Sony may have found a way to keep the PlayStation 5 price down and the clue is in a leaked patent of what appears to be a PS5 cartridge.
No, no one is expecting the PlayStation 5 to shun its optical drive in favour of a Nintendo-style cartridge game system. Instead, the smart money is on this patent revealing Sony’s SSD expandable storage system.
The sketch comes courtesy of LetsGoDigital who dug up the patent of the cartridge which was filed by Sony on 5th November 2019. There’s some confusion over just which category it’s been listed under but the fact that the senior art director of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Yujin Morisawa, is registered as the inventor, makes it a solid enough bet that it’s PS5 related. It’s also known that Morisawa is responsible for all the PlayStation associated products.
Details on patent drawings are rarely technically complete and accurate. Despite that, there’s been plenty of analysis of connector pin structure and the online consensus is that it’s consistent with SSD modules. It also fits with Sony’s promise of lightning fast load times driven by SSDs.
If, indeed, this is the case, then there are some positive implications around pricing given the fears that the PlayStation 5 could be costly. SSD storage isn’t cheap, so instead of being forced to pay for large chunks of internal space, these cartridges could be optional extras to buy if and when gamers have the funds.
The thinking is now that there could be a more affordable, entry-level PS5 with very little storage off the shelf. As ever, more on the PlayStation 5 as we head towards the expected PS5 launch towards the end of 2020.
MORE:
