Ex-PlayStation Boss Says Sony ‘Can’t Get Away’ with a PS6 That Has No Disc Drive – Push Square
GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpPush SquareGuestLogin or Sign UpCompany has an obligation and responsibilityBeloved ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden doesn’t believe Sony can “get away” with an all-digital PS6.There has been concerns, since it released the PS5 Pro without a disc drive included, that the Japanese giant may be abandoning physical media. To be fair, it’s released all of its major games on Blu-ray, and offers a disc drive attachment for those who still prefer boxed games. (Although, said attachments have been in irritatingly short supply.)And speaking with Kiwi Talkz, Layden explained that while Xbox has had more success abandoning physical media, he doesn’t believe Sony has the same luxury.“I don’t think Sony can get away with it now,” he said, as spotted by IGN. “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 US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Coincidentally enough, all English-speaking countries.“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?’”Layden explained that the manufacturer is likely crunching the numbers and admitted there will be a “tipping point” for it, but he argued the company’s market is “globally so huge it would be hard for them to go fully disc-less”.It’s true that digital software sales reflect the bulk of PlayStation’s business these days, but physical titles still make up around 30% of its income, which is not entirely insignificant. It’s perhaps also worth remembering that many fans have built up physical game collections, so in order for the PS6 to remain full compatibility with those old libraries, it’ll need to offer a means for Blu-ray games to be played.Our guess is that Sony will offer a disc drive as an optional extension for the PS6, and as long as it has enough inventory to meet demand, that seems like a relatively reasonable compromise to us.[source youtube.com, via ign.com]About Sammy BarkerAs the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.Comments 84I will get physical until I can’t.Yeah will be able to get a disc drive firstly(where for art thou PS5 disc drive?) and how much are Sony going to charge for it?Same as above. I will go physical for as long as i can and then when i cant, if i choose to still stay in the hobby everything will be purchased during sales or via savvy spending methods (buying cheaper credit from online retailers like CDkeys or shopto etc) gaming is already an expensive luxury hobby and bills just keep going up unfortunately.I will always buy a disc based console over a digital.Also if PS6 will have backwards compatibility with PS5 and PS4. It being discless will be a big negative for players with PS5 and PS4 physical games libraries.And I won’t consider the attachable disc drive being a solution or a good option considering how Sony lets it get scalped (they didn’t learn from PS5 release scalping debacle) and it being overpriced.No disc drive, no buy.The disc drive attachment gives the user to opportunity to save money if they aren’t interested in physical media (a % we know increases every year) and at the same time it also saves the necessity for having two models, important in the production process of the console so that is probably what is going to happen next generation. One model and whoever is interested in discs has to pay a little more for the attachment.However as you can already see in the supper nice comments of this site the option of users saving money won’t be seen with good eyes, it’s always about the “why it’s wrong” and never about the logistic behind the moves.I appreciate I’m in the minority but I haven’t purchased a physical game in years and have no interest in a disc drive.This is actually a brilliant take.All digital is a privileged position to be in. It’s a luxury and convenience which is great for many.Physical allows people from less developed countries to be able to take part. It also helps those on a budget who want to trade in games to buy more.I know digital makes the most sense for Sony moving forward, but I will keep supporting physical until it’s gone because it is better for the consumer.I probably won’t be too affected by this since I’m mostly digital now (seriously physical is such a waste of space in Asian housing) but I still have some physical games that I’d like to keep playing without having to re-buy them.I agree that it’s still too soon.Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that we are heading that way eventually but it’s too soon for the PS6 to just abandon physical mediaKinda idiotic they tried to pull what they tried to pull with the ps5 pro then……I’m expecting the PS6 to follow in the PS5pro’s footsteps and just offer a disc drive as an optional extra.I would definitely buy said disc drive, or preferably a disc-based machine as I do have a decent selection of games on that media.Yes, most of my library is digital, but I’m not prepared to lose physical media as a means to buy my games.Is this Shawn‘s assumption or his hope? Sounds more the latter to me.If this PS6 has a disk drive then i will buy it day one, if not il wait a few years for them to announce an add on hard drive like they have now.Agree with Shaun, they’d lose my custom if they didn’t ship with a drive.It’s pretty obvious that PS6 will release without BD drive as a standard. But Sony will offer BD addon.