Sony and Microsoft's next-gen (or current-gen?) gaming consoles come in two variants, a digital-only variant that doesn't have a CD drive and the standard variant that has one.
While both function the same way, the difference between the two could be a dealbreaker for some to change from the standard variant to the digital-only one and vice versa.
Let's get right to it.
Gaming Console Standard Variant Features
A picture of Microsoft's Xbox Series X with its controller.
The standard variant, namely the PlayStation 5's standard variant and Microsoft's Xbox Series X, seem to have the best of two worlds. They can download games from their respective online stores and still read and run games from Blu-Ray discs.
This feature is a unique advantage for this variant; gamers can still play their favorite games if they have its physical disc, even if there is no internet connection. Sure, online multiplayer won't be available due to a lack of internet connection, but not all games focus on such a feature.
There are still single-player games that aren't a live service, and they're thriving rather than dying despite the rise of live service games like Gotham Knights, World of Warcraft, and Genshin Impact.
A standard edition Sony Playstation 5 video game console being displayed at Sony's headquarters in Tokyo.
Having a disc drive also allows gamers to capitalize on the free last-gen to next-gen upgrades that give games from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One the same performance as their next-gen counterparts without paying for anything.
While the PlayStation 5 doesn't differ much from its digital variant aside from having a disc drive, Microsoft's Xbox Series S and X have glaring ones. When it comes to performance, Microsoft declares the Series X to be the winner of the two, with the Series X having more processing power, better graphics output, and bigger internal storage and expandability.
However, this variant does have its disadvantages. For one, they are more expensive than their digital-only counterparts, and they are usually bigger and bulkier due to the inclusion of a disc drive.
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Gaming Console Digital-Only Variant Features
Digital-only consoles, namely the PlayStation 5's digital-only variant and the Xbox Series S, come with advantages of their own. They're cheaper to buy and more portable than the standard edition due to them not having any disc drives.
While the lack of a disc drive limits the flexibility of digital-only consoles, gamers with such consoles can capitalize on the many digital discounts and sale events their console's online store hosts periodically, such as the recently concluded Capcom Publisher Sale, saving them money in the process.
These sale events, cheaper pricing, and portability makes the digital-only variants popular because they allow people to save more money than their standard counterparts. With physical discs, gamers who wish to save money usually have to wait for their third-party store to have its very own sale event, which rarely happens as the store's owner needs to run a business.
A picture of a digital edition PlayStation 5 with a DualSense controller
The sale events were one of the reasons why SSD hard drives eventually replaced disc drives in PCs. An adequate internet connection is now more accessible than five or seven years ago; why stick with CDs that don't come cheap and would sometimes fail if not handled properly?
However, there are some disadvantages to digital-only variants. Games purchased from a gaming console's respective online store come with always-on digital rights management programming, preventing gamers from playing the games purchased from the store without an internet connection.
There is a legitimate way to play games even without an internet connection, though it deprives players of the ability to access and play the games they want immediately.
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