Hirai: Games will “always” need a “physical medium”

By Patrick Garratt

A completely digital future could more than ten years away, PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has said.

“We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn’t as robust as one would hope,” the exec told MCV.

“There’s always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium.

“To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme.”

Former Sony dev boss Phil Harrison told Wired in 2006 – as reported by Kotaku – that he’d be “amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive.”

Sony has tested download-only waters recently with PSP go, but without great success. PSP2 is rumoured to be flash memory-only.