Remember the days of buying disks to play games on a console? Right. Like, yesterday. Sony is upping its game for digital delivery with the introduction of PS5 Digital Edition which is currently available to be pre-ordered by PSN members in good standing. This sets the PS5 apart from the other consoles from the last generation making it one step closer to having all games delivered by and available only from The Cloud.
Interested? Register on-line to get your chance to pre-order. Pricing has not yet been announced.
Does this mean rootkits will be distributed from The Cloud instead of by disk in the future?
Related Stories
Microsoft has confirmed that it will launch a lower-priced version of its next-generation Xbox console following several leaks.
It was confirmed that the Xbox Series S would be launched in November for $299 (£249.99 in the UK). The leaks are pinning the release date for both of the new Xbox consoles as November 10th, and the price of the larger Xbox Series X console at $499.
The Xbox Series S will have a smaller SSD (512 GB vs. 1 TB), and will not include a disc drive, like Sony's PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. The console will target a 1440p resolution at up to 120 FPS (likely less in practice), but can use "4K upscaling for games". It includes hardware-accelerated DirectX raytracing, variable rate shading, and variable refresh rates.
Previously: Sony's Next PlayStation Will Include an AMD Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU
Microsoft Announces New Xbox Console and xCloud Streaming Game Service
PlayStation 5 Includes AMD Hardware-Based Ray Tracing, Supports 100 GB Blu-ray Discs
Microsoft Announces Xbox Series X for Late 2020 Release
Microsoft's Next-Gen Xbox Will Use AMD's RDNA 2 GPU Architecture, 12 TeraFLOPS
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:13PM (8 children)
Gamestop is toast. Loaning or borrowing games? History. Not being able to play a game without an internet connection or paying a monthly subscription fee is right around the corner. Microsoft already pushes that pretty hard.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2020, @11:25AM (7 children)
Meh, just means I'll play more PC games instead. I won't pay for a game I don't receive physical media for.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 31 2020, @03:42PM (6 children)
So, no PC games either then, 'eh? There are very few physical media PC games.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday August 31 2020, @08:52PM
Sounds like he'll be sailing the high seas and venturing into uncharted waters.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:03AM (4 children)
You're on the drugs. There are plenty of games still on physical media or at least offering a downloadable installer that you can put on physical media. Not everything is Steam-only by a long shot.
I don't care if the physical media is something already on a disc or something I can viably download once and archive myself; I care that I can reinstall even if my drive craters and I forget every password I ever used. I care that my ability to play a game is not at the mercy of my Internet connection, the game company's Internet connection, every bit of fiber between us, and the competence of some retarded monkey who underestimated launch day load by more than three orders of magnitude.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2020, @07:26AM (1 child)
Windows 10 is becoming a more common requirement. Anyone know of a way to un-fuck W10? I imagine not, but hackers do some amazing shit.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:19PM
Meh, you can play plenty of Win10-only games just fine with wine. Especially if the requirement is only based on needing DX12.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday September 02 2020, @04:24PM (1 child)
So, you're happy with something like GOG, then? In that case, there's a boat load of games you can purchase that fit the physical media requirement. 99.9999% of Steam doesn't fit that description. PC games with a phsyical media release are very few and far between, if there's anyone still doing it. Other than the "arcade pack disc" kind of PC games, though maybe they don't even carry those anymore. I'd guess there's some tiny section, with something in a local store. Even when you buy a box and it happens to have a CD in it, the last few games I bought like that were Steam games. Thus, you had to have a Steam account to play the game. I've learned to just look for Steam sales and support GOG as much as possible. I've avoided the EPIC Store like the plague, I don't need yet another Origin, etc. fueled nightmare.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 03 2020, @04:36PM
Just went through the top several pirated games for the week and not one of them didn't offer a physical copy or standalone installer download (which is the same thing if you aren't hurting for storage media).
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:15PM (1 child)
We already knew there would be a Digital Edition with no disc drive over 2 months ago, when they had their game footage + console reveal [youtube.com] event.