@Dodoo It’s not like you have anywhere else to go. PC is digital for ages. And Xbox will be “all digital” even sooner than Sony.The day they go completely discless, im out. Ill never buy digital games on day one for the full price. Never going to happenI mean… they don’t need to have a disc drive. They can have cartridges like the switch. But physical is a must.I mean, South Africa has 12 national languages and English is the 6th highest on that list…@GymratAmarillo how do you know that Sony will reduce the price of PS6 by removing the cost of the disc drive? How you know they won’t sell it the same price of disc drive being in it and then aim for additional profit by selling the disc drive? How do you the PS5 Pro 700$ price is the actual price without disc drive? Do you really think that PS5 Pro costs 300$ more than the digital base PS5 (400$)?This reminds of what’s going with the smartphones market. I doubt the iPhone would need to be more expensive if it was sold with a charger. Apple simply removed the charger without removing its cost from the price.hopefully they bundle it together to avoid the PS5 Pro disaster….While fair it not like many care about rural people.I am interested in a disk drive for PS6 for PS5 games whether PS6 games hmm. Larger Blu ray size hmm. Or services get pushed further as well.Microsoft is big and very services focused so not surprised.We other customers may but do some companies even though they may be cutting out a sizeable audience of potential customers?Even in Australia I’m like how many have dial up, broad band anything out there even besides like flying doctor service or online schooling or other things. The places are empty looking.Sure cities and rural towns have reach but I mean for like tiny towns and things they wouldn’t likely have a console I assume but maybe?Let alone other countries with gaps for however far of reach or companies too lazy to even offer/install a good 4G LTE or even any other general online services?Rural varies of course but I’m thinking deep rural not just good enough rural that are towns to rural cities that are fine with online/internet based services yes. I know the difference don’t worry I am not city brained here.Just because developers are with their studios, internet speeds, game sizes and more or whatever compression/game mode separation or otherwise are the case. Compared to the customer so the mentality for staff goes out the window.Then again Flight Sim 2019 and how big that was 900GB I think? It’s like using hundreds of floppy disks all over again.I do think the disk and offline sizeable audience is worth considering not just collectors or physical type people if they do a big release physical.Sharing or other things and the disk licence and so on but for the reach they have, the countries they offer a PlayStation to even besides the PSN PC thing that literally also factors in of potential customers and rules/laws and so on or mentality for customers that’s just something I do wonder how much they care to go yeah we want your data for PSN not just the things it offers when they literally could have gone ok ok.But they went nope refunds which sure is nice but at the same time they would rather shove PSN down people’s thoughts then money by not offering it, like wow. I mean…..Do they really want money if they have to shove their services down a different audience regardless of how their services work and another solution instead or other countries customers throats besides how they handled it. HmmmJust wondering was there a big backlash when pc gaming went digital all those years ago ??As long as the optional disc drive is in good supply and doesn’t increase the price of the complete unit beyond what is reasonable for a console, then fine. If Sony uses it to increase profit by adding an extra £100 to the standard console price (which I would consider to be around £600) then that’s pretty anti consumer in my opinion as people with big game collections are kind of forced to get it.Anyway, way things are going I won’t be getting PS6 at launch, unlike every other PlayStation. Cross gen is just too long now and my back catalogue too large.@Jrs1 I think so but EA/Ubisoft pushed for 1 use codes, and this was a few years before Xbox One 2013 happened. So even besides the always online Xbox used per the day syncing it was also the used disks thing.Assassin’s Creed 2 had it on PC not PS3/360 pretty sureMVG video on it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rl5zll0Jo_IEA had 1 use codes for their games a bit before Xbox One did. So preventing selling games. Very EA thing to do for sure.My guess is it wasn’t so much a Don Matrick but still an EA/Ubisoft type move as PC evidence makes it pretty clear.No idea when their PC launchers came out either maybe around the same time.Modern Vintage Gamer had a video on it (link above) and I think Gamer Alex too proves a point with an EA game example.