Shawn Layden, former head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s U.S. subsidiary, has explained why Sony is going in the same direction with its next-generation console.
In an interview with KiwiTalks (embedded below), Layden also talked about the PlayStation 6. He says that Sony can’t release the PlayStation 6 without a Blu-ray drive. The Xbox could be more successful because Microsoft’s console is successful in markets like the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the conditions there are good for saving on optical drives (but not all of them have such good internet connections!).
Sony, on the other hand, has a leading position with PlayStation 5 in around 170 countries and therefore needs to keep an eye on which markets it is successful in and how many people are able to make the jump from disc to digital. PlayStation consoles are also very popular on military bases, where internet access is either non-existent or very limited, so it is better to have a Blu-ray drive for the console, as discs are the only way to use Sony’s equipment. Athletes also choose the Sony because they may not be able to download ten, fifty, or even a hundred gigabytes of data in hotels (or if they could, it would be time-consuming and extremely cumbersome).
For this reason, Layden’s thinking is understandable: you can’t just put out a digital console, because in places where the internet isn’t very fast, it may not be practical to take out the Blu-ray drive to save Sony money (and increase their profit margin). Gigabit internet is not available everywhere, and in some places 10/20/40 megabit is rare (and expensive). A 100 GB game at 10 megabit download would take over 22 hours to download at maximum speed. And that’s not even mentioning that there are countries where data caps are often used. And that can put users at a serious disadvantage when it comes to downloads.
Sony hasn’t even announced PlayStation 6 yet.
Source: WCCFTech
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