SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed you can fully install games onto the PS4 hard drive.
This was confirmed on Yoshida’s official twitter when he answered with a simple “yes” when a fan asked him about it.
This means you can buy a disc-based PS4 game and install the full game content onto the hard drive. However, the disc still needs to be inside the PS4 for verification purposes.
Since the console will launch with a huge 500GB hard drive, I’m sure this is enough space to fit in at least a couple of full installations depending on the size of each game.
Ryumoau
August 31, 2013 at 11:35 AMGreat news!!
Herbreyo
August 31, 2013 at 12:53 PMWhat’s the purpose if the disc still has to be inside?
Mark Fajardo
August 31, 2013 at 1:13 PMDRM check
tamichael jenkins
August 31, 2013 at 10:05 PMWhat’s the point of downloading/ripping a game to your harddrive
If you still need the physical disc.
Name
September 1, 2013 at 3:49 AMThat sucks. I misplace games easily, so it would have been very convenient if I didn’t still need the disc after installing.
John
September 1, 2013 at 7:39 AMIf you didn’t need the disc afterwards, you could pass the disc around and everyone would have it for free… Grow a brain guys.
As for why you would do it, the games will be ran directly from the Hard Drive, making access faster, aswell as removing the noise of the disc drive.
This feature is on the Xbox 360 and I use it all the time. First thing I do with a new game is install it. Makes more sense.
Gill
September 1, 2013 at 9:30 AMCool was wondering if it was able to do this! If you are wondering why it is needed. Once the game is fully installed it no longer needs to spin the disc making the machine run cooler
Stefan
September 4, 2013 at 12:35 PMBeing able to do this will result in faster loading times and less usage of the blu-ray drive resulting in less noise and less wear of the drive.
That’s the purpose behind that.
Nathan
December 28, 2014 at 1:38 PMGames are bluray tech. They support a whole gambit of features yet to be fully utilized.
One thing would be nice is if you had a physical disk game you could convert it to a digitally purchased game and by doing so would make your disk unusable online but would protect against lost / damaged disks and could be redownloaded if PS4 was replaced etc. Downsides? reseller stores would have to verify disks had not been deactivated before buying to resell. No reason why if you kept your disk and wanted to sell it that you couldnt reactivate the disk by deactivating your digital copy or you should be able to gift your “activation” of a game to someone else digitally by removing it from yours. Why impose limits that made sense when technology didnt provide alternative solutions?
Ian alminanza
December 13, 2015 at 1:32 PMWhat is the purpose of that disc if you already install the game in hdd ?
Don
May 6, 2016 at 7:44 PMJust stumbled across this and thought I’d add my 2 cents…
The PS4 rips the games to the HDD because the Blu-Ray drive isn’t fast enough. 500GB is tiny if you’re a die hard gamer…
You can, however, upgrade the HDD. I did with mine to 2TB, It’s really easy to do, just google it and you’ll find a bunch of how to videos.
I’m just waiting for SSD’s to come down in price to justify getting one for the PS4. I’d say with a SSD, the system would FLY!!!