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ8rmowpJ8Y&pp=ygURR2FtZXIgQWxleCBQQyBEUk0%3DI myself go oh Terraria PC, Steam code, redeemed oh. I assume similar for other early Steam code physical games not just Ubisoft/EA non related to Steam ones.Games for Windows Live yeah Tech Tangents has a good video on that. Those servers like GameSpy are dead. So that’s a lot of 360/PS3 era PC games dead now.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYy9KzFT2w&pp=ygURR2FtZXIgQWxleCBQQyBEUk0%3DI assume people got used to it with Steam or GOG and such but for third parties people were not happy.That and with disk drives getting used less unless you likely did for businesses besides internet speeds, a USB, SD card (so other methods then burning a disk with info to put on it) or well a need to burn a DVD or Blu ray hence the reduction of Blu ray RW or read writables. Not surprising. Which is what that Blu ray is dying is about, not regular, Blu ray but a niche writeable one for storage formats.Even DVD RAM wasn’t much a thing so basically a DVD SD card/USB format of sorts. I guess.Blu ray I don’t think was that popular on PC either. Or wasn’t pushed as hard probably more the case.Even though like 4 DVD disks for games is a lot to deal with of installs.Wolfenstein New Order on 360 did as a madatory install and had 4 disks. Most I think had 2 disks.Compared to a Lost Odyssey as a mid gen to just load the disks it was optional like Mass Effect 2&3 being play what part up to.@SuntannedDuck2 Cool, cheers for that bud.@Jrs1 no problem/your welcome. Edited above comment to include links and other details.Never experienced myself but was a treat to find out was a thing at different times I saw these videos.It’s why I question it when I go out and see PC games. Even if a console collector.The day consoles will no longer have disc drives, will be the day i become a PC player.Hmm if you just think of it…with ps1, they put a music CD player in every kids room…PS2 brought movie DVD playback, PS3-PS4 bluray movies playback, PS5 came with a 4k BD drive (no DolbyVision but whatever, right?). As much as I’d love to see any type of physical media outlive me in my humbleness, there doesn’t seem to be any next step in this multimedia legacy for SONY…eventhough they themselves started with such approach. We can only wait and see…Physical is a thing of the past. Digital purchases are 100% reliable since you always have access to the game you bought where a disc can easily get lost or damagedIf Playstation went all digital, would Sony then be prepared to allow 3rd party selling of digital keys like Xbox and PC?That’s something they would have to weigh up.
Would be a closed shop otherwise and possibly open to legal challenges.I’m not sure what I would do if PlayStation does stop with physical games. If you would ask me right I would abandon the platform and move to the one that does have it. I can’t bring myself to buy digital games that sometimes have the ridiculous price of 80 € on the store.I mean here in Germany the physical market is still massive and even for the movies, series…. etc. So I don’t see it’s going away anytime soon and I’ll keep buying Physical games until I can’t anymore.Choice is good. The option to buy BOTH physical and digital. For older games on sale I’ll just buy digital but for new £70 games I want the option of physical. I don’t trust Sony not to go full Nintendo and almost never put their games on sale if physical wasn’t keeping them more honest.I 100% agree with “no disc drive, no buy”. My physical library of app. 450 titles (it doesn’t even take that much space) will entertain me for the rest of my life.@PuppetMaster (#6):This, one hundred percent.I know it’s very unlikely but hopefully if they do go digital, with add on disc drive. That the current disc drive is compatibleBit of advice to the physical media fans: put your consoles and drives in climate control storage now.Because the hardware to play those discs WILL go. You might if you are lucky be able to buy a drive for PS6, but from PS7 you will not.I’ve been buying digital copies and will be able to play my old games on those future consoles.You will not.So you better have a working PS5 ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, or your discs will be nothing but coasters to put your coffee mugs on.Not only will you need a PS5, but you better pray future TV’s don’t move away from HDMI, or newer HDMI standards don’t lose backward compatibility that far.It’s a risky gamble investing in discs instead of digital keys now. At some point Sony may no longer support the console on PSN, so you won’t get the patches and again the discs will be coasters.It’s not just about games it’s also about getting the best movie experience as well with 4K Blu-rays remember PlayStation movies where you could purchase digital films that’s Sony scrapped and now you have no access to including all the films you have purchasedNo discdrive no problem then i will get a Switch.@Cornpop76 Can you 100% guarantee access to your downloads 15 to 20yrs down the line though ?
