If the Wall Street Journal are to be believed, the successor to the PlayStation 3 is due in 2013, and was considered to be download-only at one point. WSJ sources claim that Sony “considered but ultimately rejected a download-only plan” for the PlayStation 4.
The paper describes the platform holder’s considerations as “flirting”, saying that dropping the drive would have broken “decades old tradition”. The main reason for the decision to scrap the download-only model was because of Internet speeds around the world – some countries don’t have decent internet access or speeds.
The WSJ says that the latest PS4 “prototype” uses AMD technology and is due next year. As such, it will be unlikely that the PS4 will make an appearance at E3 next week, but we can dream right?