The next generation Xbox and PS will still be equipped with optical drives
In general, the news itself is not surprising. Despite the fact that now even many models of laptops, ultrabooks and netbooks come out without optical drives, the vast majority of devices are still equipped with them. But here the departments of Sony and Microsoft, engaged in the development of next-generation game consoles, until recently, considered the possibility of creating these devices without optical drives.
The idea of creating a purely digital distribution of games without distributing them on optical media was considered. Of course, most console owners would be happy to receive games simply by buying and downloading them, while the consoles could be reduced due to the lack of an optical drive.
In addition, the idea also looks good because most gamers are now connected to the Web via a high-speed Internet connection. Fortunately, over the past few years, providers have tried very hard, and users of remote regions also have high-speed Internet connections. True, there are exceptions.
But nevertheless, Sony management decided to abandon this idea, and optical drives are likely to be abandoned. According to WSJ , Sony executives decided to cancel their plans to get rid of the optical drive precisely because of such exceptions. Yes, you can now connect to the Network in almost any country, but in some of them the connection is too slow to rely on the satisfaction of the console owners from downloading large distributions of their games.
As for Microsoft, the leadership of this company abandoned the idea of getting rid of optical drives for the same reason as Sony.
Unfortunately, there is still no more or less detailed information about the configuration of the next generation consoles of these companies.
But Sony, together with OnlLive or Gaikai is going to announce a new cloud gaming service on E3.
Via dvice