PS4: Sony Sees a Disc-Based Future


Recommended Posts

If they still want to sell disc-based games, that's fine. But I expect a digital version of all games whether or not it is 50GB. I don't mind the download. It can do it overnight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe it'll be the last generation of consoles where media is required.??5-6 years on from now... A long time for lots of change.

Wasn't this generation dubbed the last gen of physical media? :)??My point is, ISPs are businesses, they're out to make a profit, so not all will have unlimited data options (or people won't pay for it) as well as there are still a lot of people in rural areas who have dial-up or super slow DSL where downloading 15-40 GB is out of the question. Going disc-free is still a pipe dream. Let's see what the next 5-10 years brings. It might happen but I wouldn't count on it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't this generation dubbed the last gen of physical media? :) My point is, ISPs are businesses, they're out to make a profit, so not all will have unlimited data options (or people won't pay for it) as well as there are still a lot of people in rural areas who have dial-up or super slow DSL where downloading 15-40 GB is out of the question. Going disc-free is still a pipe dream. Let's see what the next 5-10 years brings. It might happen but I wouldn't count on it.

hopefully google fiber will change all this and many more people will be able to have super fast internet in that time frame :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha i see the PS4 brought Gavin back out in full force! Good good!

And with that BDXL drive in there and games growing to likely 100GB in two-three years, yeah physical copies will still be needed as download times can be an issue when you're talking files that size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha i see the PS4 brought Gavin back out in full force! Good good!

And with that BDXL drive in there and games growing to likely 100GB in two-three years, yeah physical copies will still be needed as download times can be an issue when you're talking files that size.

Still, with the speed of the console the disc itself will be a bottleneck outside of installing the game (which still takes 5-10m). Include the 10-30m drive to pick the game up, wait at the store to buy it (2-10m), andother 10-30m drive back to the house and you've now spent 1-2.5 hours just getting that physical copy in a ready to play state.

I agree that physical media isn't going anywhere soon, but you can only spin a disc so fast in your console.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You still expect local stores to be open in a few years time the way the economy is going?

If you think it is that bad, why even bother spending money on a system? Better hoard food and water and live in your underground bunkers if you have that mindset.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's actually going to be a much more painful future for PC users, who can look forward to 20 - 50gb downloads for all of their games with limited options for physical media.
That's an interesting thought. Perhaps this will cause blu-ray drives to - finally! - become standard on PCs the same way DVD drives replaced CD drives 10 years ago.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's an interesting thought. Perhaps this will cause blu-ray drives to - finally! - become standard on PCs the same way DVD drives replaced CD drives 10 years ago.

If we get any more four disc games like Max Payne 3 I'm sure the publishers will be considering it.

Otherwise I don't really see it happening before 2015, the PC market is too afraid of ostracizing anyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we get any more four disc games like Max Payne 3 I'm sure the publishers will be considering it.

Otherwise I don't really see it happening before 2015, the PC market is too afraid of ostracizing anyone.

How it would probably happen is that games would ship in both multiple-DVDs and Blu-Ray versions, the same way DVD and CD-ROM releases overlapped when DVDs became prevalent. Over time people would switch to blu-ray drives until there would be no need to release games on DVDs anymore.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's an interesting thought. Perhaps this will cause blu-ray drives to - finally! - become standard on PCs the same way DVD drives replaced CD drives 10 years ago.

I doubt Blu ray will catch on, to be honest, although I do wonder what will happen when something like Fallout 4 GOTY is 200gb :wacko:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While true, some of us don't live in a city...it costs me gas money to go to a store. The ISP is fixed rate.

If you like 'fixed rates' try Amazon Prime for delivering your games, no more "gas money".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt Blu ray will catch on, to be honest, although I do wonder what will happen when something like Fallout 4 GOTY is 200gb :wacko:

Max Payne 3 was 35GB so we're not far off ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Discs are dirt cheap to press and can hold a ******** of data.

