With the video game industry rapidly transitioning from a focus on retail game sales to a marketplace dominated by downloads, it's only a matter of time until a major home console decides to do without physical media at all. It seems that Sony thinks that time is not nigh, however. A report from the Wall Street Journal suggests the company briefly considered but ultimately rejected a plan to do away with an optical disc drive on the next PlayStation.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal said Sony did away with the idea of a disc-less system because "Internet connectivity is too inconsistent around the world." We can't say that's a bad call—even with a decent low-end broadband connection in the United States, downloading a Blu-ray's worth of data (or more) just to play the latest release could easily take more than a day. That effectively does away with all the convenience provided by downloading a game in the first place.

The decision is even less surprising given what Sony's Kaz Hirai said back in 2010; that the idea of a download-only gaming future in ten years time was "taking it a little bit to the extreme." The case of Sony's download-only PSP Go portable dying a quick death on most retail shelves might have also influenced the company's thinking.

Microsoft cited similar bandwidth concerns in confirming that it's next system would also have a disc drive, according to the Journal report. Both Microsoft and Sony have said they don't plan to officially unveil new hardware at E3 next week, but that doesn't rule out some brief mention of general future plans for either company.