Though Sony's PS4 launched last year with both a hard drive and 8GB of unified memory, there was a significant part of the development process when this was looking unlikely.
Speaking at today's Develop Conference in Brighton, PS4 lead system architect Mark Cerny revealed discussions were had about including flash memory instead of a hard drive in a bid to cut costs. Though SCEI president Andrew House initially expressed reservations with the idea of including a hard drive as it would add an expense of around $1 billion to the project and said it caused him "sleepless nights", in the end it was felt there was no alternative.
"It's such a large decision, because it's a commitment not just to the initial launch but for the life cycle. That has massive implications for how it will shape the business model for a number of years," said House. "Yes, we debated. But it became extremely clear to me that financial issues aside we had to be struggling for a certain level of experience that would get people to embrace a brand new platform.
"If we were going to fulfill our promises as a company, but if the industry as a whole was going to move on... we were starting to get a lot of nay-saying, 'what's the role of a console? Is there a role for a console?' Those two things came together to point out what was needed for the transformative experience."
Cerny added, "For the hard drive, we thought does every player need downloadable content? Not every player does. But does every player need to play Watch Dogs the way it was intended? And you know, if you want to save money, unfortunately the answer is yes. Watch Dogs is a title that needed 15GB cached, very fast media on a hard drive or it wasn't going to be able to be played at the level the creator's wanted it to be. It was embedded on such a basic level."
Unsurprisingly then, the decision to include a hard drive was made. Cerny went on to explain that similar discussions took place over the decision to up the previously-planned 4GB memory up to 8GB, which added another $1 billion onto the cost of the project. With all these costs adding up, it wasn't long before it became clear something had to give if the console's low price point was to be maintained. As a result the decision was made to make the PS camera into an optional add-on, which Cerny admits actually fits in with the philosophy of the console pretty well as well as forces it to justify its own existence.
"It's pretty obvious if you do the math, it's more than a billion for the hard drive, and more than a billion for the extra RAM, so it was pretty obvious to me that something was going to have to give. But at the same time the camera makes sense as an independent proposition. It does not need to be included with the hardware to be a success. If it offers something that is perceived to be of value, then it's a great thing to add to your PlayStation 4 ecosystem."