It would be swell to have Internet speeds worldwide which could easily handle massive downloads and no capping by ISPs, but that isn't a reality. Printing discs and selling them, for that and other reasons, will keep discs alive for a long, long time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on where you live. I for example live in Montreal , it can get me around 1 hour to find a store that have pc games. I download 15gig per hour so the time difference is practically none. Especially when i can do other stuff while i download and generally site like steam or origin preload the game 2 days before release when it's new.

For bandwidth cap, yes they sucks..

Some pc don't have a cd base media, I am disk media free 2 years now, got windows on a usb stick witch is the only real use i have of a dvd/bluray drive. In these 2 years, i never been in a situation where no dvdrom where a problem..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it appears Sony doesn't quite se such a disc based future after all.

http://www.theverge....ion-possibility

"PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," he said in an interview last week.

If I wasn't at work I'd make a new news topic for this. as it's new and separate news.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it appears Sony doesn't quite se such a disc based future after all.

http://www.theverge....ion-possibility

If I wasn't at work I'd make a new news topic for this. as it's new and separate news.

That's exactly how the PS3 works.

Okami HD for example is only available on PSN in EU/US. Only Japan has a disc based version.

The answer was also in reply to Jonathan Blow's game, one which was always going to be digital only (like Limbo), and smaller studios in general.

It was interesting to see the indie game designer Jonathan Blow on stage at your event. How important is it to you to support smaller studios?

I believe it's very important for the platform to have a wide variety of developers making things that are unique and creative. We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side ? PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc. The Witness will be a digital release and because of the flexibility of the digital distribution scheme, we can have more small games that might be free or available for a couple of dollars, or different services like free-to-play or subscription models.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No matter how badly it translated from japanese, I think it's fair to say that they are not quite the disc based future envisions it was reported before. at best they're not abandonign discs, at worst, some to several titles won't see a disc release.

Though I think all AAA games will have disc based releases, while the PS4 will start having more presence in the XBLA market and have many simpler but not indie games that may still be AAA quality who will not have disc base releases. of course these titles will rarely push multiple gig sizes anyway.

I wish they would stop calling all small developers "indie", the term is being highly watered out by MS and Sony and Valve in trying to look cool in how they are supporting the indie devs, when they're in reality talking about smaller developers. heck even being a one man dev team doesn't necessarily make you indie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you are reading too much into it, he just means that some games that would normally only be downloadable titles would also get disc versions, games like Starhawk on PS3.

*edit* Guess I should read the thread, beaten to it by Audio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there's no good or bad here, but i have to say the internet/connectivity are miles and miles away from being as reliable and "there" as other utilities. right now i'm experiencing ridiculously slow downloads on my PS3...it took me OVERNIGHT to download Darksiders. Darksiders, from 2010. How long will it take me to download KZ4, which is prob going to be like 30-40GB min? A day prob. And this is on a 50Mbps connection that consistently tests 50Mbps and over. It's a good fiber connection, for some odd reason something between me and wherever Sony keeps game files is bottlenecking.

I'm all for digital only, but that will only come when you no longer even think of bandwidth or network speeds, just like you don't think about how many amps your house can take. only electricians care about that stuff nowadays, or people with REALLY serious power demands. last time i thought about that stuff was when i installed central heating...and how often do you do that? certainly not as often as buying games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there's no good or bad here, but i have to say the internet/connectivity are miles and miles away from being as reliable and "there" as other utilities. right now i'm experiencing ridiculously slow downloads on my PS3...it took me OVERNIGHT to download Darksiders. Darksiders, from 2010. How long will it take me to download KZ4, which is prob going to be like 30-40GB min? A day prob. And this is on a 50Mbps connection that consistently tests 50Mbps and over. It's a good fiber connection, for some odd reason something between me and wherever Sony keeps game files is bottlenecking.

I'm all for digital only, but that will only come when you no longer even think of bandwidth or network speeds, just like you don't think about how many amps your house can take. only electricians care about that stuff nowadays, or people with REALLY serious power demands. last time i thought about that stuff was when i installed central heating...and how often do you do that? certainly not as often as buying games.

At least unlike the WiiU it won't take as long to install as it took to download ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.