How do game discs work on consoles?

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I’m curious about how game discs function on consoles: do they actually read data from the disc or simply use it as a key?

I understand for online games why the storage space is so large but what about story games? I got a PS5 with a disc drive thinking I could save some storage space, but it seems like it takes up the same amount of space that a downloaded game would.

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2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The disc drive on the ps5 has multiple benefits. It allows the ps5 to play DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4K/”UHD” Blu-Rays. It also allows the ps5 to play ps4 and ps5 games off of the disc.

(This means that you can rent games from gamefly, buy used games and then return them within a week from gamestop, or borrow a game from a friend “just for a month bro”. You are not tied exclusively to the playstation digital store and their pricing and availability)

The ps5 copies the game data off of the disc and on to the console, so the drive will be pretty active *one time while copying*. Then, the system will only do a brief check to make sure that the disc is in the console so you can play the copied data, so the drive won’t have a ton of spinning action going on once the game is installed. This is actually a great thing. Try going back to playing ps3 games off of a disc and let me know what you think of blu ray loading times.

There are two specific ways i can think of to maximize space on your ps5. The first is to disable all automatic updates and install solely what is on the disc. Patches, updates, and DLC will add on to the “bloat” of the install size. The second is to add an SSD. This is a great option but it costs money.

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