According to information relayed by our colleagues from Insider Gaming, Sony has just filed a patent application for a new disc player. Enough to revive the theories around the famous external disk drive mentioned for several months.
The website Insider Gaming returns to the front of the stage with new information potentially concerning the PS5. Indeed, a Sony patent application, filed for the first time in March 2021, has just been made public on April 20, 2023.
This request is obviously for a new disk drive. And while the PS5 isn’t explicitly mentioned in the patent documents, the device in question is described as “an optical disc player that can be mounted in electronic equipment such as a game machine, personal computer or electronic equipment”.
A new disc drive for the PS5?
Enough to revive the rumors around a possible external disk drive for the PS5. Remember, in September 2022, Insider Gaming had just shared first information on this external disk drive. Be careful however, the idea here would not be to offer an accessory. This drive would still be included in the console design, except that it would therefore be possible to remove it.
For the manufacturer, the interest would be as follows: no longer offering two different chassis for the PS5 (one for the classic version, one for the Digital Edition) in favor of a single frame. In fact, this change would allow simplify console productionand by extension, to speed it up.
As Insider Gaming points out, this patent therefore aims to reduce production costs by reducing the number of parts, while guaranteeing their reliability and the proper functioning of the equipment. In sum, that’s what Sony has been aiming to do since the PS5’s debut in November 2020, as evidenced by the launch of modded versions of the console in some territories. We refer here to the PS5 equipped with the C chassis, lighter by 200 grams. Be careful though, like any patent, nothing says that this disk drive does not concern the PS5 or that this device will one day find the way to mass duplication.
