With the PlayStation Vita dominating the PS3 in digital sales, Sony is hoping it can translate that digital philosophy to PlayStation 4, bringing an end to "crazy" waiting times as a game downloads.
Speaking with The Guardian, Sony's Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that every PlayStation 4 game will be available digitally on the day of release, just as PS Vita games are.
The concern, however, is the difference in download size: while PS Vita games are anywhere between 1-8GBs in size, PS4 games are considerably large.
"The games are big, they’re 50GB," he confirmed.
So then how can Sony make the PS4 a digital console if waiting time is so long for a single game?
Yoshida said the "immediacy" of the PS Vita -- being able to turn on your Vita and immediately start playing a game -- is something Sony wants to translate onto the PS4.
"We want to get out of this madness with PlayStation 4," Yoshida began, referring to long waiting times.
"We’re making purchase available from any device, so when you’re at work, you can spend a couple of moments looking at PlayStation Store and choosing a game, and straight away it starts to download at home. It may take a couple of hours but that’s okay because you’re still at work."
But what if you're at home and you want to play your new game straight away?
The PS4 will allow instant play, similar to how you can start watching a movie once you start downloading it. Sony revealed this during its press conference last week.
Is the PS4's ability to play a game while it's still downloading enough to get you to download a 50GB game?
By Gaetano Prestia