Worrying news for anyone considering the new PS5 Slim; you’ll need to connect the optional disc drive to the internet to pair it with your console.
The slimmer version of the PlayStation 5 is hitting shelves in November, with the exact date to be determined, but images of the new console have been popping up online.
The original, slightly chunkier PS5 had two versions of it; the standard disc version and a digital-only version which lacks a disc drive, but costs you less.
The new Slim model only comes without the disc drive, but you can certainly get a separate disc drive, which is handy for many reasons.
Except, as one eagle-eyed gamer noticed from images of the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 PS5 Slim bundle, the disc drive will require an internet connection to be paired with your console. Uh oh, that doesn’t seem good.
“Internet connection required to pair Disc Drive and PS5 console upon setup,” the box reads.
So, why is this a problem?
It may not be. It’s not clear yet whether you only need the internet connection to set-up the drive or whether you’ll need a connection every time you want to use it, although The Verge seems confident it’s a one-time requirement. The video game industry, like film and TV, is quietly inching towards an all-digital approach to its media and such a requirement is making things even more uncertain on that front.
Many gamers are also concerned that in the future, the disc drive would be unable to play discs if Sony’s servers go offline for any reason.
Sony might be enforcing the connection to prevent privacy, but as Digital Foundry’s John Linneman tweeted: “Hardware connectivity shouldn’t be determined by a server that may not always be available.”
