The PS5 Slim’s disc drive can be swapped between consoles easily – but you need an internet connection
Although currently slated for an unspecified release in November, the new, slimmer PlayStation 5 model is already starting to appear at a handful of retailers. A bundle containing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is available now at Walmart alongside plenty of other early Black Friday PS5 deals.
It’s no surprise then that some customers are getting their hands on the console a little early, including popular YouTuber Ryan Biniecki who posted an in-depth unboxing and comparison video on their channel.
In addition to outlining the smaller size and weight of the console, they also use the video to answer some pressing questions about the system’s new detachable disk drive module. While it was discovered last month that you need an internet connection to install the disc drive, many are wondering if it’s even possible to move your disc drive to another PS5 console once it’s already installed on the computer. a system.
Fortunately, it appears you can swap the disk drives, at least according to what was demonstrated in Biniecki’s video, but there’s a catch. In addition to requiring an Internet connection the first time it is installed on a console, the disc drive also requires a connection to install each time it is subsequently moved to a new system. This connection is only needed once per console, but without it the system will not accept drives at all.
While this isn’t all that unexpected given the internet requirement for the initial installation, it does raise further fears about the decision’s potential impact on future video game preservation efforts. Because the disk drive requires an initial connection to Sony’s servers, there may come a time several years later when the servers are taken offline and deleted versions of the disk drive module become completely unusable.
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