As the next generation of video game hardware approaches, the rumors, supposed leaks, and speculation starts to ramp up, keeping the community on their toes. We don’t have much information about the upcoming PS5 console, but that doesn’t stop developers from giving insight as to what they think the system might be. One interesting PS5 rumor floating around suggested that the system would be discless, giving us a digital-only platform and leaving users without stable internet (or internet at all) stranded with older hardware.
During an interview with Gaming Bolt, technical director of Cradle Games, Marc-André Jutra, said that he doesn’t think a digital-only system would be viable for the next generation, precisely because of how many users still don’t have reliable internet connections.
I think they will have a discless version, but I think that for the next generation there will still be a version with discs. There are a few reasons: not everyone has internet, and if you do have internet, a lot of people don’t have enough bandwidth to download 80GB per game. The current generation of games is huge. Not everyone can afford to download a game and its patches, there are still internet providers who have bandwidth caps. And if we have bandwidth issues here, you can imagine that it might be worse in other countries.
The second issue I see is that if you go with a version of a console that has no disc, then why would GameStop sell those consoles? The whole market is you sell the games for profit. So you pretty much say, “hey, sell our console that makes you no profit, and sell no games.” So I don’t think you will see discs die this generation. But one thing I would like to see is, because right now I have issues with Blu-rays, they are slow to load. So that’s why in the last generation of consoles, you have games with long loading times, and the games needing to be installed.
That statement isn’t unusual, but what he said next was interesting. Jutra suggested that instead of using discs, the PS5 could use cartridges or USB keys, saying, “I could see that printing Blu-Rays takes time, just to do it properly. Flashing a USB key with an existing image on the other hand is much faster.” He goes on to say that by the time the PS5 rolls around, the issue of expensive cartridges should be resolved and that it would be a viable option.
It doesn’t seem likely that the PS5 will abandon discs at all, most certainly not for cartridges, but it’s absolutely fascinating to see all of the speculation appear as the PS5 approaches. A discless system is one PS5 rumor that doesn’t hold up, so it seems like we still have some time before console gaming goes completely digital.
[Source: Gaming Bolt]
