The PlayStation 4 will continue to support physical media for the foreseeable future, according to an interview IGN did with Sony's Jim Ryan. Ryan told the site that Blu-Ray discs will be the primary format for games because of the limitations faced by countries without widespread high-speed internet connectivity:
“If you go down to Southern Europe, where we have very big and important businesses, it can take you 3 days over a standard internet connection to download a file of the size, and that’s not fun.”
It seems, however, that those countries with poor internet access wont be able to get all PS4 games on Blu-Ray disc, as Shuhei Yoshida – Sony's head of worldwide studios – told the Guardian:
“We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side – PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc.”
This talk comes after a PS4 announcement in which the console itself wasn't shown, let alone any hint of physical media. The focus was on connectivity – sharing HD video with friends, streaming demos so you can jump right in, beginning to play a digital copy of a game before it has fully downloaded – which seemed to suggest that Sony was trying to escape from the shackles of physical discs. Given that making the switch to digital would end – or at least temporarily halt – the pre-owned market, then it makes a lot of sense for Sony to consider going that way. It looks like we can thank our fellow PlayStation fans in other countries that that future is still a little way off.