Did Sony think about doing away with a optical disc drive for the next version of the Playstation console? That's what a new report from The Wall Street Journal claims. The story, which cited unnamed sources, said that Sony thought seriously about making the next Playstation as a download-only device for purchasing games and not selling games on discs in retail stores.
Ultimately, the report said that Sony passed on the idea, with the sources claiming that Sony realized that Internet connectivity was simply too inconsistent to support a download-only model for the large file sizes needed for high end games. When the next version of the Playstation comes out, the report claims it will continue to have an optical disc drive inside, although Sony is almost certain to offer some type of Internet connectivity as well.
There have been previous rumors that the next version of Microsoft's Xbox game console might do away with an optical disc drive. However, The Wall Street Journal claims today that Microsoft will also include such a drive in its next console. Both the next Playstation and the next Xbox are expected to be launched by the end of 2013.
Neither Sony nor Microsoft is expected to talk about their next generation console hardware at E3 2012 next week.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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