What I just find ironic is they go from allowing an external hdd to not allowing one. Where as Microsoft goes from not allowing one to allowing one. I think they should have kept the ability there. Granted it's nice to be able to change your internal one but to be able to put a ssd in there and have an external one would have been nice.

I disagree.

If Sony thought external HDD support was that much of a threat, they would've issued a firmware update to have it completely removed from the PS3, a long time ago. They didnt seem to have any hesitations when removing OtherOS support, when they thought that was a threat. External HDD support has much less to do with piracy, and more to do with trying to CONTROL how the consumer can interact with their merchandise, by limiting your options.

Furthermore, there are a lot of people who DO pay for their content. Pay for MP3's and digital video files...and those people like the ability to transfer those files from one storage device to another. You cant assume everyone is a pirate and 100% of all downloaded media, is pirated. It doesnt work that way. I pay for Netflix and I pay for Music Unlimited and I do have a PC and an MP3 player....but I want as many options at my disposal as I can have and if I want my PS4 to support external HDD's...thats my prerogative. And from a consumer perspective, theres nothing wrong with wanting it.

It's like this...

Sony has a chance to deliever to the consumer, what they want. We are being very vocal about what we want. And we are getting Sony's attention with it, as statements have been made from Sony regarding missing media features and support. But if they dont deliver, if they use the ever looming threat of piracy to dodge and avoid what we are asking for...sooner or later...some hacker, cracker or script kiddie is gonna come along and figure out how to jailbreak the PS4, just like they did with the PS3. And when they do...the homebrew and modding communities will give us the features, options and abilities we want...whether Sony likes it or not.

In the end, it would be easier if Sony just gave us FULL media support and playback from external HDD's, thumb drives and other devices. They wanna fight the pirates, fine...but dont screw me over in the process.

It is to do with security, the PS HDD is married/encrypted to that system using its unique security key.

Its the reason you can't take 1 HDD out & stick it in another PS, it will ask you to reformat it.

Also Sony store half the firmware on the HDD, don't ask me why, its what Somy support told me when ther 4.46 firmware bricked my PS3.

So its prob more the latter is the reason for no external storage, there system isn't/wasnt built to hand it.

Would also like point out the PS3/4 uses a propiatory file system ufs2.

Also that's why games aren't allowed to be stored on external storage. They don't want people ripping them.

The media has been acting weird lately around sony, maybe that's the power of money or influence, but the damage control here is historically unheard of, They damage control things that still nobody has complained about in turn doing what can be best described as "future-proof Damage Control". Those money induced actions I can understand, but it's the fanboy promoting this kind of corporate damage control behavior and supporting it in their comments is what perplexes me, and that's a characteristically peculiar finding in the sony fanboy community.

Xbox operating costs are without a doubt eye wateringly high, way way way higher than Sony. GP is costing them an absolute fortune to operate.

That is a very solid operating profit. It's not net, obviously, but still a very healthy amount of cash you make after cost of debt and taxes (+ other expenses), and can invest into R&D and future endeavours. And give back to your shareholders or buy back shares.

Yup especially with the price of tech going up. They already have the PRO to hold them over.

Exactly this. Let Xbox wither on the vine for a couple more years and there will be nothing left.

I fully agree for 2 reasons:

1. Microsoft seems to be in a hurry to release the new Xbox, if they do at all... AMD speculates a 2027 release. This will hurt them in the long run, because:

2. Datacenters are buying up ALL the RAM, and some RAM manufacturers have stopped making RAM for consumer products entirely, while the other remaining ones are scared to ramp up their production capacity to make more RAM because they're worried this whole AI thing is a bubble that is about to pop, and they don't want to be caught holding the bag when it does pop. So, for now, it costs $300-400 for 32GB of DDR5. That's the MSRP for some entire consoles.

If Microsoft drops the new Xbox now, it's going to cost them a fortune. If Sony holds their cards a moment and lets PS5 cook for a while, as it's showing no signs whatsoever of slowing down in sales, then by the time PS6 is ready to drop, RAM prices should have stabilized, allowing Sony to devote much more of their budget towards making PS6's CPU and GPU more powerful, in addition to the tech itself maturing and the available CPU and GPU parts being much more powerful for the same price point than they would be if released today. So, we'd get a super powerful PS6 in say, 2029, that won't have to cost $700-800. They speculate, based on the current specs, that the new Xbox will cost north of $1,000, and that was before the RAM shortage came into the picture. It's definitely going to be even higher now that RAM costs so much.

MS will be shooting themselves in the foot (again) if they try to drop a new Xbox now, and Sony would be wise to capitalize on that mistake by holding their cards a while longer, raking in more of those PS5 profits, and then dropping a new console as soon as the hardware market stabilizes from this AI datacenter BS.

I think you are forgetting to mention the chip shortages for PS5.

No one wants the Switch 2 to do badly.

PS5 being less than 2m behind PS4 is not a big deal; PS5 had to deal with COVID and ongoing supply and pricing struggles that clearly still exist today. Sales of software are incredibly strong, and the size of the community is bigger than its ever been.

PS5 is well on pace to exceed its early (2021) estimates of 110m by end of life even if that's 2027. PS5 will hit 100m before November and then sell another 6-8M in November + December.

PS5 is doing great, and so is Switch 2, it's good for everyone that they succeed, pitting the two against each other is more damaging than anything related to the sales of the two consoles individually.

Wait, So AI is cool now.

Not sure if intentionally being funny lol. isn't this like quite literally taking away people's jobs? I think SAG-AFTRA may disagree about this harming no one.,

Been gaming all my life. This is the worst generation ever.

Not to mention that just like this generation, the next one will also be shared between the current and next gen console at least for a couple of years. So the few titles that it will had, just like this one, will run on the console you already have.

My sentiments exactly, next gen has got to prove it's worth before i buy into it this time. This has been the weakest generation in my 30yrs of gaming. From the drawn out cross gen garbage, to so many games getting stuck in development hell or canceled, to the ABSURD levels of trend chasing to the point of self destruction, this gen just wasn't worth it

Covid-19 held back everything at least 2 years worth. Although many people disliked, i think only UE5 can generally distinguish this gen from the previous one.

That's normal how you think. Time goes faster when you're older and i bought my PS5 since day 1 release and now it's 5 years old. I don't mind a year delay to release PS6 in holiday 2028.

Tomorrow isn't promised to any of us.