PS5 Slim disc drive internet connection requirement has fans worried

An internet connection requirement for the PS5 Slim disc drive has fans worried that the attachment always needs to be online to work.

[Christopher]

It's only to pair it. Not to use it after being paired. Overreaction town.

[Amplitude]

Yeah I agree people are overreacting and it doesn't really matter but still - the reason people are upset is because the external disc drive is useful for the future of the console when the laser is dead and replacements are hard to find.

Theoretically if Sony goes bankrupt in 20+ years or decides to shut the Update servers down, all of a sudden every external disc drive is useless.

Like with most "preservation" things I don't think it matters much because in 20 years the PS5 modding community will be thriving and these disc drives will work anyway, but uhhhh yeah that's the line of thinking here.

[Christopher]

*** Theoretically if Sony goes bankrupt in 20+ years or decides to shut the Update servers down, all of a sudden every external disc drive is useless. ***

Just FYI, so would most Blu-ray disc drives out there since digital keys are used with all of them for Blu-ray content. Every console Blu-ray requires this, including the XSX/PS5 with it built in from the get-go.

[EvertonFC]

Maybe we're different, but I don't buy things expecting them still to be working in 20 years pmsl.
Theoretically that can happen with any purchase you ever make in life if any company goes bust.
Would you be able to play any GP or ps plus games if Sony or Xbox went out of business ? Or find a a replacement part for your hoover in 20 years or washing machine etc etc.

[Kombatologist]

@EvertonFC

Video game preservation is important. Comparing it to appliances that are designed to break is a false equivalence.

[Seraphim]

@kombat- how so? Both are pieces of electronic equipment. Parts shortages and issues are real. Be that vehicles, appliances or any other forms of electronics. The point is that at some point you may not be able to fix something you own in 20 years due to parts unavailability.

[ozzfreak]

@Kombatologist

Digital is the best preservation. My entire collection is backed up digitally, some pulled directly off a modded console. Some of my physical discs have already succumbed to disc rot :( bank on modders letting you get to the digital stuff.

[badz149]

@Amplitude

"Theoretically if Sony goes bankrupt in 20+ years or decides to shut the Update servers down, all of a sudden every external disc drive is useless."

found 1 of the inhabitants of Overreaction Town!

[Cacabunga]

Last time Spiderman 2 make or break
Today fans worried about a one time internet use to pair a hardware.

Fake Videogamer website is laughable

[Amplitude]

Well why the heck else does anybody care that you need internet to activate the disc drive then?
Like i said in my og message, I don't care in the slightest about this. I play on PC my dudes.

@EvertonFC:
Comparing video games to a washing machine isn't a fair comparison. Video games are art that should be able to be experienced for all of time. A washing machine is a washing machine.

I'm just speculating on why people might take issue with this, and that's all I can think of. I also do see their point. Requiring internet on a closed platform like a console is really dirty and just makes me hope to god the console gets hacked so emulation can keep the games playable.

Like, If Spiderman 2 remains PS5 exclusive and the PS5 never gets hacked, it means the game will be completely impossible to play in 50 (or 100. Or 150. Or 200) years when servers are dead and disc drive lasers have failed. Surely that sucks, no? Why would anybody want that? All the recent CoD Forza and Gran Turismo games requiring a constant server connection to play the single player is absolutely evil as well.

Why do people accept and vouch for this nonsense lol. I've been playing a lot of PS3 games in RPCS3 and replaying Vita games on the PSTV and it's pretty sick. Just replayed Enslaved and Uncharted Golden Abyss. It would kind of suck if i went to play and both those games just to be hit with "Cannot connect to server. Please try again later" for the rest of eternity, then put the physical copy in and got hit with "Your Vita Card slot isnt activated. Please activate" "Unable to connect to the activation server. Please try again later".
In the case of Golden Abyss with no Vita emulator, that's the end of that game forever. Pretty uncool. Seems like something we should probably be against?

[VariantAEC]

@ozzfreak
"Disc rot."
I too store my physical games in a vat of fungi and acid...

Seriously, what the f••• is "disc rot?"
I have f•••••• 3 1/4 floppy disks that still work just fine 30 years on. Never ever had a CD "rot" on me. Nor has any software storage media even lost enough data to corrupt a game (or track of music or anything) due to natural expectations of data loss due to the intrinsic flaws of various storage media from tape cassettes to diskettes, CDs, and cartridges. +30 years of software on a multitude of media... *NOTHING HAS ROTTED AWAY ON ME.*

[Mr_cheese]

Hey, you published the article on here 🤣

Videogamer could have just posted the news about the Internet connection and cleared any misconceptions up but in classic trait, they jumped on flame

[Christopher]

I'm not in charge of writing, only publishing what I'm asked to publish.

