It's anti-consumer, everyone's seen the backlash Microsoft got for trying to force 24 hour connections and anti-used games on customers, it's illogical to think that Sony would build their next platform around that, especially when the hardware available will be plenty capable of producing a huge upgrade from what we have today, cloud focused systems aren't needed, they're a crutch, better to have it as a feature for use in titles like MMOs or for dedicated servers, not be all your platform is about.

Publishers have the option this generation to use DRM, but they know customers won't go for it, they'd rather get people to buy their games than limit them with DRM control.

People will never go for being tied into a subscription based system like they have on their mobiles phone contracts or their Sky TV plans, they want to buy their console day one and then buy the games they want, maybe pay £40/$50 a year for PS+ that gives them access to a load of games and ability to play online in retail games, paying more than that isn't something they want, I know this because it's all people said when the rumors of a potential similar thing could have happened this generation.

Physical hardware is going to happen again, because it's always worked, people don't want to not be able to access their games when their internet goes down, everyone, in every country, even those with the best internet infrastructures in the world has instances of internet connections not working in their homes, if your system is built relying on that, you lose access to all of your games when you internet stops working, it's ridiculous to build your console around that kind of a limitation, especially when these Vita TV style boxes will still need to have a processor, RAM and everything you'd build into a console anyway.

Latency is another factor, it would be present in all games, because it's a law of physics that broadband cannot overcome and you want to have that in all games? LOL no my friend, we'll have generations more of physical consoles, you buy throughout each generation, maybe digital games will become gradually more popular, but still there will be a copy of the game on your hard drive, you'll play that on your console, just like this generation and the last before it.

MS is working on prediction technology that is supposed to reduce latency to almost zero. When this happens I wouldn't be surprised if they trot out their Rio service. Sony would be wise to copy this technology from MS.

As for not being able to access internet, if your home internet goes down, you will be just as easily be able to pull out your phone or tablet and keep gaming as though you were never disconnected. There will be tons of ways to keep playing without missing a beat. You'll be able to play your full console games on your way to work, at work, on your way home from work, and at home. It will be too convenient to pass up for most consumers.

As for the physical media always being around and the like, even that is going away. People don't care as much for collecting DVDs or Blurays when they can just as easily fire up Netflix and stream all their shows and not feel like they were ripped off at all. Same thing applies here. Hundreds of games at your disposal and it only costs you a monthly fee? And you can take your games everywhere with you? It will happen. I'm predicting next gen. Some are predicting the generation after, but its going to happen. I hate to say it but you should brace yourself for it.

I'm well aware of Deloreon, that's what it's called and it's essentially a predictive text style, guessing algorythm for a player's actions, it doesn't reduce latency, it attempts to guess your actions, based on past choices you've made, as with predictive text it faulters very often and can never be perfect, because people are inherently unpredictable.

Nope, we're not talking about phones here, we're talking about the platform, this is about gaming on one device, you bought into PS5, you're a kid you don't have anything other than the PS5 your parents bought you, your internet goes down, you don't have access to your games and thus you're annoyed and hating the company for making the choice to design their system around an inherently unreliable design.

Keeping a physical device, that provides for your processing needs just makes sense, the future is going to be about having more options, it always has been, to limit someone to not being able to play their games when the internet goes down is just plain stupid.

As for the last point, it's just plain wrong, just like the whole point I made about going only streaming based, removing physical media, removes a large portion of the market's ability to collect physical discs, collectable boxsets, collectable editions of their media.

Regardless of what you and others may think people do care as much about collecting discs, I'm one of them and I know loads of people that still care. Sales of such things are still high.

Brace yourself for options, there will always be a market for physical media, it's been that way ever since vinyl discs were 1st released, as with the limitations of the internet, people like having that reliable disc, ownership of the content and not being able to access your content because your internet is down is just plain wrong.

Imagine you've bought into this network based future, you turn on your phone, you can't get a signal because the network is down and your internet at home isn't working (which happens), that means you have access to none of the content, it may not happen very often, but any time that happens, you're basically paying for nothing and you decided you wanted that stupid future.

Sony knows this, which is exactly why their next console and the one after that, the one after that and so on will have a physical processor and everything else needed to host your game locally and as long as physical media on a disc continues to sell they'll continue to keep selling theirs and external publisher's games on them, because it's about catering to the market, giving options, not limiting your customers.

More than likely, that won't happen. A physical console option might just be the PS4 as the last physical console they make. Sony doesn't want to waste billions on more hardware that will be obsolete within a year. All that money is wasted. As a digital console, they won't be held back by hardware limitations anymore. We won't have to worry about fps and resolution being limited by hardware anymore. It will be the games the developers want to make without trying to cram it into a obsolete box. Developers, Publishers, and Sony wants this.

Its going to happen sooner or later, so you might as well as accept it. Attachment to physical media is less of an issue every day. MS messed up in that they released a physical console. If they didn't and launched Rio from the start it would probably be a different story. They also wouldn't have less power than the PS4.

Actually more than likely it will, because there's no precedent for anything else, there's no example of a cloud based system being used for everything in a games console and as I keep saying there's just too many issues with going all out cloud based, the internet and much bigger investment up front being required than in physical local hardware.

Being obsolete is relative, Sony aren't competing with PC, they're competing with other consoles, which doesn't require endless upgrading your physical hardware, rather just optimization of your API and development tools to get the most out of your hardware, brute forcing it, with every increasing processing and RAM upgrades has never been the way it's done, it just becomes more an more costly over time, as your servers needs upgrading, maintenance and increasing the size and volume of your server farms to provide for users needs.

FYI most gamers, that aren't the kind that frequent forums like this don't care about resolution and frame rate, they actually care more about where their friends play and what games they want to play, hence why the PS4 has sold like it has.

You've ignored the very nature of the cloud processing actually still requiring cost of a subscription based fee for each user to play on this system, they buy a console, they know they have the system and that's that, they pay for this server access, the fee can be increased whenever the platform holder wants, because they control the hardware, people won't go for it!

It will only happen if customers let it, if it's not providing the same seamless experience as they've been used to every generation before and providing a step up in that area (which can't happen with a cloud based service, because of the inherent limitations of the tech), then it won't happen.

What you're forgetting here is that Gaikai and On Live have had a presence in the PC space for years, but it's never taken over, it has it's users, but not all PC gaming is done on it, in fact only a fraction of overall PC users even bother with it, this is the exact thing you're suggesting will take over consoles. Best case scenario PS Now has it's presence in Playstation's ecosystem, MMOs get additional features using the cloud, but the physical hardware is an integral part of the console experience.

Any cloud presence will take more than a single generation for people to put their faith in it, most likely it's just going to be PS Now, used for PS3 game hosting throughout this generation, with some little additions to some games for PS Plus users. Taking over everything to do with rendering all of every single game isn't happening, especially considering a large number of users still don't even use the internet.

Actually more than likely it will, because there's no precedent for anything else, there's no example of a cloud based system being used for everything in a games console and as I keep saying there's just too many issues with going all out cloud based, the internet and much bigger investment up front being required than in physical local hardware.

Being obsolete is relative, Sony aren't competing with PC, they're competing with other consoles, which doesn't require endless upgrading your physical hardware, rather just optimization of your API and development tools to get the most out of your hardware, brute forcing it, with every increasing processing and RAM upgrades has never been the way it's done, it just becomes more an more costly over time, as your servers needs upgrading, maintenance and increasing the size and volume of your server farms to provide for users needs.

FYI most gamers, that aren't the kind that frequent forums like this don't care about resolution and frame rate, they actually care more about where their friends play and what games they want to play, hence why the PS4 has sold like it has.

You've ignored the very nature of the cloud processing actually still requiring cost of a subscription based fee for each user to play on this system, they buy a console, they know they have the system and that's that, they pay for this server access, the fee can be increased whenever the platform holder wants, because they control the hardware, people won't go for it!

It will only happen if customers let it, if it's not providing the same seamless experience as they've been used to every generation before and providing a step up in that area (which can't happen with a cloud based service, because of the inherent limitations of the tech), then it won't happen.

What you're forgetting here is that Gaikai and On Live have had a presence in the PC space for years, but it's never taken over, it has it's users, but not all PC gaming is done on it, in fact only a fraction of overall PC users even bother with it, this is the exact thing you're suggesting will take over consoles. Best case scenario PS Now has it's presence in Playstation's ecosystem, MMOs get additional features using the cloud, but the physical hardware is an integral part of the console experience.

Any cloud presence will take more than a single generation for people to put their faith in it, most likely it's just going to be PS Now, used for PS3 game hosting throughout this generation, with some little additions to some games for PS Plus users. Taking over everything to do with rendering all of every single game isn't happening, especially considering a large number of users still don't even use the internet.

PSNow is the beginning, its laying the foundation. 10 years from now will be a different story, especially if Net Neutrality laws stay and things like Google Fiber push into the market. 

Really there's no reason only PS3 games can be on PSNow, PS4 games could be on there just as easily too. The fact is the tech does work more or less. 

And I'm pretty sure most gamers connect to the internet, hell even Nintendo says that the majority of their game systems are online.