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."

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[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.