[Mr_cheese]

Very aware. You're a cog in the machine now 😂

[-Foxtrot]

“I'm not in charge of writing, only publishing what I'm asked to publish”

What happens when you say no?

Do they call an enforcer to rough you up abit :’)

[Christopher]

*** What happens when you say no? ***

I mean, what happens when you say no to your bosses at other jobs?

[-Foxtrot]

Me? If it’s something in generally don’t want to do? Well normally they ask why, I explain, they get arsey, then there’s a possible argument, lot of death stares and in the end they then decide it’s easier to move into someone else, usually the newer guys who will most likely say yes because they know I’ve been there longer and if I go they will have to faff around finding a replacement who knows the place while spending time doing so much training with them which they literally can’t be arsed to do.

[Christopher]

***it’s easier to move into someone else, usually the newer guys who will most likely say yes***

So it happens anyway, right?

[Mr_cheese]

I fear I've started something through friendly jest :(

But seriously, do videogamer know we hate their articles?

[Christopher]

I'd say people hate some of their articles as much as others, but you folk also like some of their articles. What they are aware of is how they perform with their metrics, which may not align with your comments on them. But, where necessary, I do bring very vocal displeasure to their ears. Note that things are not pinned anymore because I reported your reactions to them.

[Mr_cheese]

For sure, metrics are the rule.

I'll say it again though, I poke fun but understand your role and commend your transparency since the take over

[isarai]

@Foxtrot

Fk off dude, rarely does someone have the luxury of quitting their source of income over a disagreement. Not that there even has to be one here, it's just an article about video games. Like we're all passionate about our hobby here, but at the end of the day it's just video games, not only that, a simple article doing nothing but asking questions, arguably dumb questions, but nothing worth taking anywhere near such a severe reactionary stance on.

You don't have to like the article, you don't even have to like Christopher, but to try and make someone feel bad for trying to make a living, especially one in an industry you're passionate about, is low and a real d!ck move.

Also I call BS you argue whenever you encounter something you don't want to do at your job. Especially the complete fantasy of a scenario where your employer yields to you.

"lot of death stares and in the end they then decide it’s easier to move into someone else"

Did everyone stand up and cheer too? 🤣 trust me, I've managed people like you, more like they're already looking for a replacement and in the end you'll be out of a job with no notice.

Grow up and Chill out bro, it ain't that serious

[darthv72]

I guess it is the lock the drive to that machine so you could not remove it. Kind of bummed about that but I understand the logic. Sony (and MS) do that now with the optical drives in the PS5/SX. If the optical fails, you need to remove the drive board and attach it to another optical drive in order for it to work because the drive board is married to the mainboard.

I figured them going this route would alleviate this issue and make for easier replacing of the drive. Its still easier, just that you likely need to go through this pairing each time you replace the drive. I'd also assume you have to pair it if you wanted to just pop the drive off and plug into another slim. Like a friends or you get another one for another room but dont want to invest in another drive.

Maybe the drive can be paired to more than one system...? That would be cool too. It is meant to be detachable and not a permanent fixture. So they would had to have thought about all scenarios.

[nitus10]

From the article.

"The PS5 Slim disc drive does not always need to be online to work."

And in the same paragraph.

"Internet connection required to pair PS5 disc drive and PS5 console upon setup."

Fully agree - Overreaction town.

[DarXyde]

I think the concern about potential server shutdowns making it impossible to pair a device is valid. If Sony can release this requirement via update down the road, I suppose that's workable, but I want no part of the next generation if this is the standard going forward. It seems like a small issue, but it's really a bit outrageous that you can have a physical console and disc drive and need the internet to set it up to be able to play your physical copy of Spider-Man 2.

Feels like we're treading cautious ground with this one. Easy to dismiss as no big deal, but I don't know. I'm skeptical.

[Petebloodyonion]

So ppl are buying a car running on gaz but same ppl complain that the car is polluting by using gaz?
Is it me but I would expect that a digital only console would need to connect to the Internet from time to time or always online if it's not the main console.

[ChasterMies]

“So ppl are buying a car running on gaz but same ppl complain that the car is polluting by using gaz?”

That’s a bad comparison because not everyone owns a car and not everyone who owns a car has a car that runs on gas.

[Petebloodyonion]

My point is simple I doubt that ppl who can only buy games DIGITALLY from the PlayStation will complain about the idea that the console needs to connect once on the internet to validate the disk drive when they already needed to connect online in the 1st place.

[SinisterMister]

I mean, why? Have these "fans" lost the ability to read and comprehend? The internet's only required to set the thing up for the FIRST TIME. That's it.

[jznrpg]

I wonder if you can buy 2 pair that at the same time and be good to go? Also a downloadable patch may be available at some point and you can store it on a flash drive or whatever. Too early to get all bent out of shape over for me not that it seems like a major issue anyways.