The funny part here is that in order to maintain their long-standing game of chicken with MS/Xbox, Sony is opening "pre-orders"... but without telling you the real price. They absolutely 100% do not want to be the first to announce pricing, so they can make last minute adjustments to undercut Xbox. The pre-order with no price gimmick was leaked/mentioned by Moore's Law is Dead [youtube.com] a week or two ago.
Microsoft's strategy might work better. PS5's Digital Edition drops the disc drive but keeps the overall specs the same. They might cut the price $100 or more, sell it at a loss, and be fine with that since all purchases will have to be made through Sony's store. Xbox on the other hand is cutting the GPU of their cheaper model, while keeping the CPU the same. So it should run the same games, but at 1080p instead of 4K, for instance. This could cut their SoC and other costs significantly and they might even try to give it away for free* (* with a 2-year subscription to the online services). Xbox One was thrashed by PS4 sales, while Xbox 360 vs. PS3 was more even. Interest in PS5 is higher as measured by video viewer counts, and Xbox embarrassed themselves with their Halo Infinite trailer debacle.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 31 2020, @01:06PM
We've been using our PS3s 99%+ disc free since 2010... originally bought it as a BluRay disc player, but quickly decided that BluRay was not sufficient value for money. As for games, never met a disc based game more compelling than the games that were available from the hard drive.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:26PM (6 children)
Digital-only holds no interest for me. For my PS4 I've bought several games that were sold in the SE Asia market with English subtitles, that were not made available in the North American market. They play on my North American PS4 just fine. They're usually not released in NA either because the maker doesn't think it would sell well, or they don't want the bother of various groups bitching that an Asian game isn't adhering to whatever the NA purity spiral is bitching about this week.
I'm pretty sure that a digital-only PS5 in NA would only give me access NA games, and I'm not going to bother trying to get a PS5 set up on some kind of VPN to spoof my location, or tweak settings somewhere, etc. I'm not that into gaming to make it worth my time. No discs, no sale.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:46PM
This could be the last console generation to use discs. They obviously want to kill them off, but now they should be around until... 2027? Then they will try to go download/cloud-only, possibly with no new hardware releases.
There may be support in PS5 for quad-layer Blu-ray (128 GB).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Monday August 31 2020, @12:07AM (1 child)
So... you would like a PS console with an analog Blu-Ray** reader? (grin)
----
** No, games won't fit the standard LP vinyl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @12:11AM
Touché. I forgot where I was posting. :D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @12:10AM
https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-metoo-censorship-playstation-games-2019-4 [businessinsider.com]
https://www.psu.com/news/japanese-playstation-games-face-stricter-censorship-worldwide-report/ [psu.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @11:06AM (1 child)
I still can't play games that were only released in Japan unless it's ripped. Think about that. They won't take my money.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2020, @11:28AM
No, you can't play copies of games released only in Japan that the producer received any money for. There's a subtle (and stupid) difference.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:45PM
That it be able to load, play, and save games on the apex of common digital storage mechanisms -- the Sony Memory Stick [sony.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @12:45AM
Because Sony's got to Sony.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:00AM (6 children)
I firmly believe most [multiplayer] games are designed around the rootkit, I mean the anti-cheat tech.
And on top of that you have the money they make. And boy when it comes to Free-to-play gaming, especially they are balls deep into your mind.
Just another drug, with rootkit(s) on the side. The first chapter, episode, etc. is always free!
Then you have the hardware, the firmware, etc. it's all like a big house of hookers, especially on the PC, rootkits galore.
Imagine the power you have over millions of minds and their machines. And thanks to people like Mlon Eusk, soon very literally the minds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:09AM (2 children)
I hate root kits and that sort of tech, but on the flipside cheaters ruin games and the only viable method to keep them out is something like rootkits that can detect nefarious software.
If anyone has better ideas I would LOVE them, because I hate DRM shit and have ZERO desire to let some software company to have root access on my computer.
I totally trust them! /s
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:35AM (1 child)
> I hate root kits and that sort of tech, but on the flipside cheaters ruin games
I used to think so. Cheaters actually show you how stupid the games are and how stupid one is for wasting their time in them.
