Current Events > Why do PS4 and X1 games have to be installed even with a disc?

(+) Yeah! (+)

On 360 you could just get home with your new game, put it in the tray, and be playing 20 seconds later.

I assume it's a hardware limitation with reading Blu-ray discs since IIRC the PS3 needed installs too, but is it possible the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett will bring that back?
---

Theyre trying phase out physical so they can make more $
---

It helps speed up in game load times.
---

Blu-ray load times are abysmal. There's just too much data to process, and the disc can only spin so fast. See the Wii U, which didn't do disc installs.
---

pokedude900 posted...

Blu-ray load times are abysmal. There's just too much data to process, and the disc can only spin so fast. See the Wii U, which didn't do disc installs.

Damn, so the only way they could make it like the old days would be to use an entirely new disc format...which won't happen.

Blah.
---

They could return to solid state media like the Switch, but that may be too expensive.
---

7989046 posted...

It helps speed up in game load times.

Yeah, apparently accessing the game info from the disc alone would cause a bottleneck.

Too bad. Looks like its time to spend all that funny money on a external drive.
---

HANGtheDJ_86 posted...

Too bad. Looks like its time to spend all that funny money on a external drive.

My 2TB external is one of the best purchases I've made in years

My X1 only has 500GB internal, which ends up really being like 370 after the OS and shit IIRC, so I could only have like 4 games installed at once. What a fucking pain.
---

pokedude900 posted...

The could return to solid state media like the Switch, but that may be too expensive.

Actually that is quickly becoming very cheap. If enough economies of scale are realized in the future it could be cheaper than discs, the real issue is that physical media just doesn't make much sense individually. Makes more sense to have a centralized hard drives you download the data to, sadly we may just end up with streaming though.

---

If streaming becomes the only way to play games, then I'll stop playing games. I refuse to pay for a game that I can't have either in my hands or on a hard drive.
---

pokedude900 posted...

Blu-ray load times are abysmal. There's just too much data to process, and the disc can only spin so fast. See the Wii U, which didn't do disc installs.

I thought the Wii U load times were fine?

---

Isn't the PS5 confirmed to run off of a SSD? I thought I heard something about that.

Regardless I hope the PS5 and Scarlett don't require installs. I fucking DETEST having to do that with my PS4

---

Creating a new type of disc would be a good thing though, Blu-ray awesome as it is still has limitations.

---

I never got the big problem with install and load times tbh.

Now some games are optimized so poorly that it's a real problem



but for the most part, what does 5-10 seconds matter? And install times are generally long enough for multitasking so
---

DevsBro posted...

but for the most part, what does 5-10 seconds matter?

Installing F4, GTA V, Horizon, and Spider-Man stand out as being really bad

Took a while

---

Doom_Art posted...

Isn't the PS5 confirmed to run off of a SSD? I thought I heard something about that.

iirc, both next gen consoles will.
---

Doom_Art posted...

DevsBro posted...

but for the most part, what does 5-10 seconds matter?

Installing F4, GTA V, Horizon, and Spider-Man stand out as being really bad

Took a while

I have all of those games, and those install are insane because they're open world. Outside of the initial scripted intro, you have the freedom to go absolutely anywhere, all that shit has to be loaded for you to do so.

And how you not mention red dead 2? Got that shit at 9pm,couldn't play it till 11:30 and I had work the next morning.
---

That's why I've stopped buying discs for the most part and just wait for those $15 PSN sales. It's being installed on my hard drive either way so why clutter up my tv stand with more plastic boxes?

I'm sure the game industry is grooming me for this exact reason but I'm fine with it.
---

Makeveli_lives posted...

And how you not mention red dead 2? Got that shit at 9pm,couldn't play it till 11:30 and I had work the next morning.

That's the first game I preloaded. Bought it through the Xbox app on my phone while out shopping and it was fully installed by the time I got home since my Xbox is always on low power mode.

Technology is great sometimes
---

Both the PS4 and Xbox One got a 6x Bluray reader, which reads at 27 MB/s.
The PS3 used a 2x Bluray reader at 9 MB/s while the Xbox 360 had a 12x DVD reader at 15.85 MB/s.
The stock harddrive in the PS4 reads on average 114 MB/s.
See the difference?
You read the data almost 4.5 times faster from the harddrive compared to the disc, and the developers optimize their games around the faster harddrive reading speeds.
So playing directly from the disc would result in longer loading times, more popup graphics and less graphical fidelity because the developers would try to optimize their games to a slower medium.
---

Makeveli_lives posted...

And how you not mention red dead 2? Got that shit at 9pm,couldn't play it till 11:30 and I had work the next morning.

I didn't play RDR2 on my own console

But yikes that would piss me off

---

Because this generation of cantsoles are nothing but overpriced gimped PCs
---