[jesujohn]

It is required by the law. Sony has no choice.

https://twitter.com/JonDoyl...

https://twitter.com/Andy_VG...

[Chocoburger]

This explains why, so I understand now. But it still sucks. Hopefully homebrew will be able to bypass it in the future.

[Eonjay]

Yeah this is not an issue. The issue whether or not you can switch the drive to a different system if you chose to.

[darthv72]

You likely would need to go through the pairing process again.

[Eonjay]

Okay that makes sense.

[Hofstaderman]

Whilst people are overreacting I still say this is bullshit. What about those without internet? Also what happens some 15 years later when I source a disc drive for one of my slims, will I still be able to link it? I still have three ps1s that I rotate out to play games on my tube tv, its my way of playing through rpgs like xenogears and suikoden and yes, I know there are more modern ways to play them but I do so for nostalgia.
Sony needs to review themselves, they may be in the lead but they should not forget that they not infallible.

[ozzfreak]

Not too be confrontational, but you bought a digital console that requires the Internet from the start. You later added the drive. If you didn't have Internet, why did you buy the digital console and not the one with the drive already?

[Hofstaderman]

This applies with slims that come with the disc drive, the picture where this info was sourced was from the box of a console with the disc drive.
Also in the future depending on availability, I may only come across a digital console and may already have a disc drive I already bought or buy a disc drive down the line.

[ozzfreak]

Fair play, I didn't see that bit. Here's to how that of it gets that far down the line that servers are shut off, the modders will have figured it out. They are the true torch bearers of preservation anyway.

[Gamingsince1981]

It's actually a requirement to do for any company, that's the law.

[EvertonFC]

This is series X/S setup info straight from Xbox official site, read the "NOTES"

https://support.xbox.com/en...

"Note You must be online when you set up Xbox for the first time. Without an internet connection, you can't finish setup. After your console has updated and you've added your profile, you can go offline"

[maniacmayhem]

First off, it's a digital console, so you would need to be online anyways. So what exactly is the big deal here?

[DefenderOfDoom2]

Well, I plan on buying the PS5 slim with stand and disc drive included, when it is released.

[Barlos]

I like that you have disagrees for choosing to do what you want with your own money. How dare you 🤣🤣

[gold_drake]

its only to pair it up once.

not a big deal.

[Solitariussaint]

This news is disappointing to say the least. I understand it's required by law but Sony should keep making the PS5 disk version fat model so that it's not a major issue going forward.

[hiawa23]

Come on, it is only to pair the two.

[RupeeHoarder]

This is for blu-ray issues regarding copyrighted material, nothing more….its standard practice.

[Brazz]

it's a 1 time thing!

[Dandizzle]

I bet this is just a driver check to ensure you have latest drivers for the cd drive. After that regular updates will keep it up to date

[mastershredder]

The use of "Fan" is an odd choice, but somehow a cliche go-to for game publications and me-too gamer sites. The consumer base that is aware of the product by no means has to be a "fan". More concern would be those who are actually financially involved in the production and resale process. But, nah let's use that videogamer logic and focus on the fear of the "fans". Holy hell, just stop it already. Also, nice way to try to blow this up into something. It's not. It's so not.

[Binarycode]

Is it a security thing. I don't really get why you need to pair involving the net.

[ocelot07]

Think R4 cards for the DS. Or the 3rd party adapters for the Vita memory cards.

They don't want companies making 3d prints of the disc drive shell. Then putting in standard blu-ray drives. Potentially allowing people to use burnt blu-rays.

[NotoriousWhiz]

People complain about this stuff as if it won't be patched out by the time doomsday comes. If the time comes when Sony has to shut down their servers, you can bet there will be a solution for pairing without connecting to their servers.

[solidt12]

No one is worried or gives a crap. Fake articles to get hits and it works.

[Barlos]

Yeah why would anyone be worried? Anyone who wants one will buy one regardless, and if they don't want the risk of it being always online (which has already been refuted, since it's just to pair the drive to the system) then they won't buy one. Nobody is "worried". It's a stupid clickbait headline, which, unfortunately, is all too common these days.

[glennhkboy]

Why would anyone surprise?.... When Sony make a new hardware, it will use a proprietary accessories (BETA video tape, MD, MemoryStick, etc). Of cause Sony will make the PS5 BlueRay drive proprietary, to prevent players to buy a standard Blue Ray drive.

[Barlos]

Don't worry, be happy.

[Stuart5756]

The comments!!! People arguing about washing machines and sony going bankrupt, who are you people?

[Phoenix029]

The upside to this is currently (unless I’m mistaken) we can’t repair/replace a broken disc drive unless you can salvage the daughter board inside but after this we will be able to. Hopefully this pairing thing can be used retrospectively with the current Ps5’s somehow.