Sony PlayStation 6 might retain optical disk drive, claims former SIE executive

The Sony PlayStation 5 is available with and without optical disk support, although its successor, the PlayStation 5 Pro, is not. Microsoft also went all-digital with its recent Xbox consoles, making the assumption that the PlayStation 6 will arrive in digital-only fashion quite plausible. However, a former chairman of SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment), Shawn Layden, has voiced his opinion on the matter, claiming that he does expect the PlayStation 6 to retain optical disk support.

Citing the popularity of Sony's PlayStation in diverse geographies and markets, Layden believes that going disk-less might hurt the console's popularity in certain regions, especially those with spotty internet. There is undoubtedly a lot of merit to Layden's statements, who also claimed that his former colleagues were understandably cautious with decisions of such scale. If Sony foresees a decline in popularity as a consequence of going disk-less, there is no denying that the company will hold off on that move.

As of right now, details regarding the PlayStation 6 are scarce, unsurprisingly. We do know that the AMD APU destined for the home console is deign complete, and will utilize a CPU with AMD's 3D V-Cache technology along with a mid-range UDNA GPU, but that's about it. The PlayStation 6 is expected to drop sometime in 2027, which is a fair assumption considering that the PlayStation 5 (currently $550 on Amazon) also arrived roughly seven years after the PlayStation 4. Consoles have a substantially longer lifecycle than PCs, which makes the development process all the more crucial.