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Monday August 31 2020, @02:39AM
In most games, your achievements and your equipment inventory is just some numbers in a proprietary database. And in many games it's how hard you grind to change those numbers that represent your accomplishment.
The athleticism is your twitch-response reflexes when holding a little slab of plastic with buttons on it.
It's fun sometimes to pretend, but the illusion isn't always that rewarding to maintain long-term.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:12AM (1 child)
Musk will have pigs playing against humans shortly. You'll be pissed when the pigs win.
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Monday August 31 2020, @02:41AM
They named the one pig (Gertrude wasn't it?) but it's still just potential bacon and some pork chops. We grilled pork chops this weekend. Yum.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2020, @11:30AM
I'm confused. You say that like it's a bad thing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:05AM
It comes with fax machine built-in.
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Monday August 31 2020, @01:18AM (9 children)
PSN is the rootkit but now it has fancy graphics and is what brings your entire console together. They are not even bothering trying to hide it really. It's not an essential part of your console experience and you should learn to love it. So don't kid yourself, they are totally spying on you -- or gathering "anonymous" telemetry on you - around the clock.
While I'm not a big fan of disk (floppy-cd-dvd-blueray-&-whatever-format-i-just-forgot-about) installations at least it's always the last option if all else fails. But current little squabbles like the Apple-Epic fight etc tells you that you are not buying the latest AAA-title anymore. You are renting it, and they can take it away at any time they want, just note the wording here -- you can pre-order the console if you have an account in Good Standing. If you ever fall from grace in the eyes of Sony your entire game collection, and all that comes with it, is gone. Unless you can somehow sweettalk them into unlocking it for you again.
But then if you look at the last decade of gaming more and more of them have these constantly online requirements, even in single player games. One part anti-piracy function, they can constantly check on you and your setup so all things are in order. Then there is all the DLC content and then you have the ever present micro-transactions so you can buy that funny/megacool item to use in-game. So perhaps this is just the next logical step. Learn to live with and love big brother Sony.
So will games become cheaper now that they sort of cut out all those middle men that managed the physical logistics with printing and shipping and all that? No of cause not. Don't be daft. You'll probably get charged a premium for not having to do all those things you previously did like going to a game-store and buying a copy.
A PS5 without a drive sounds extra worthless tho, at least previously when your console got old you could have it relegated to video/music player. What will this one do in retirement? Space-heater?
I also wonder if this is the nail in the coffin for the homebrew scene, yet another attack-vector removed from the console. A fairly common method previously was games with bad coding that left doors, memory leaks, buffer overflows, to many privileges, open to abuse, that won't be a thing any more. Since as soon as they find out which game it is they'll just yank if from the service until that hole is patched. Thinking about installing some hardware kit? That will probably get you put on the naughty-list to and your account will no longer be in good standing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @02:06AM (3 children)
A Playstation 5 with no disk drive, no internet connection, and no active Playstation account is a paperweight. No longer could you buy one from Gamestop or Goodwill or the pawn shop and expect to do anything at all with it. They will be a perfect example of environmental waste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @02:23AM (1 child)
If you can jailbreak it, you have a very cheap gaming PC, at least at launch. If you can't jailbreak it, you have a walled jail console.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Monday August 31 2020, @01:48PM
It's a big if. They are getting better with each and every generation of consoles to keep people out. By locking down the user and removing most forms of allowable software input locally this could be a long time away. If faulty software are the primary attack vector for the last few generations and that now possibly being of-the-market as an attack vector it's going to have to be finding some kind of faulty hardware vector that would be the goal. But it might be harder then before since they are now probably going to run various, and constant, checks to see if any non-authorized modifications have been made. So you might eventually be able to break it but then you are probably screwed in the other end cause you might/will never be able to connect to PSN again. So now you'll need at least two PS5:s -- one for your PSN needs and one for your own (non-legit-in-the-eyes-of-sony) stuff.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Acabatag on Monday August 31 2020, @02:45AM
It reminds me of back when I bought an Atari 600. They were really cheap at liquidation stores back in the early 80's, mainly because Atari killed them very quickly before there was any software or peripherals for them. Really there was no software at all. You could program them in BASIC, but the only peripheral to save your program onto was a cassette tape player.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday August 31 2020, @02:59AM (2 children)
"the nail in the coffin for the homebrew scene"
Not entirely. Homebrew games are still possible on Linux.
