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Sony’s new PS5 heralds the end of disc drives
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Sony’s new PS5 heralds the end of disc drives

Today may mark the beginning of the end for gaming console disk drives. Sony has finally announced the $699.99 PS5 Pro, and while it looks to be an impressive machine, it’s the first PlayStation console to require You’ll need to purchase the console and a separate disc drive if you want to play your physical games.

Sony has offered disc-less variants before, and took a step in that direction with the PS5 slim. You can buy these with the separate drive already attached, or add a drive later. But with the PS5 Pro, you’ll need to buy a separate PS5 drive, whether that means buying it for $79.99 or swapping a drive from a slim PS5 to a PS5 Pro.

It’s like Apple is removing the disk drive again

It appears Sony and Microsoft are testing the waters with going all-digital for the PlayStation 6 and next-gen Xbox — or at the very least offering disc drives separately. It’s like Apple removing the disc drive altogether.

I have mixed feelings about this potential shift to a disc-less future. I switched to an all-digital library for my games a long time ago, because I like being able to swap games without having to swap discs and I don’t have a lot of space in my house to store physical cases. It’s convenient!

We’ll have to wait a few years, likely until the next full console generation, to see how far Sony and Microsoft are willing to go on the discless path. As for Xbox, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently said that the company’s strategy “doesn’t depend on people going all-digital” and that “doing away from physical” is “not a strategic thing for us.” Then again, Spencer noted that “a majority” of his customers buy games digitally, so it may only be a matter of time.

But what if you want to buy Sony’s top PlayStation right now, the PS5 Pro, and you want to play games on discs? Budget accordingly. The disc drive costs $79.99.