Tbh though ive been all digital since xbox 360 days and the likelihood of me playing my 20yr old games down the line are slim anyway (prob can emulate them on my toaster by then 🤣)@Czar_Khastik not always reliable what happens if you lose access to your account. Happened to someone I know when someone started charging his card on the PlayStation Store@Czar_Khastik And when Ubisoft pulls your licenses. Games removed from the store yes it happens. GTFO with digital only too expensive and no control and no preservation of games what a brilliant future.@Jrs1 if I can’t download my digital games, that’s equally a problem for those with discs, given that the disc contains an incomplete or broken game.Discs owners are equally as dependent on downloads. They are applying cartridge logic from the 1990’s to the shambolic modern game industry of broken games at launch.I have a lower dependency as I’m not reliant on preserving hardware in addition to the software.@Cornpop76 Yeah relying on v1.0 for all your physical games is not a good look in this current day and age. At least with the old carts the games were bug free and complete.I suspect Sony will go for a digital PS6 with a blu-ray drive attachment, similar to the PS5 Pro/slim for those of us who want it. I have a substantial PS4 disc collection and it would make me very hesitant to buy a digital only console with a requirement to re-buy all the disc games I have, and that’s assuming that they exist on the store (Driveclub).Hmm, kinda agree on some points but disagree on another.I don’t think Sony will abandon physical media because its still a huge chunk of their revenue when it comes to software, but they will for sure abandon discs at some point because no one is making them anymore.I bought only a very few digital games, and only because they were not released on disc. Pre-owned or “on sale” disc games are way cheaper than digital versions, still faster way “from buy to play” and (with few exceptions) your own working copy that can be run anytime anywhere.98% of my digital library contains PS Plus monthly picks….also Sony’s statistic betrayal, because they SELL you these games with 100% discount…I haven’t bought a ps5 pro yet,simply because I can’t get a disk drive add on at retailers price,I’m certainly not going to scalpers ,I’ll wait till I can get one,still really pleased with my launch ps5 ,all sony had to do was include a disk drive with every ps5 pro and let the gamers decide what they want to do wirh it,if sony does the same thing with the ps6 then it must know there will be big problems ,all that’s needed is a bit of common sense which doesn’t seem to exist anymore lolLayden explained that while Xbox has had more success abandoning physical media[/b]However, Xbox has not abandoned physical media, @get2sammyb. You can still buy the Series X, which comes with a disc drive. There is also a 2TB version that has no disc drive. Both variants are available to buy, so I don’t see how Xbox have abandoned disc drives…Yeah ps6 will definitely have a disc.sony iswrong for not having a disc on ps5 pro.what was sony thinking.word up son@Fiendish-Beaver A lot of their games don’t release physically, though, and when they do it’s often in a very limited capacity and sometimes you still need to download the full game.They’re absolutely not supporting physical games to the same level as Sony and Nintendo are, and that’s partly reflected by their total lack of shelf space these days. (Although their poor sales also are a factor in that.)I accept all of that, @get2sammyb, but abandon means cease to support, and whilst they don’t do it very much, they do still do it. The use of the word abandon is simply too final in my view, a bit overstated…@Cornpop76 “So you better have a working PS5 ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, or your discs will be nothing but coasters to put your coffee mugs on”Nothing to worry about this.Right now you can easily find and buy plenty of retro consoles like Atari, Amiga, PC Engine, NES, SNES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, Xbox, N64, Gamecube, etc who works just fine despite the hardware is 2-3 decades old and not in production anymore. So it will be easy to find a working PS5 in the next 10-20 years old.BUT. It’s not the same for digital games where publishers can easily removed your “ownership” and delete the games from your download list anytime they want. It’s possible when you wake up tomorrow and find one of your game gone and delisted from your download list haha.”Not only will you need a PS5, but you better pray future TV’s don’t move away from HDMI, or newer HDMI standards don’t lose backward compatibility that far”A lot of company will make HDMI converter to whatever new standards in the future. The same way how my PS2 slim can work on HDMI Tv / monitor with a converter. There’s no worries @PuppetMaster yeah if you can acquire a working console and video adapter you are golden.I’d agree that this won’t likely be a problem.The biggest threat is PS5’s access to PSN being sunset.I mean you will be able buy those games digitally for £3 then so you would have a back up option. But the game preservation goal of the disc would be lost at that point.No disc drive no saleSony doesn’t have a great track record for supporting its optional extras or gaming peripherals 😕@GymratAmarillo As long as there is plenty disc drives available……which we know there won’t be. Built in drive will always be my preferred option.If they want to have the option for a physical disk unit or digital, then by all means do it. I think personally