-- hendrik
(Score: 3, Touché) by looorg on Monday August 31 2020, @03:27AM (1 child)
I dont recall seeing anything about Sony allowing linux on their shiny new ps5. I might have missed it. But considering they yanked for previous generations it might be some time before that is even an option again.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday August 31 2020, @06:41PM
No. It's not likely Sony will make Linux available on the PS5.
So don't waste money buying one.
If you're into homebrew, do it in Linux on a regular computer. The Linux gaming community could use you.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 31 2020, @09:14AM (1 child)
The consoles are mostly just locked down x86 PCs now (although Xbox One apparently has a Developer Mode [slashgear.com]). PS5/XSX will have some dedicated chips (e.g. audio), faster SSDs than most PCs have, and a better level of raytracing performance than all current PCs. The price/performance on the new consoles will undercut all gaming PCs at launch, if they could be jailbroken.
But more energy will be put into emulation. Infamously, Breath of the Wild has been made to look better on PC than the underpowered Nintendo Switch [arstechnica.com], by emulating the Wii U version, and now Switch emulation is well underway [wikipedia.org]. PS3 emulation allows games that were never ported to be played on PC, like Demon Souls. Sony is now starting to port older exclusives [wccftech.com], to make a little cash and possibly remove incentives to go after PS4.
Get emulation nailed down, and the games are pirateable and playable. If discs still exist, then there must be a built-in assumption that some players won't have an internet connection, and so it should be playable out of the box without online updates. As long as it's single player.
I glanced at the online store on a friend's PS4 a few times and got the impression that Sony is really money hungry. Lots of random services and schemes (PlayStation Plus, Vue, Now, etc.), and game prices seemed high. But there were some sales on digital titles, and why wouldn't there be? Will it be as good as physical media sales or secondhand sales? Probably not. But at least you won't get the virus!
Typical game price may rise from $60 to $70 [businessinsider.com]. But that's because of high budgets and inflation, not anything Sony is doing.
Did you see this story?
Disc Player Exploit Targets PlayStation 2 Console, Possibly Others [soylentnews.org]
One disc player exploit possibly spanning 4 console generations. Wow. PS5 is probably safe but I'm sure someone will be buying the full console on day one, never connecting it to the internet, and trying to hack it with discs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 31 2020, @01:59PM
That sentence was clearly supposed to have been read in the context of the article so regarding the PS5 then. It's not that it can't/won't ever happen. But considering that the disc-exploit took about 20 years to get working, which is three console generations ago, I wouldn't hold my breath for this coming to the PS5 anytime soon.
That said they have been better and better which each passing console generation of keeping the homebrewers out, in some cases long enough for the next generation of console to be, or almost to be, available. So while it's great/fun that there is some console exploit available for the PS2 it's not really common anymore. If you want a PS2 today you better go search over at ebay etc cause no store carries them, that I know of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @01:38AM (5 children)
Shit, another $100 on lube for the PS9000 vagina hardware.
Money IS tight these days, why can't my console be the same?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @02:48AM (3 children)
How do you spend $100 on lube? You must be going to the wrong Adult Stores. It doesn't matter if the clerks are cute women. You are NOT going to make it with them. At All. Your Amazon driver can deliver all the lube you need. Unless there's something I've missed about your recreational practices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @06:28AM (2 children)
When you absolutely have to go all in, or you need an extra hand(or three), you gotta buy it by the gallon! SPUNK Lube Pure Silicone 128oz Gallon [amazon.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2020, @02:46AM
Bah. That stuff tastes terrible.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:24PM
It may be a little crude to say but you can buy lube in 42 gallon barrels for under $50 each at the moment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @08:57PM
There was porn of the console on day one. The thirst is real.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @08:28PM
FOREVER AND EVER