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PS3's Smart Back-Compat, PS4 Doesn't Play Discs
Good news for Sony fans looking forward to the PS3. Eurogamer reports that the system will feature backwards compatibility with memory cards as well as games. From the article: "An update to Sony's PlayStation 3 website has revealed that you will be able to use older PlayStation memory cards with PlayStation 3 - providing you buy an adapter. An entry in the official PS3 FAQ states: 'To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 memory card, you must copy the data onto a virtual memory card within the hard disk.'" Microsoft could have really used something like that for the Xbox/360 switchover. Relatedly, Sony is looking ahead ... way ahead, even to their next console. Wired has a piece looking at the future of downloads in the games industry. From that article: "Microsoft is releasing an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. Both companies are even touting the ability of these new discs to play movies in even higher hi-def. That struggle, however, is ultimately meaningless. 'I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,' [Sony's Phil] Harrison says."
....to find some good news when they're making a big thing about being able to your old PS2 memory cards. Especially when you consider that you need to buy an adapter, and that you can't use the data on the card as such, only a virtual version of it copied to the machine's HD. Therefore what this *actually* means that you in fact *can't* use your old cards, you can only convert the data, assuming you're prepared to shell out for another piece of optional hardware, and I dread to think how much these adapters are going to cost.
This is hardly a major positive for the PS3, but they're trying desperately to dressing it up as one.
If you've got a memory card with game data on, then I'd say it's more than a little likely that you've also got a PS2. Why not just save yourself the effort (and additional cost) and run your old saved games on that?
Perhaps that's what Phil Harrison is getting at. The PS4 won't have a physical disc drive because the PS4 won't be physical itself.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
You just made my decision for me - I will never buy anything associated with Blu-Ray, as you have just indicated that it is a stop-gap for a diskless content delivery system in approx. 5 years but no more than 10.
I guess I'll just hold on to my "plain old" DVD's and non-HD TV until then, or show patronage to another company's products/standards.
And my grandma still insists on using her phone book, her home phone, radio for weather and the newspaper for the news.
/. are not should tell you something. As far as I'm concerned, doing away with physical goods goes against human nature itself. It will not be a successful strategy, any more than e-books so far have been a successful strategy (or ever will be).
I use the internet, the internet, the internet and the internet.
And she can do a lot of things you can't. Namely, look up a phone number in a power failure. USE her phone in a power failure. Read the news while sitting on the crapper or in the subway.
More importantly, she knows to diversify her information sources. You rely on one data path. That data path goes down, for any reason, and you're officially screwed.
Those of us who have been around long enough - even those of us who are just young enough to not really remember the days before the internet - all know the benefits of this data diversification. We also know the benefits of tangible goods vs. virtual goods, because we've all experienced the headaches that come from "losing" your virtual goods - even though we may still have the media that may contain them.
You're underestimating the number of people who would just never buy a console that didn't support physical media. I wouldn't, the guy you're replying to wouldn't and the guy he's replying to wouldn't. There are a lot of us out there. Add in the fact that there will probably always be at least one competitor willing to shuck the current convention and provide what the other systems lack, and I doubt any console will ever succeed without physical media support. I'm serious. Even if we're talking DS-size (or smaller) memory chips... there has to be something you can hold in your hand that contains the game on it, separate from the game console. Something you can buy in a store, trade with friends, borrow, collect, re-sell, back up or whatever. That's just for starters. I'm sure there are people who, like you, are perfectly willing to trust the internet and their connected consoles for all their gaming needs, but the fact that even a number of people here on tech-centric
(It can be *part* of a larger successful strategy, but it is not a strategy unto itself. Games have to be available on physical media, end of story.)