I first, I thought this was consolidating the line to a single SKU, and letting you add the drive yourself for a small premium. Instead, this looks like this is a new model with a reworking interior to save a bit on cost, and heat/power.
The one good thing, is that now every PS5 is a “Physical Edition.” It is also way more likely in the decades to come you can get a 3rd party drive, and hack it to work. Without the size or soldiering being an issue, it is more likely we can see 3rd party replacements.
This is just a first step into finally getting rid of physical media.
It makes the digital-only version more attractive: it’s cheaper and you don’t really risk not having a drive as you can always add it later if you really need it.
Lots of people will get the cheaper version and never get the drive. Then in a year or two they will quietly stop selling the drive due to low demand. For PS6, they will leave out the optical drive because the majority of PS5 owners didn’t have an optical drive anyway.
It’s also low-risk for Sony, they now get a good picture of the demand for physical media, if they miscalculated they can just keep selling the drive.
