same key. 30 days, or manually chosen, the local image is hidden on the drive until space is required, and once it is the image can be overwritten (with game save file data stored elsewhere and preserved). In this way you can resell games, they are more durable, and there's still some value in old games for collectors or somebody in 10 years who wants to play an old game but the servers are down...because preservation is a thing. Lord knows old NES carts are basically silver or gold...and most of those are older than me. Despite that, disc rot has already seen some PS1 games start to vanish.

Unfortunately, I think Sony wants to pull a Nintendo and charge $20 for a 30 year old ROM. Lord knows they aren't shy about remakes.

 

[dicobalt]

Maybe games should launch digital and then go physical once the big bugs are fixed.

 

[TechLurker]

It makes sense that they won't abandon disc drives completely; they know their demographics and markets, and there's apparently a large enough demand from those who still want drives with their consoles. The real question is when will they consider abandoning it (even a theoretical external add-on), if ever, or if they'll make it a feature again to be able to play old PS1 and PS2 discs the way the early PS3s were able to, but expand it to include the PS3 era too. Esp. now that modern hardware is good enough to emulate legacy hardware and Sony could technically expand their emulation efforts to directly emulate and play older PS games.