Sony Says Disc Drive for PlayStation 4 Unlikely

[thunderhawk]

Sony Says Disc Drive for PlayStation 4 Unlikely

No discs for PS4

When it comes to disc technology in the next-generation console market, Sony is making a Blu-ray drive standard on both the $499 and $599 versions of its PS3, whereas Microsoft has decided to play it safe by using traditional DVD-9 media with its XBOX 360. While many like to point to a “Blu-ray vs HD DVD” battle in the console arena, one must take into account that no XBOX 360 games will use HD DVD media and the HD DVD drive will be an optional, external USB unit aimed at playing back high-definition movies. Microsoft has also stated that it has no plans to offer an XBOX 360 with an integrated HD DVD drive. With that being said, even though Sony's PlayStation 3 has yet to hit store shelves, Sony is already talking about its successor. Sony's Phil Harrison believes that the PlayStation 4 will forgo discs altogether.

With the rising popularity of using an online marketplace to download games, additional game content, demos and movie trailers, many are questioning the need for physical media in the future. “I’d be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,” said Harrison to Wired Magazine. While the market may not be quite to the point where a 100% digital distribution model would be feasible for console gamers, it may be ripe for the picking when the PlayStation 4 is released.

Looking at the PS2, it has been on the market for 6 years. Both NVIDIA and Sony have stated that the PS3 will have a shelf life of 10 years -- that pushes us to 2016 for PS4. Perhaps by 2016, large-scale digital distribution of game and movie content and high-speed Internet connections will be at a point where such a model would be feasible for a home console.

Source: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3664

[zero_cool098]

its hard for me to believe....games can reach up to 10gb rite? and like ppl would need highspeed internet which most ppl doesnt have so its hard for it to be possible(imo)

[zero_cool098]

its hard for me to believe....games can reach up to 10gb rite? and like ppl would need highspeed internet which most ppl doesnt have so its hard for it to be possible(imo)

[Shadowself]

First a life of 10 years for the PS3 does not mean they won't make a PS4 until 2016.

The PS2 will probably have a useful life for at least four more years (10 years total). There will probably be new games for the PS2 (though probably no major new titles) for at least a couple more years.

So if we assume the lag between the introduction of the PS2 and the PS3 to by typical that means the PS4 may not appear until 2012. Sony will want to get their development costs out of the PS3 before introducing a PS4 so I don't see a PS4 happening before 2011 or 2012.

As mentioned, yes, games have already exceeded 10GB. (I've mentioned elsewhere in these forums about my testing one that was 13GB.) Games (well virtually everything, really) will only get more massive and require more disk space.

Thus unless these companies make the games 100% online and you just access them as a service (and virtually 100% of the data resides on the server and your local system is only a graphics front end to the system) then I believe there will be at least one more iteration which will have a local drive of some type. (Microsoft has made statements similar to this about putting MS Office completely online. Everything exists on their servers. You just access MS Office as a service -- you never have any of the software locally.)

Will the local drives by optical? HDD? Solid state? Who knows. I don't. But I'd bet there will be some kind of local drive on the next unit.

However....
IF common 'net access starts to equal the drive latency and bandwidths of a local hard drive (<10 milliseconds latency and 640+ Mbps bandwidth) then there will be no need for a local drive. I don't see this happening before 2020 at the earliest, but miracles never cease. ;-)

[partridge]

Is this a sign of the times? PS3 isn't even out yet and we're discussing its replacement...

Wishing our lives away!

[Blue]

Originally Posted by zero_cool098

its hard for me to believe....games can reach up to 10gb rite? and like ppl would need highspeed internet which most ppl doesnt have so its hard for it to be possible(imo)

And 10 years ago a 4GB flash drive on your keyring was unimaginable a 500MB HDD was something. I suspect most countries (Australia excluded due to Government greed and incompetance) 50Mb data links will most probably be slow. Technolgy is galloping at great pace. A number of companies would like to remove all drives off the user. That way they can control and charge whatever they want.

[zero_cool098]

anyways i really dont like the idea coz i want something to hold on my hands lol.....i feel invisible when i actually have it physically lol

[movies3]

Originally Posted by zero_cool098

anyways i really dont like the idea coz i want something to hold on my hands lol.....i feel invisible when i actually have it physically lol

i agree with you on that but think about how much gas u could save lol u could just buy right from online and have it right then and there. it has its pros and cons. but its what the market will go to in the future everything will be digital.