an easy way to fix this problem instead of making a dual unit make one unit that has an attachable part similar to what they did with the digital model, you can buy the physical one separate.That way they don’t have to do two types of models. Like basically make the default model have the ability to detach the hard drive day 1 instead of sell a different model with add for later.Not a fan of digital only. I like to physically own my items. I don’t like the fact that a game can just magically be erased if the developer stops hosting it.I’m digital all the way@Czar_Khastik for anyone losing disc they should do what I do. Which is put string through the centre hole and hang them in the garden.The Pear tree is where i keep all my PS5 games😉👍@playstation1995 They were. I think the reason they did this was to make money back by selling the attachment separateThe way Sony console hardware is going maybe they should keep the disc drive and just let us swap out the CPU and GPU. They can start calling it the PS PC. 😂I’m old, I’m starting not to care about “the future” but the future is all digital with or without me. How do people in rural Italy game on PC, mobile phone or tablet? I’m assuming they have those things, and if they don’t, they don’t need a gaming console either. 🤷🏻♂️I know I’d want an option to get a PS6 with a disc drive because of all the PS4 and PS5 discs that I own, but, after seeing how the PS5 Pro sold out at $700, I will no longer say what Sony can or can’t get away with. This isn’t the early PS3 days anymore. Seems Sony can do no wrong in the vast majority of peoples’ eyes.For our future of gaming, we need PS6 machine with already disc drive on it. Save the future with physical gaming culture. #keepplayingphysicalgames 🤟@mountain_spider. True.but it make sony look like a money hungry company..a disc is supposed to be there.ps5 pro is already expensive.no need to pay extra for a disc drive.word up sonConsole gaming is gonna get really bad when we are purely limited to the PS Store.@Gamer83 The PS5 Pro seems quite plentiful in all the major retailers here in the UK so very much not sold out and often discounted as if they’re trying to shift stock (e.g. Argos = £659.99, GameCollection = £674.95)Apart from the “must have it” early adopters, most of us don’t really care or can’t justify paying £700 (£800 with disc drive) for a marginal upgrade. PS4 Pro was a much bigger step up over the base console.I’ve been digital only for over a decade now. I can easily see PS6 with 1 sku and an optional disc drive. PS7 will not have a disc drive at all. Buying disc games at this point feels like buying a VHS Tape in 2005.@sanderson72 I agree the PS5 Pro isn’t a huge upgrade (at least not for the $, which is why I haven’t bought one) but from what I’ve seen it’s pretty regularly sold out or in short supply. Admittedly, that is anecdotal evidence. Do remember reading reports of it selling well, too, however.@Czar_Khastik as long as they don’t delist the game. Then even so one is beholden to censorship with forced updates which will come in the future. Same for digital books. Newer versions for any said book are edited quite often. Hardcopies prevent this.@Godot25 true I hope my options don’t totally run out!Watch it have no drive 😂PS6 needs a disc drive, even if it’s just for playing PS4 and PS5 games@Cornpop76 Such utter nonsense. I still play Repton, Chuckie egg, snapper pacman and they’re games from ’83Physical is sovereignty.Physical=ownership, free will. Digital=you’ve nothing “but you’re happy”I will always favor the console that has the blu ray drive even though I’m starting to lean towards adopting a more digital focused library. There are a few reasons for this and the main one is my 4k movie collection (I’m sorry but 4k movies on Netflix etc just don’t have the same level of fidelity for me personally) and biggest of all gripes I have about digital games are the over inflated prices. Once prices top out at £50-£60 is when “I” think about adopting a whole digital future. Until then I’ll choose the cheaper physical option.@Czar_Khastik I remember when vinyl records were considered a thing of the past and look at the market now..I’m currently watching my original Alice Cooper lp’s increase in value.If Sony abandons physical media, I will abandon Sony. I had no issues abandoning Samsung when microSD was removed from premium phones.The only reason I would be getting one with a disc drive is because of the massive physical collection of PS4 and PS5 games. Mostly PS4.Bear in mind if companies do get their wish and get all digital, they will start going all in on pushing making streaming the standard.And if that happens, games preservation will be in big trouble, no data at the users end to preserve.It’s in even digital only users to at least defend physical, because that won’t the end of the story.Surely the Switch is the number 1 system in most territories around the world???Moving forward, I’ll be buying Switch 2 games physically but the PS6 and next Xbox will be digital only for me. I have an absolute ton of physical games for various platforms and just don’t have the space to store anymore.@Northern_munkey That’s the beauty of physical media. 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